(Old page) East Indies Crisis - do not edit
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| East Indies Crisis | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Silent War | |||||||
 Two Dutch soldiers in Malaya watching the Krijgspeerd helicopters come in after a battle. | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Kingdom of the Netherlands  Tussenland  New Netherland |
East Indies Liberation Front Pinang Various kingdoms | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Cornelis van Langen Willem Middendorp |
Junaid Siahaija Pieter-Bas Teterissa Bassil Patawala | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
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Netherlands 3,581,929 Total number deployed in the East Indies |
1960-1967: 2,400,000(estimated) | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
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Killed: 294,918 Missing: 149,582 Total Casualties 444,500 |
Civilian dead: 8,000,000-11,000,000 (official) ~5,205,000 wounded (Estimated) Military dead: 1,690,624 Total Casualties 9,391,694 - 11,895,624 | ||||||
The East Indies Crisis (Malay Roman: Prang Hindia Belanda), also known as the War of the Archipelago or the Anti-Dutch Liberation War and in the Netherlands it is known as the Indian War (Dutch: Indische Oorlog) or Oostelijke Acties (lit. Eastern Actions), was a war was a conflict fought through the Indonesian archipelago,. Major areas of combat included the major regions of Sumatra, Borneo, the Malay peninsula, Java and the Celebes. The Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Batavosphere fought the East Indies Liberation Front for sixteen years, devastating the archipelago. It was one of the last and largest colonial conflicts fought in the 20th century, and is considered to be one of the most destructive wars in modern history. The East Indies Crisis was also concurrent with the rise of visual media, being the first 'internationally perceptible war'.
Background
It is often said by many modern Batavosphere historians, that the routes of the conflict lay in the Indische opstand van 1943 (Indian uprising of 1943). It was a conflict that orginated due to the effects of the Great war, as the Netherlands in 1940 was in tatters it needed more natural resources to rebuilt. This meant that Batavia would start to become more involved in the adminsitration of lands outside of Java. This was a stark departer from the prior Dutch colonial policy of indirect rule where everyone was left to their own devices as long as the tributes where paid. It was a system that was inefficient and riddled with corruption, something would not work for the Dutch, considering that they in their view needed all the wealth they could get to rebuilt their home.
This led to the “Hervormingen van koloniaal bestuur” in 1941, these reforms centralised colonial adminsitration, appointing governors to the kingdoms that prior to these reforms enjoyed an enourmes amount of autonomy. This move was very unpopular with the sultans, who where now nothing more then ceremonial puppets. While they did make formal protests to the government in Batavia these protests where flat out ignored due to the need of the Dutch to get as much resources as they could.
These actions by the Dutch eventually led to a series of uprisings in early 1943s in the Celebs and Malaya, carried out by sultans, who where armed by the influx of Corean weapons, Russian weapons and even Dutch weapons from the end of the great war. These revolts, centered around Johor in the Malayan peninsula where brutally crushed by the KNIL. In an act that by some contemporary critics was called excessive, the entire rebelling sultanates where put to the tourch, their entire families simply executed and burned in their palace. This eventually led to a wider uprising through the entire peninsula by the sultanates, these uprisings where however unorganised, ill equiped and in the end where crushed. The KNIL following the same policy set as before thus ended in a single year entire dynasty’s and their allies in what some in modern day archipelico simply call the “The cleaning”. It is these actions that showed the nacent revolutionaries that where not sultans that the Dutch where not the once’s that would negotiate and that armed struggle was their only way.
They found a home in Russia where they wher eeducated and trained in the methods they needed to succesfully launch a large scale insurection. When they returned in 1953 they went to work laying the foundations through the former lands of the sultans focusing on Celebs, Sumatra and Johor preparing for what they knew would be a hard fight.
Start of the revolt
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 mortar's. 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.
New Year Offensive
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.
