(Old page) East Indies Crisis - do not edit
The East Indies Crisis, (Malay: Krisis Hindia Timur) also known as the Archipelico war, War of liberation and in the Netherlands as the Indian war (Dutch: Indische oorlog), or Oostelijke acties (Eastern actions) was a conflict fought all over the Indonesian archipelago, on the islands of Sumatra, Borneo, Malay peninsula, Java and Celebs. It was fought from 1960 up to the fall of Batavia on the 11th of November 1976. It was the 2nd and last of major uprisings across what was then the Dutch east indies and involved the Netherlands, Dutch East Indies and was supported by Nieuw Nederlandt, Taulandt, Kaap Republiek, and initially by Britain. Facing the Dutch & its allies was the “Liberation movement” supported by Russia. The war by some is considered a proxy conflict between Britain and Russia in the later stages of the cold war. Yet in the Netherlands, it’s viewed as a separate event that while heavily influenced by the cold war stands on its own. Yet after 16 years of fighting the war concluded with a new nation that was decisively pro russian. It is noted that this was the first real televised war with people across the world but mainly across the Dutch world seeing the conflicts every day on their TVs.
The conflict emerged from the “Indische opstand van 1943” or Indian uprising of 1943, which was fought between Dutch colonial forces mainly the KNIL (Koninklijk Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger), and rebelling sultanates their militia’s and revolutionaries across the archipelago. It in turn happened as a direct result of a change in the dutch rule which before 1942 was indirect with the sultans retaining a large degree of autonomy in their sultanates/Kingdoms. Dutch colonial administration was concerned with turning a profit and economic exploitation and thus their presence outside of Java was often relegated to administration or a military garrison if it was a major city. Yet the system was inefficient and riddled with corruption and thus in late 1941 from the Netherlands an order was given to reform the system and centralize it. This move an unpopular one and the Sultans did protests but it was ignored and thus in 1943 the sultans lost their official goverment power and were relegated to ceremonial roles. This was not taken lightly and what followed where a series of uprisings across Sumatra, Malaya, and Celebs. These uprisings or revolutions were possible due to the influx of arms from the great war, yet despite the relative nature of the opposition Dutch colonial forces KNIL brutally suppressed and crushed the rebelling sultanates and factions. Through 1943 entire rebel sultanates were put to the torch, royal families that ruled for centuries were extinguished and only those that surrendered or remained loyal would retain some form of wealth and status. It was this brutal suppression that laid the groundwork for the uprising in 1960, as a new generation of revolutionary had been born from it, trained and equipped by the Russians they would slowly be built up through the 1950s and spread themselves waiting for the moment to strike. In February of 1960, it was their moment when in the north of Sumatra near the border with British Aceh several towns killed their Dutch administrators promoting the KNIL to respond and it was there that the conflict in many people their eyes started.
What started out as a relatively small and contained uprising to northern Sumatra in February 1960 had by January 1st, 1962 turned into an open revolt. the KNIL had been pushed out of the northern & central interior and was relegated to the coast with the southern parts of Sumatra still under their full control. While initially, this would not warrant further expansion, by this time small uprisings in Malaya, Borneo, and Celebs had been crushed stretching the KNIL her limited manpower. On the 1st of February 1962, the Staten-Generaal of the Netherlands approved 120.000 European Dutch soldiers to be sent to the indies to aid the KNIL in squashing the revolt and to bring back Dutch control to the archipelago. through the year it seemed to go well with Dutch forces crushing any revolts on the islands and regaining control over central Sumatra. This was done through a relative standard colonial campaign, they first secured the major population centers and worked from there. Yet unbeknownst to the Dutch forces, the Liberation was only growing in their numbers by recruiting from the countryside, which still was not fully under Dutch control, yet it was seen at that time as a winnable campaign. All changed when on new Year eve 1963 a major conventional assault by the Liberation Front was launched against major areas of Dutch control in central and northern Sumatra, most notably Padang in northwest Sumatra and Pekanbaru in central Sumatra. This conventional assault caught the Dutch forces off guard as the liberation front used older Russian tanks, heavy weapons such as artillery and mortarts. Due to the surprise and the fact that it was New Year’s eve the Dutch ability to respond was limited and it suffered for it as it lost control over Padang and Pekanbaru, it created thus a frontline across Jambi and the interior of southern Sumatra.
