(Old page) East Indies Crisis - do not edit: Difference between revisions
(Old page) East Indies Crisis - do not edit (view source)
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, 2 years ago→Background: I added some heavy subjects in the background but it well its sort of important and sets a tone.
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== Background ==
In the aftermath of the great war, the Netherlands suffered greatly in a short time. The lowlands campaign, combined with the eventual grinding down of the French advance along the Rhine and the push back had exhausted the Netherlands. Its factories in the south were either destroyed or badly damaged, its production centers in the north working overtime to provide the goods needed to rebuild the south. All of this required raw natural resources, it was thus that more pressure was put upon the Dutch East Indies, the crown jewel in the Dutch empire to deliver the resources to rebuild the Netherlands. Most shocking for many of the local monarchies that enjoyed autonomy under Dutch rule was the fact that the Netherlands decided to centralize everything. Governors would now be appointed that answered to Batavia directly and the ancient rulers would be nothing more than wealthy ceremonial rulers.
The demands of the home nation, led to the hervormingen va het koloniaal bestuur in 1941. These reforms had a simple goal to make the resource extraction more effective and increase productivity, it led to the mechanization of the agricultural sector, centralization of power modernization of mining operations and a rapid expansion of existing resource extraction sites. All of this while on the surface things that could be argued as good in reality led to an upheaval in the traditional lifestyle and hundredths of thousands of now poor peasants flocked to the urban centers, swelling the cities and straining their resources. Poverty & crime became common in many of the cities and the living standard deteriorated to a point that even within the Netherlands many questioned it.
This went on for nearly a decade causing severe social and economic changes, until the sultan of Johor, once a powerful sultan that enjoyed a great deal of prestige had enough of it. He could see that in this current state of affairs being aligned with the Dutch was no longer beneficial to his family or his interests. It was then that he was approached by members of the National Republican party.
They argued that this with the Netherlands weakened that now was the time to take control of the situation. Convinced by their words the sultan using the amount of social influence he still had pushed his people in the direction of the National Republicanists, all of this (due to a lack of records not much is known about how it was done) led to a radicalization of the Johor population, a population that had in the past 5 years almost quadrupled as the poor entered the city looking for a better job. Eventually, after 1 year of preparations, the national republicans felt confident enough that with their allies on the other islands it was time to launch the revolution, its starting point in Johor.
On the 4th of may 1952 in the early hours, the local Dutch administrators were killed in their beds and Dutch loyalist police forces were arrested and killed. This was the start of what would become known as the Johor uprising, or as it's known in Sunda “'''The butchering of Johor'''”.
==== A response in force ====
The National republicans had severely underestimated the ability and willingness of the Netherlands to respond. They had suspected that with their focus on rebuilding their home nation, political upheaval at home, and a general downturn in the economy they would not be to mount an effective response, they would be open to negotiation.
In reality, all of these reasons made the Netherlands more reactionary, fearing that if Johor was allowed to succeed if they showed leniency if they showed mercy that their primary source of resources would slip through their fingers, they responded in a way not counted on by the rebels. It was thus that on the 5th of May when it became apparent what had transpired in Johor. the governor-general of the DEI Martien van der Goot in an infamous order to the KNIL;
''“Make an example out of these rebels.”''
With these orders, the KNIL was under command of hardened veteran Lieutenant-Generaal J.A. Vetter, who had lost his son while commanding the regiment that broke the French lines around Lille, and was a man who had gained a reputation for his ruthlessness. He first ordered local KNIL garrisons to start a campaign to push the rebels into a contained area, supported by overwhelming airpower this happened within a short period of time, resulting in many of the rebels being pushed back into the capital area within just 2 weeks of fighting.
With the rebels contained to the city, a 5-day-long shelling of the city was started, destroying much of the old city and killing countless civilians. After the shelling KNIL troops were led lose upon the city and it was here that what modern-day Sunda historians call the Butchering of Johor started. KNIL soldiers started wide-scale executions against anyone who could pose a threat, they set fire to the parts of the city not destroyed and eventually headed towards the sultan's palace.
In the palace, depending on who you ask to this day it's quite a controversial topic, KNIL forces either dragged the sultan's family out of their hiding places or simply killed them. Or according to Sunda historians, KNIL soldiers dragged out the sultan's daughter and started to rape them before killing them in front of the sultan's eyes with him being the last to die but not before seeing his entire family line come to an end.
To this day this remains a highly controversial topic.
It was thus that at the end of may 1952 the rebellion was crushed and an example had been set. This forced the national republicans to go to the countryside and eventually to Russia, this created heavy anti dutch feelings in the more religious communities of the region and would lay the foundations of what would become the east indies crisis.
== Start of the revolt ==
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