(Old page) East Indies Crisis - do not edit: Difference between revisions

The '''East Indies Crisis,''' (Malay: ''Krisis Hindia Timur'') also known as the '''Archipelago war,''' '''War of liberation''' and in the Netherlands as the '''Indian war''' (Dutch: ''Indische oorlog''), or ''Oostelijke acties'' (Eastern actions) was a conflict fought through the Indonesian archipelago, with major area’s of combat being on the islands of Sumatra, Borneo, Malay peninsula, Java and Celebs. Between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and her allies and the East Indies Liberation Front. Fought from 1960 up to 11th of November 1976 when Batavia fell to the East Indies Liberation Front. It was one of the last and largest colonial conflicts fought in the 20th century, involving not just the Netherlands but also numerous Allies and the British, and was part of the larger cold war. Facing them was the East Indies Liberation Front that was backed by numerous local supporters but mainly by Russia.  Although the war is considered a proxy war in the Anglo-Saxon historical literature, due to Britain and Russia using their proxies to fight one another, this view is disputed by many historians both from the East Indies Federation and the Netherlands, and The Batavosphere as a whole. In the Netherlands and in general, within the Batavosphere the conflict is seen as a separate conflict from the cold war, while heavily influenced by cold war events it stands on its own legs. This is due to a variety of reasons but mainly according to some historians the need for the Netherlands and Dutch society as a whole to rationalize their actions, to rationalize 16 years of brutal warfare and tens of thousands of Dutchmen that never came home and the hundreds of thousands that were permanently scarred by the war.  The East Indies Crisis was also the first televised war with people seeing the extent of the fighting and the brutality of it every night on their TVs. This shaped not just the Netherlands ‘ public perception of the war but also the global perception of the war, it showed to the world that this war and all wars are a brutal affair. The war left millions dead and even more homeless and wounded and it is seen today by historians as one of the most brutal wars fought in the 20th century. While the reasons for its end are still debated today the generally accepted narrative is that the Netherlands itself pulled out and eventually realized what it had done and stopped the war. It left behind an archipelago forever changed and never to be the same again.

The 9th of March 1972 marked the start of the final and most brutal phase of the war. Through the 5 years lull, the rebels had infiltrated and expanded their networks on Java the bastion of Dutch colonial control. That only had some small uprisings, in the beginning, some 9 years ago but since then had not seen one uprising or revolt. Yet on the 9th of march outside of the major urban area’s they rose up. Across the Java countryside Dutch Colonial officials, Eurasians, and everyone who looked a bit European were slaughtered as the countryside sprung into open revolt. At the same time, the rebels launched proper conventional attacks upon the Dutch positions in Sumatra and across the Malayan peninsula. This caught the Dutch off guard but unlike before they now responded rapidly and with a brutally so far unseen in the war. The conventional attacks upon the Dutch positions in Malaya and Sumatra were halted due to overwhelming air power and counter armored thrusts, fighting was brutal and lasted 2 months but the Dutch were able to secure their footholds and even regain parts of central Malaya and regained full control of southern Sumatra. The java uprising opened up a new front that of Java which was isolated and thus between July 1972 and January 1973 became the most deadly front for the rebels. In that period it’s estimated that 6//7 million men died directly of actions undertaken by the Dutch and another 4 million indirectly, this was out of a population of 76,086,320. On the other islands mainly celebs the fighting became more and more intense and large parts of its jungle were burned down and casualties continued to rise for the rebels but also for the Dutch. This was also the final years of the war as the fighting became more and more brutal and savage on both sides, and the Dutch increased their firebombing campaign of rebel positions.

[[File:Troops under fire.jpg|thumb|A soldier watching air support drop its payload upon the enemy her positions, somewhere around Malakka.]]

Despite the enormous amount of enemies killed, the general notion was that for every rebel killed 2 would take its place. Despite the kill ratio of 1 in 7 the numbers began to increase and increase. Russian support in the last years of the wars even came in air power and thus the first real air battles were fought above Sumatra. It was this period of fighting the sheer amount of brutality on both sides but mainly in the eyes of the world and more importantly the home front the Dutch that changed it all. An entire generation of young men in their prime did not go to college but fought in the Indies witnessed atrocities brutality and the death of their brothers in arms. The general mood in the Netherlands had since 1974 turned sower, the older generation began to be outnumbered as more and more veterans became able to vote. Eventually, in March 1975, after a vote of no confidence was given to the ruling party, a new party backed by Veterans and the mothers and fathers of the sons that were fighting, many of these newest conscripts their own fathers had fought in the war it had in fact become a multigenerational thing. It becomes so unpopular that even the military, knew that it would not survive if it went against the will of the government.