The new Year offensive as it was called changed the nature of the war from a “colonial conflict” where the rebels were relegated to asymmetric warfare and the Dutch approach was one of limited action. This new phase due to the Liberation front her firm control over northern and central Sumatra. This base of operations how small as it was let the rebels to built up their potential forces and at the same time the attacked showed that the Dutch were not undefeatable, the revolution began to more properly spread across the archipelago. When the front by mid-February had stabilized the Dutch began to change their strategy and began to approach it more seriously. The first mass use of strategic bombers soon followed and shore bombardments became more and more common, the use of Search & Destroy tactics now became the norm. This phase of the war however was still primarily a guerilla conflict as the Dutch in sheer firepower outgunned any conventional force the rebels could bring to bear. This period is often seen as one of the more intense periods as across the islands from Celebs to Borneo and in the Malaya peninsula guerilla strikes became more and more common and Sumatra quickly became just one of the fronts of what was by now a full-blown uprising. From 1963 all the way up to 1967 the Dutch fought a brutal campaign against ever-increasing numbers, entire villages were burned the ground, the mass use of chemical agents such as tear gas employed, firebombing in the form of napalm was used on mass turning once green jungles into burned up husks.
This period from 1963 up to 1967 commonly called “Phase of fire” was marked by the increase in civilian casualties, brutality on both sides, the rapid modernization and expansion of the Dutch armed forces & KNIL, and the mass deployment of Dutch conscripts to the Indies, as well as the KNIL by now due to a lack of native recruitment being made up mostly of Amerikaeners, Afrikaners, Taulanders, Eurasians. The fighting was often done with the mass deployment of helicopters with conventional battles being rare and relegated to Sumatra. Yet the rebels built up their numbers and proper forces as well slowly but surely. It is estimated but numbers are not well known that the Rebels by July 1966 numbered around 5.3 million, with 120.000 “regular” trained troops the remainder being guerilla fighters. Facing them were 220.000 Dutch soldiers (Note: the Dutch system worked on a rotation cycle of 6 months) and 180.000 KNIL soldiers. While outnumbered due to overwhelming airpower combined with a higher quality of soldiers and a kill ratio of 1/7 the Dutch were able to hold the line and even crush the rebels in Celebs and Borneo.
On August 18th, 1967 the rebels attempted a major conventional assault upon Malakka yet after 2 weeks of fighting around the city it was halted. This was up to then the largest conventional battle and is often seen as the end of the “Phase of fire”. The failed assault costed the lives of 23,000 regular rebel soldiers while the Dutch only lost 1200. Through the entire phase by modern estimates cost the lives of 3.7 million civilians 1.3 million rebels and 22.000 Dutch/KNIL soldiers/
The following period which lasted for 3 years (1967-1970) was marked by both the rebels and the Dutch recuperating their losses, stabilizing frontlines, and modernizing their armed forces rapidly. Dutch control of Sumatra and the Malayan peninsula by 1967 was relegated to the coastal areas and urban centers. It was around this time that troop deployments were scaled-down and the KNIL was operationally fully integrated into the Dutch armed forces. The Dutch already by mid-1966 began to be armed with more advanced aircraft, ground weapons, artillery, and ships. Through this period the Dutch conscript system was reformed to increase the manpower mobilization abilities and the quality. At the same time, the Rebels who now controlled the interior of the Malaya peninsula and most of Sumatra began properly built up their forces and rebuilt and regrouped, turning themselves into a proper conventional force and increasing the number of guerilla fighters. At this time in 1968, they also began through Russian channels to push for a diplomatic end to the war offering a peace treaty to the Dutch which was refused. Everyone knew that this lull in the fighting was because both sides were building up their forces for what would become known as the war, a period so deadly so brutal so destructive that only in recent years the archipelago has begun to properly recover in regards to population and development.
