ABSTRACT
What was the Dutch East Indies like in 1900? And how did the colonial regime function? A policy of colonial expansion and economic exploitation held out the promise of development, but to what extent did this development benefit the people? Education and jobs in government or in business provided a small Indonesian middle class with access to a modern lifestyle. At the same time, there was resistance to colonial exploitation and racism, which was met with colonial repression. Slowly but surely, the idea of an independent Indonesia began to develop. How did these processes unfold and who were the leading figures? What was the situation in the colony in 1941? How strong was Dutch control over the colony at that point? And what had changed over the course of those first forty years of the twentieth century?
