This article examines the position of the Dutch planters in Indonesia after the transfer of sovereignty in 1949 until this nationalisation of the Dutch businesses in 1958. It studies the political...Show moreThis article examines the position of the Dutch planters in Indonesia after the transfer of sovereignty in 1949 until this nationalisation of the Dutch businesses in 1958. It studies the political and economic position of these planters and the changes it had to go through after the transfer of sovereignty, in the light of the ongoing New Guinea conflict between the Netherlands and Indonesia. The study argues that the Dutch planters had trouble with adjusting to the new political and social situation, which was hardened by the political relationship between the former colonizer and colonized.Show less
Jakob Verseveldt (1903-1987) was one of the first men to travel from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies on behalf of the Jan Pieterszoon Coen Foundation. This society was located in Batavia ...Show moreJakob Verseveldt (1903-1987) was one of the first men to travel from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies on behalf of the Jan Pieterszoon Coen Foundation. This society was located in Batavia (modern Jakarta), where it ran an all-boys boarding school. The foundation was partly funded by Henri Deterding, director of the Bataafse Petroleum Maatschappij (Batavian Petroleum Company, B.P.M., now known as Shell). This was used to fund the expedition of ‘Deterdingers’. Verseveldt was part this group of ‘Deterdingers’, young Dutch students and teachers who were sent to the Dutch East Indies to learn about teaching methods in the colony. To a large extent, however, the trip was meant as propaganda for the Dutch colonial government and the economic exploitation of the East Indies.Show less
