Dutch-Indonesian Union
| Nederlands-Indonesische Unie (Dutch) Uni Indonesia – Belanda (Indonesian) |
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| Dutch-Indonesian Union | |||||
| 1949-1954 / 56 | |||||
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| Head of state | Queen Juliana of the Netherlands | ||||
| Head of government | Petrus Johannes Abraham Idenburg (General Secretary) | ||||
| surface | 1,934,315 km² | ||||
| population | over 86 million | ||||
| founding | 1949 | ||||
| resolution | 1954 and 1956 | ||||
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The agreed for 1949 Dutch-Indonesian Union (short Dutch Union , falsely also Dutch-Indonesian Union ) was the attempt by the Netherlands , its former colony Dutch East Indies ( Indonesia ) also on the Granting of Independence addition, at least in the context of a personal union konföderativ on to to bind the Netherlands . However, it was less effective than the roughly contemporaneous French Union and less enduring than the British Commonwealth . The loose union failed mainly because of the dispute over Dutch New Guinea and was terminated by Indonesia in 1954.
initial situation
In the Indonesian War of Independence that broke out after the Japanese occupation troops withdrew in 1945 , the Dutch policy of constantly alternating between rounds of negotiations (Linggadjati Agreement 1946/47, Renville Agreement 1948, Van Rooijen Roem Agreement 1949) and repeated counter offensives ("police actions") 1947 and 1948/49) led to a military stalemate; in terms of foreign policy, the Netherlands became increasingly isolated. The nationalists of the Republic of Indonesia ruled most of the most populous islands Java, Sumatra and Madura, while the Netherlands wanted to establish a federative republic of the United States of Indonesia on the remaining islands with the help of collaborators , which in turn would be confederate with the Netherlands Kingdom (consisting of the Netherlands , Suriname / Guiana and the Antilles ) should remain connected. The Dutch government wanted to maintain control of Indonesia's security, foreign and economic policy.
At a round table conference in 's-Gravenhage ( The Hague ) in 1949 , the Dutch government under Willem Drees agreed a ceasefire brokered by US diplomat Merle Cochran with the “moderate” wing of the Indonesian nationalists around Prime Minister and Vice President Mohammed Hatta an accession of the Republic of Indonesia to the United States of Indonesia . This republic of the United States of Indonesia was to gain independence, but would continue to form a union with the Netherlands for a transitional period. The Dutch Queen Juliana was to become the joint head of state . In the Linggadjati Agreement of 1946, both sides had agreed to create such a union from January 1949.
Problems of the union
In December 1949 Indonesia gained independence and the union with the Netherlands came into effect. However, Indonesia was very ill-prepared for independence. The Dutch school system had only trained a very small European-educated elite, of which well over 70 million inhabitants at the time had just 591 university degrees. There was a lack of both managers and civil servants. Without enough local managers and local capital, it was not possible to nationalize the Dutch plantations, factories, oil fields and banks, so that even after independence, the most important branches of the economy remained in Dutch hands (some also in British, Australian and US American hands) . In addition, 17,000 Dutch civil servants and advisers remained in the country to keep the administrative apparatus working. The common Union organs agreed in the Linggadjati Agreement of 1946, which were supposed to coordinate foreign policy, foreign trade and monetary policy during the transition period, were no longer provided for in the Union Treaty of 1949. The Union had only one secretariat. The director of this secretariat (General Secretary) was the Dutchman Petrus Johannes Abraham Idenburg , whose father Alexander Willem Frederik Idenburg had once been Governor General of the Dutch East Indies.
In contrast to the French Union , for example , no common EU citizenship was created, but it was agreed that citizens of the Netherlands and Indonesia would be treated equally in the other country. In the medium and long term, this could have resulted in the problem of the immigration of millions of Indonesians in the Netherlands, who also exercise the right to vote. In 1949 the Netherlands had barely 10 million inhabitants, while Indonesia had over 76 million.
Theoretically, Queen Juliana - similar to the Commonwealth - should be the joint head of state of both the Netherlands and Indonesia, but Indonesia emphasized its sovereignty and its republican character, and Sukarno had been elected President of Indonesia in 1949. Within the federal republic of the United States of Indonesia , the nationalist Republic of Indonesia dominated , and as early as 1950 President Sukarno transformed the federation into a unitary state. However, after the collapse of the Indonesian Federation, the Netherlands were not prepared to leave West New Guinea, which had initially been excluded in the Hague Agreement of 1949 (clarification within one year), to the Indonesian unitary state, and only offered a subordination of West New Guinea under the competence of the Union, which in fact would have meant the continuation of Dutch rule. No solution could be reached through negotiations, and the Union gradually fell apart in the dispute over West New Guinea.
End and dissolution
In August 1954, President Sukarno unilaterally terminated the union, and in the following September Queen Juliana also announced the imminent end of the union in a speech from the throne. However, the Dutch government made its approval of the dissolution of the Union dependent on the settlement of certain economic and financial matters, such as B. the debt issue, continued investment protection for Dutch companies. Negotiations and negotiations on an amendment to the Union Treaty were held until February 1956, but in view of the still unresolved dispute over West New Guinea they were unsuccessful. Thereupon the Indonesian parliament also formally proclaimed the end of the union and the expiry of all bilateral agreements with the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, the General Secretariat was dissolved in 1956 and the Union was also removed from the Kingdom's constitution .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Knaurs Weltatlas 1950, pages 123 (Netherlands), 122 (West New Guinea) and 204 (Indonesia)
- ^ Bernhard Dahm: Indonesia - History of a developing country 1945-1971 , page 70. Brill, Leiden / Cologne 1978
- ↑ Dieter Nohlen (ed.), Michael Fremerey: Handbook of the Third World , Volume 7 (South Asia and Southeast Asia), page 387f. Dietz, Bonn 1994
- ↑ Marc Frey : Decolonization in Southeast Asia - The United States and the dissolution of the European colonial empires , page 178. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2006
- ↑ Christoph Schönberger: Union Citizens - Europe's Federal Citizenship in a Comparative View , page 222. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2005
literature
- Golo Mann (Ed.): Propylaea World History. Volume 10 (The World Today), page 142f (New States in Asia and Africa). Propylaea Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 1986
Web links
- US Library of Congress : Indonesia - The National Revolution, 1945-50 (Country Studies)