(To be worked on)
Phase of Fire
The period from 1963 up to 1967 commonly called “Phase of Fire” marked the rapid departure from it being a standard colonial conflict and instead of being something bigger. KNIL and now regular Dutch forces were not fighting colonial uprisings anymore but a well-organized foe. While in individual battles Dutch/KNIL units always came out on top it was the attrition rate that came with patrolling the central parts of Sumatra that were simply too high. Long-range patrols by the KNIL often resulted in 3 out of 10 men being killed, 4 more being wounded. This rate of attrition was simply far too high for the Netherlands to sustain what really woke the Dutch command structure up was the New Years’ offensive. The use of conventional military forces by the rebels combined with asymmetric warfare was a deadly one. While eventually the front was stabilized by mid-February 1963 the situation had not. Uprisings across the islands, from Malaya to Celebes and even Borneo were becoming more intense and organized. Dutch & KNIL forces were more and more spread thin with quelling the insurgencies. This started limiting and weakening their power projection capabilities in the region. It was around this time (April 1963) that Lieutenant-General Cornelis van Langen of the Army came with a new doctrine, a doctrine that would become known as the Lange-Doctrine and would change the face and nature of the war.
A shift in doctrine
The Lange Doctrine as it was called was as simple as it was effective. As it was implemented the Netherlands shifted its fighting style and objectives in such a way that the war become more favorable to them.
Before its implementation, around the New Year’s offensive (Nieuwejaars offensief), the KNIL and the Landmacht were fighting a war of reconquering lost lands. It had the aim to retake the territory lost to the East Indies Liberation Front. This meant that progress was slow and casualties were high, higher than could be sustained in the long term. The high number of casualties was due to the EILF her home-field advantage, for it knew the terrain and the locals and got warned whenever a Dutch patrol was nearby and then attacked. It at the same time tied down large numbers of valuable troops in the middle of Sumatra and parts of Malaya, wasting them away in the jungle where they only were target practice for the EILF.
The Lange-Doctrine changed the entire long-term strategic objective for the Netherlands. It would no longer focus on reconquering the territories lost from the EILF, although it was the long-term objective. Instead, it would focus its fighting power on destroying the EILF her ability to wage war. This meant that now victories where counties in the casualties caused to the EILF, it now meant that it would destroy areas of support hit supply lines hard and no longer show mercy.
This shift changed the nature of the conflict in that now the Netherlands was taking the initiative. For it transformed the military into a mobile force that could quickly react to threats, move around the peninsula rapidly and attack anywhere and often simultaneously. This was achieved by moving from a garrison force to a highly mechanized and airmobile force that had the ability to rapidly mobile a great deal of firepower. This allowed for more offensive operations to be planned and executed and would remove the many troops tied down on garrison duty spread through the archipelago. It leant upon the fact that the Netherlands would be able to maintain control of all major urban centers and all major port cities.
Cornelis van Langen proposed his idea, before the general staff on the 22nd of march 1963. It was accepted on the 23rd of march 1963 and Cornelis was given the task to implement it. On the same day, orders were sent out to all units across the East Indies, to withdrawal from the interior and focus on maintaining coastal areas, urban areas, and areas of either strategic or economic importance. The EILF noted something was happening when at once Dutch forces began to pull out of the interior. Their confusion resulted in the withdrawal being relatively peaceful without much opposition. When Dutch forces arrived in their new positions they were informed of what was to take place, this was new troops being moved in their old gear discarded and new gear being given, and a change in tactics. This resulted in the remainder of 1963 and early 1964 being relatively quiet, no major operations took place and fighting was limited to skirmishes. In this period new troops with their new equipment and tactics were rotated in and soldiers were retrained and redeployed. This massive build-up of men and material was clear for all to see yet the EILF and Russian intelligence apparatuses were not sure what it exactly was. All they knew was that the Dutch were preparing for something big.
