Being Dutch in the Indies portrays Dutch colonial territories in Asia not as mere societies under foreign occupation but rather as a Creole empire. Most of colonial society, up to the highest levels, consisted of people of mixed Dutch and Asian descent who were born in the Indies and considered it their home, but were legally Dutch.

A Pocket Guide to Netherlands East Indies was originally a 5.25"x4.24" pocket-size booklet released in 1943 for American GIs in World War II on their way to Indo-European countries, including Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, which were near territories occupied and controlled by the Japanese. The pamphlet outlines the role of the soldier, as well as descriptions of the different countries and peoples, their habits and cultures, and the native vegetation and wildlife. The booklet includes a map of the 3,000 countries making up the East Indies, guides to currency, time, measurements, and language, and a list of dos and don'ts when interacting with the general population. The War and Navy Departments, Washington D.C., publish pamphlets, reports, manuals, and instructions ranging on topics from countries and regions of the world, machine and weapon operation, roles of persons and positions, vehicle operation and safety, and other topics pertinent in wartime and for the military.

Kees van Dijk examines how in 1917 the atmosphere of optimism in the Netherlands Indies changed to one of unrest and dissatisfaction, and how after World War I the situation stabilized to resemble pre-war political and economic circumstances.

This book is the definitive literary history of the colonial Dutch East Indies and is partially distinguished from its predecessors by its discussion of materials ranging from natural history and religious sermons to pamphlets and the accounts of travelers from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. What emerges from this comprehensive approach is an unusually thorough and sensitive account of the manifold encounters of the Dutch with the East Indian societies that they conquered, tried to understand, and, finally, had to relinquish under the inevitable pressures of change and the desire for independence. This history records how a hybrid literature emerges from that of the colonial culture to become a distinct literature of its own and why the concepts derived from European cultural history--such as baroque or neoclassicism--are totally inapplicable to the works discussed here.

A revealing reassessment of the American government's position towards Indonesia's struggle for independence.

The Dutch East Indies Red Cross (NIRK) took action in 1873 when the Aceh War broke out, which lasted several decades. In this war the organization’s neutrality was tested, but it turned out not to be an issue. Neutrality was a concept for European wars between “civilized” countries, not applicable in colonial wars. As a consequence, aid was tailored to the needs of the Dutch East Indian Army. This also showed itself in a statutory change making aid not only possible during “war”’ but also in case of “uprising.” After the war ended several decades of “peace”—if peace is a proper term in colonial circumstances—followed. They were used to be prepared in case of an attack by a foreign enemy. For this “peace-work,” societal work of the Red Cross, was deemed important. This means that it was not an aim in itself, but seen as practice for the war task. It also had to avoid the Red Cross becoming invisible and lose popularity, for only with enough (wo)men active the war task could be fulfilled. When war came, preparation turned out to have been in vain. Japan quickly conquered the archipelago. It forbade the organization only making use of some local branches when this came in handy. However, it proved not to be the end of the NIRK. When after the war independence was declared by Indonesian nationalists, the Netherlands send an army “to restore law and order.” In the war that followed, Red Cross-work became part of military carrot-and-stick strategy, trying to get the population back on Dutch side, and hoping that patients would inform the doctor with military information. The Red Cross not only had a humanitarian but a national task to fulfill.

In the 1980s, sensational stories about an 'emerging new middle class' popped up simultaneously in the streets of Jakarta and at conferences of hopeful Indonesia watchers. Businesspeople and professionals had profited from President Suharto's rapid economic success, and were allegedly eager to not only to show off their new wealth, but to boost democratization processes as well. They and their families were the vanguard of a category of Jakartans who regarded themselves boldly as the ‘normal, modern, educated middle class’ of Indonesia—against the background of a profound and state-induced depoliticization. Apart from fostering a new consumer culture, the new middle class was at the root of the expansion of the conurbation Jabotabek, housing hundreds of thousands of newly arrived middle-class members. Meanwhile, a new and huge gap between rich and poor became conspicuously visible in Jakarta. During the 1990s, the increasing political instability of the New Order government and the Asian monetary crisis led to the dramatic resignation of President Suharto in May 1998. In this study, based on extensive anthropological fieldwork throughout the 1990s, this new middle class is examined as a socio-cultural phenomenon. Despite a global orientation and a taste for democracy, its members seemed to have internalized the New Order along with some lingering late-colonial notions as their guidelines for life. How ‘new’ was the new middle class anyway? Lifestyle and material culture practices in the suburb of Bintaro Raya—in public space as well as in the intimacy of living rooms—illustrate the everyday ambiguity of people who appear to be trapped in their imagined middle-classness: they were ‘lost in mall’.

This examination of the formation of the Indonesian medical profession reveals the relationship between medicine and decolonisation, and its importance to understanding Asian history.

European colonial expansion led to Dutch notions of civilised society, or the Dutch's community's flexible and relatively charitable attitudes toward 'others', being scattered (as in the Greek word 'diaspeirein') to the four corners of the earth. In some cases, the exportation of Dutch cultural values to places overseas, like North America, endowed 'Dutchness' with subtle new meanings. But in colonial Indonesia, Dutch political customs and traditions were transformed in the process of migrating to exotic locales. In this book, Frances Gouda examines the ways in which the Netherlands portrayed its unique colonial style to the outside world. Why were citizens of a small and politically insignificant European nation able to represent as natural and normal their dominance over ancient civilizations on islands such as Java and Bali? How did Dutch colonial residents explain the cultural differences between themselves and the supposedly 'primitive' peoples of the Indonesian archipelago? In trying to understand the 'gendering' practices of colonial governance in the Netherlands East Indies, Gouda also explores the interactions of Dutch and Indonesian women with European men. FRANCES GOUDA earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1980. She is currently professor of history and gender studies in the Political Science Department of the University of Amsterdam.

Between 1966 and 1980, the War History Office of the National Defense College of Japan (now the Center for Military History of the National Institute for Defense Studies) published the 102-volume "Senshi Sosho" (War History Series). These volumes give a detailed account of the operations of the Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Second World War. Volume 3 of the series, "The Invasion of the Dutch East Indies", describes in depth the campaign to gain control over the Indonesian archipelago - at that time the largest transoceanic landing operation in the military history of the world. The present book is the first complete and unabridged translation of a volume from the comprehensive "Senshi Sosho" series. It enables military historians and the general public to see and study for the first time how the operation that put an end to Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia was planned and executed.