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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
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.
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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 4.7 million civilians 1.3 million rebels and 22.000 Dutch/KNIL soldiers/
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.
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.
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 goverment.
From May 1975 the new goverment led by Prime Minister Koen Haverman, himself a veteran of the war, began what it called a “Scale down”. This scaledown was however not peaceful it was a scorched earth campaign. Malakka at that moment knowing what was to come declared itself independent on July 8th, 1975, this was the first sign of what the last months of the war were to be like. The Dutch began a scale down which came down to a withdrawal, the KNIL in these last months were to be the crack forces that held the line fighting as at the same time the Rebels began a grand offensive which was held back and repelled but the rebels now gave it they’re all. From November 1975 all the way up to February 1976 Dutch & KNIL forces withdrew but held the rebels off giving time and space for Dutch, Taulanders, Amerikaeners, Afrikaners, Eurasians, and others to flee from Sumatra Borneo and Celebs, and eventually, they held only to the ports and like the rest of the cities and infrastructure has bombed the ground once the last boat left. What followed in the cities on the islands once the rebels got their hands on it was pure slaughter and mass killings were started.
Eventually, by October 1976 the Dutch forces all across Java were centered around Batavia. Operation “Thuis komst” or homecoming was launched by the navy to get all the civilians and loyalists out as the remainder of Java fell to the rebels and it was one big bloodbath. Dutch forces held the line against repeated Rebel assaults, rescue operations across the islands were launched by the navy and remainder army units to get all Dutch loyalists out. For despite scaling down the navy in the area still had supremacy. In total in these last months of fighting 67.000 rebels, regulars died fighting, and across the island of Java millions, more died in purges, and the chaos that ensued entire KNIL units went rogue and killed hundreds of thousands in revenge. Eventually, by the 11th of November at 23:48, the last boat the destroyer “Blauwe Maan” left filled to the brim with civilians as the port finally fell to the rebels. This marked the end of Dutch control over the indies, ending 370 years of the Dutch presence in the region.
The scale of fighting was enormous the Dutch military had grown from a medium-sized force of around 310.000 active troops in 1960. To a military that was by 1973 unrivaled in its quality of fighting troops having the 4th largest military. In total, in 1973 440.000 Dutch combat troops were deployed, and the army had 2.7 million manpower in available inactive reserves. The Rebels were in 1973 able to field 1.2 million regular troops and 7.1 million guerilla fighters. The war exacted an enormous human cost: It’s estimated that a total of 19/21 million Civilians, 98% of natives died in the conflict, a total of 144,918 Dutch soldiers died in the conflict, with 49,000 missing in action. The rebels their losses are not well known but estimated to be in the 7 million range. fatalities that resulted from the war, due to the use of chemical weapons and Napalm, the famines after the war are likely to inflate the numbers even more. The war her environmental cost was massive and beyond repair jungles were burned to the ground and entire species went extinct as their biomes were destroyed. The economic damage has been extensive when the Dutch left nothing of the infrastructure on the islands was left in tact and the cities were in literal ruins, only recently have they started to recover.
For the Netherlands, the war’s end meant that it had an entire generation a total of 4.7 million men almost if not more that had seen war. This had shocked the nation and in the years following the war, it dealt with refugees coming in from the east, the reformation of the Dutch power structure economy, and a broken generation that tried to move on from this brutal conflict that had shaped the nation. It became a neutral nation and with a massive arms industry due to the war only began to reform its economy away from those things where possible. Its aerospace industry became focused on civilian products while still retaining the advanced and experienced from the war. It changed the balance of power in Europe with it becoming neutral and taking the German states that bordered it with it into neutrality. While for the indies it resulted in the Vrijstaat van Malakka being formed and the new nation in the archipelago to take shape. It left a region in chaos something that was used by Taulandt to strengthen its position and oddly become a major investor into the young country.
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