Moving to a war footing
That something big was the complete and unprecedented reorganisation of the Dutch military her fighting forces, training infrastructure, command structure, logistical infrastructure, and doctrine. At the end of March a order had been placed at the Koolhoven Aviation Factory to increase the production of their reliable "Krijg-peerd" helicopter. This combined with other orders for armored vehicles, tanks aircraft and guns resulted in the rapid development of remarkably successful military equipment. However the mass increase in production of military equipment meant a rapid expansion of existing capabilities to not intervene with normal economic production, thus a certain limit was created and other production centers where sought abroad in Taulandt and Nieuw Nederlandt pumping a considerable amount of money into their respective industries. The most notable change was the reorganization and reformation of the Dutch national service or Dienstplicht. It was increased in its length and it now was to last 24 months of which 6 months would be spent on training and 18 months deployment, followed by reserve duties up until the age of 50. Before the new doctrine and the reforms the Dienstplicht period was 18 months total, the lengthening was done to train the soldier up to make him qualitatively better than any other in the world. It was realized that this new mobile style of warfare which included air mobility relied upon highly trained soldiers thus a longer national service period was added. Something that was not popular with the public but passed parliament. This period thus not only resulted in the increase of military spending, National service time, and the change in doctrine but also the start of an anti-war movement. All these reforms were put to the test in December of 1963 during operation Jambi when the first battle-ready units would be deployed in combat. These 12,000 men proved effective and further strengthened the so-called “Hervorming van Langen”.
Operation Slagthuis
1967-1972 (Stalemate)
The following period which lasted for 5 years (1967-1972) 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, reduced to more limited but still intense guerilla warfare, 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.
Final Period of the War
1972 the 9th of march marked the start of the final and most brutal phase of the war. Through the 5 years period of relative calm, yet still fighting was intense but no major offensives took place, the EILF had infiltrated and expanded their operations on Java the bastion of Dutch colonial control. This had in the 5 years resulted in several strikes, terrorist attacks, and small uprisings. These were all easily crushed but they were only small scale and thus on the whole Dutch forces were lulled in a sense of security when it came to Java. At the start of march 1972 around 83,000 Dutch soldiers both KNIL and the regular dutch army were stationed on the island. While on Borneo some 70,000 were stationed, on Celebs some 90,000 were stationed on Sumatra 120,000 were stationed and in Malaya 100,000 were station. With a total of 463,000 army personnel and some 80,000 air force and 50,000 naval personnel being stationed through the archipelago.
In 1972 on the 9th of a march on the eastern side of the island of java this all changed when a large-scale uprising took place. Across the eastern side of the island in the countryside around major cities they rose up and slaughter took place in the first 48 hours. Dutch forces were engaged everywhere but there and chaos ensued as nobody had expected this. This chaos in the Dutch command structure and the sense of security that was on Java and the lack of troops in eastern java created a slaughter of Eurasian civilians, Dutch civilians, administrators, and everyone who was remotely associated with the Dutch when they took large parts of the cities, with only the harbor sections being defended by local Dutch soldiers. This period that started on the 9th of March and lasted until the 11th of March is known in the Netherlands as “De Java moorden” or the Java killings, in total, it’s estimated some 11,000 civilians died. It was only on the 11th of March that the Dutch command structure had a good idea of what was going on. The uprising on eastern java was coordinated with large-scale conventional offensives on the Malayan peninsula and across Sumatra and Borneo and even an attack on Malakka.
The Dutch response to all that was taking place in what was dubbed “Het maart offensief” was one that would set the tone of the remainder of the war. The counter-offensive took place in multiple theatres. The primary theatre and where the response was the quickest was that of eastern Java. Dutch armored forces and the by now famous “Lucht brigades” or air brigades came in hard and fast and started a full-on clearing operation across the countryside and eventually securing the city of Semarang, where brave Dutch defenders held out against the EILF insurgents. When the city was liberated on the 14th of March a large battle ensued that would say many of the insurgents not make it back home. At the same time, marines from de Korps Mariniers supported by the carrier “van Amstel” conduct an amphibious assault near the city of Surabaya, where Dutch soldiers were holding out while being surrounded by insurgents. The fighting around the city and eventually in the city was some of the most brutal fighting the war had seen so far.
At the end of what was called the Java uprising which officially according to Dutch history ended on the 28th of March 1972, some 11,000 Dutch civilians had died, 5400 soldiers were KIA, 617 were MIA, and 19,182 were wounded. While on the EILF side the numbers sometimes disputed were far higher. According to captured documents of the EILF a total of 43,019 men died in the first 3 days, while in the last 15 days a total of 111,179 casualties (71,192 killed and 39,987 wounded). It is said to be some of the most brutal fighting and highest casualty rates of the war and it would set the tone for the remainder of the conflict. In regards to civilian casualties caused by the Dutch counteroffensive to this day, it is disputed, however, all agree that the numbers reach into the millions.
The Bloodying
The new phase that was opened in the conflict was in general seen as a far more brutal phase of the war. With the general offensives on the other islands taking place the first weeks of this new phase were filled with constant counter-offensives by the Dutch. These offensives were rapid unforgiving and effective. It was only after the frontlines were secured that the Dutch realized the full scope of what had transpired. Not only had EILF conducted an uprising in eastern java, but they had also launched full conventional counter-offensives against their positions in Sumatra, the Malayan peninsula, Borneo, and Celebs. They now knew that not only would they face guerilla warfare but now the threat of full conventional assaults was there. While on an individual level these types of warfare could be dealt with two of them would be possible to deal with as well however it was the numbers. The Dutch were outnumbered by their own estimates by 7 to 1. To throw in the threat of conventional armored forces would put a larger strain upon their manpower and equipment sources.
While at the time it was not known, the final campaigns of the war were being fought and each was more brutal than the next. The new threat of EILF armored forces combined with irregular forces and being outnumbered made the Dutch only more ruthless. Battles on Malaya and Sumatra went from fire force operations to a new concept called “Forced Penetration” It would see Dutch forces enter in full force in certain areas. Capture it hold it for a given period and meanwhile inflict as much damage as possible. This took place across the islands but while it killed more of the EILF than of the Dutch, for every insurgent killed 3 would take their place.
Fighting was fierce across the islands and quickly through 1972 and early 1973 a pattern began to emerge. On Malaya, fighting was far more conventional and in that field the Dutch had a relatively great deal of strategic success at first, only to be pushed back to their lines due to insurgent activities. On Celebs, the war was still a counter-insurgency campaign and air assault was the name of the game there the Dutch fought hard and achieved their objectives but the EILF simply did not give up. On Sumatra, it was where like always the most intense fighting took place. conventional and unconventional forces employed and the Dutch often was fought to a stalemate, only winning if they went in full force. However the real strain came when Java for the second time in a short period went up in flames, this time the insurgency was not large but it was a directed and strategic one. This put the final so-called strain on the Dutch manpower forces as by now they were tapping into reserves of the older generations that fought there. The war had turned from a high-intensity insurgency campaign, for the first time in the Dutch government her view into a total war and for the first time all pretenses of civility were dropped.
Despite the massive amount of enemy forces killed nothing seemed to stop the EILF their onslaught. Dutch soldiers were fighting for months on end seeing no rest and fighting day and night, all of this the brutality the exhaustion the hopelessness combined with the increase in Russian support, international condemnation, and the fact that it was all televised finally chanced the mood in the war. On the 18th of April 1974, the largest anti-war protest the Netherlands would ever see took place. This was a protest not carried out by the regular people that would protest. These protests were large with roughly 3.4 million people protesting, veterans of the war that now would see their own sons die in a war they fought in, mothers fathers, wives, friends of those send over to fight. People had enough of the conflict they were exhausted, nearly 11 years of war abroad seeing it day in day out on the television had chanced the Dutch nation as a whole. These protests were so large that it for one day shut down the nation, the police were not willing to do anything and it was a time of chaos. Prime minister Geert Dijkman even ordered his cabinet and the military at home to prepare for a revolution. However, his army generals said loud and clear that they would not fire on their own people. These protests and strikes known as the silent revolution of april would eventually within the same month see a vote of no confidence pass the chamber. A new election was declared to be needed and was scheduled for the 17th of Juli 1974.
Despite the best efforts of Prime Minister Geert Dijkman and his “Conservatieve anti revolutionare partij” or CARP, they stood no chance. They where soundly defeated by the “Partij voor democratie” or PVD led by former veteran turned politician Koen Haverman who on the 25th of Juli 1974 became the new prime minister of the Netherlands. Out of the 150 seats in the second chamber, the PVD won a total of 83, thus needing no coalition and pushing their agenda forward. Their agenda was a simple one on paper pull out of the archipelago, yet in reality, this would be a hard one and prove to be a complicated affair.
New Minister, New Policy
With the ascension of Koen Haverman with his Partij van Democratie the Dutch policy on the east indies crisis, or as it was known in the Hague “De oorlog” or the war radically changed almost overnight. Koen Haverman won his election partly by stating they would find a way to pull out of the conflict. A conflict that had taken the best of the Netherlands her youth and swallowed it whole, only leaving behind broken and scattered boys who had seen far too much at a far too young age. It had put a strain on the Netherlands her social services and culture and people, who have watched it all for nearly 16 years on their Tvs were tired of it. Koen Haverman, who himself fought in the war during the early stages knew the horror of it and thus the moment he was appointed by the monarch began to work on a way to get the Netherlands out.
Pulling the Netherlands out was however the hard part, for it was easier said than done. The situation at the time of Haverman coming into office was a dire one. The EILF was conducting their largest continuous offensive in the war so far, the Netherlands was engaged on all fronts soldiers were fighting for months and months, and all pretenses of civility were dropped. Casualty reports coming in were grim, pictures coming in were grimmer and all the news coming in on video was dark and too intense to even show on TV. Battles raging on Sumatra and Borneo and Celebs were brutal and it is said that when Haverman for the first time viewed the classified reports of the war he vomited. The reports contained numbers so gruesome and tactics and fighting on that were against everything that the Netherlands claimed to uphold.
He thus ordered the commanders of the military to come up with a plan to pull the Dutch forces out in such a manner that they would not be attacked from the rear. The immediate answer by that time Commander of the Armed Forces Generaal Cornelis van Langen, was that it would be hard bloody, and require a lot of time. Yet Haverman was determined he wanted the Dutch their forces out of the war. Thus van Langen despite his own involvement in the creation of Dutch strategy started with his team to work on a plan to pull the Netherlands out of the war. He worked tirelessly and by November 1974 some 4 months after the initial order was given they had a plan. In those 4 months, however, the fighting continued across the East Indies and the Dutch forces seemed to show less and less mercy. van Langen dubbed the plan Operatie Vertrek-I (Leaving One), it was a detailed set of objectives that would see the pullout in phases of Dutch forces while also taking into account civilians. It would take roughly 1.6 years to complete as nothing was to be left behind, it would be done in phases and it would continuously require the Dutch forces to keep on fighting with a higher degree of intensity as to not give off any idea to the enemy. He proposed the plan to the cabinet of Haverman and on the 1st of December 1974, it was accepted and made official military policy.
Fall of Batavia (1976)
The march towards Batavia or the fall of Batavia as it’s sometimes called is the name given to the final months of the east indies crisis and the war its final period. The period came to an end on exactly 23:48 11 November 1976, when the last Dutch ship left the port of Batavia when the EILF finally took all of the city after a brutal siege.
Historians mark the start of the march towards Batavia when prime minister Haverman accepted the Krijgmacht her so-called Vetrek operation. The operation in detail laid out the withdrawal of Dutch & KNIL forces from the various theatres of operations in the archipelago. It was not a full withdrawal but rather a slow withdrawal that would see a pull-out and relocation overtime to strategic locations while increasing the air and naval attacks, in the end, it was planned out that from those final holdouts they would pull out entirely to safe zones. While on paper it was a good plan in practice once implemented it became a bloody affair as the fighting withdrawal was intense and the Dutch soldiers showed no mercy and in some cases the numerous KNIL units went rogue, creating cases where Dutch soldiers fought against KNIL forces.
This period of the war is considered one of the more brutal periods of the war in regards to the sheer amount of death and destruction that was carried out by both sides.
Withdrawal from Celebes
Aftermath
In the Netherlands, a series of cultural shifts started to take place after the end of the war; with an entire generation of veterans (numbering around 4.7 million people) who saw the horrors of war up close. This had shocked the nation and in the years following the war many major events created tension within Dutch society including: a refugees crisis from it's former colonies, the reformation and restructuring of power within the Dutch economy, numerous social movements advocating for social, sexual and economic liberation, and a broken generation that tried to move on from the brutal conflict that had shaped the nation. There was a shift in the geopolitical landscape of the Netherlands, which following the end of the war in 1976, became a neutral nation and had to contend with the challenges of having a massive arms industry due to the war and needing to reform its economy towards civilian focused industry where possible. Its aerospace industry became focused on civilian products while still retaining experienced engineers and a well-established industrial compacity from the war. The Netherlands changed the balance of power in Europe by becoming neutral and taking it's close ally the German Confederation, with whom it shares a border, into neutrality. During and after the war, the music scene in the Netherlands radically changed with the adoption of NNL and Virginian rock & roll influences (made popular by the anti-war anthem Ik heb geen geluk) and the creation of an anti-war counter culture.
Casualties
During the war, the scale of fighting was enormous and the Dutch military had grown from a medium-sized force of around 210.000 active troops around the world in 1960 to a military that was by 1973 unrivaled in its quality of fighting troops and had gained a reputation of brutality and effectiveness. In total, by 1973 440.000 Dutch combat troops were deployed in combat, and the army had manpower reserves of 2.7 million troops. In total, some 3.8 million Dutchmen would see active combat in the east indies. The Nationalist rebels in 1973 were able to field 1.2 million regular troops and between 5 & 7 million guerilla fighters.
The war exacted an enormous human cost: it’s estimated that a total of 7-10 million civilians (mostly native Indonesians) died directly in the conflict, along with a total of 144,918 Dutch soldiers (and with an additional 50,000 KNIL soldiers), with 49,000 missing in action. East Indies losses are not well known but are estimated to be in the millions. Extensive use of chemical weapons, napalm, and famines that occurred during and after the war are likely to inflate the numbers of causalities of the conflict. The war's environmental cost was massive with many jungle ecosystems being near-beyond repair. only in the modern-day are some of the jungles returning to pre-war levels of growth. Entire species went extinct as their biomes were damaged or destroyed.
The economic damage of the war was simply catastrophic as the Dutch left no infrastructure or anything of value intact. Through the islands, the major urban areas were simply destroyed and turned into ruins. Many cities, including the former Batavia (now known as Jayakarta) had to be completed rebuild from the ground up, and only recently have the economy of the East Indies Federation been able to recover. While it is still debated many historians do say that this has been one of the most destructive conflicts of the 20th century.
The East Indies Emigration Crisis
In addition to the causalities of war 4.7 million civilians fled the East Indies during the war (mostly loyalist Chinese & Javanese but also almost all of the Dutch and Indo population of the East Indies). After the wars end another 250,000 to 500,000 Chinese and 250,000 Pribumi fled the East Indies between 1976 and 1985 to avoid the ethnic and political violence that the plagued the early now independent East Indies. The most popular designations for the exodus were the Netherlands mainland (in which new polders were constructed to give room to the ballooning immigrant population), New Batavia (in which vast swatches of land were set aside by the Dutch government as a "homeland" to the Indo or Eurasian population of the former East Indies whom the Dutch feared would be targeted in ethnic violence in an independent East Indies) and the Kaap Republic (which allowed many skilled immigrants from the East Indies to come to the country). Other less popular designations for the exodus were the Westerzee province of Tussenland, Taulandt, the Spanish East Indies, New Netherland, Nueva Guinea and Georgia.
This exodus would create a series of events that would see nations like the Netherlands undergo a cultural revolution in some cases and the nation would never be the same because of it.
Foreign intervention
Due to its length and the importance of Southeast Asia, multiple parties intervened in the conflict. Rather it was a conflict in which the two great powers backed both parties, as well as a conflict where the Netherlands her allies, former colonies & Dominions where involved in. It saw the deployment of volunteers from New Netherland, Tussenland, Tauland, the Kaap, and Boschland.
The KNIL
Documentation
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, 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 rationalise their actions, to rationalise 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.
