After the bankruptcy of the VOC (Vergaan onder Corruptie) in 1799 the Koninkrijk Holland took over the debts and the possessions of the VOC. In Indonesia those possessions were only a part of Java, a few islands in the Moluccas, Makassar, Banjarmassin and some other ‘handelsposten’ spread over the Archipelago. In the beginning of the 1800’s the Dutch did not even know how to manage this all, but they learned and occupied and exploited Indonesia in a very profitable way. The island of Java really became a goldmine after the establishing of the “Cultuurstelsel” invented by governor-general J.van den Bosch in 1830. He had his experiences in the West Indies in the exploitation of sugar plantations were negro slaves did the work. Of course the relatively small community of Dutch in the Indies could not manage all those immense projects by themselves, they worked close together with the “priyayi” who had a vast experience in exploiting their own people.

With money coming in the Dutch also decided to conquer and establish their power in the whole Archipelago.To achive this the K.N.I.L. (Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger) was found in 1830. The 19^th century was a time of war in the Indies, besides all kind of “actions” by the Dutch, two big wars with many victims were fought out, the Java War (1826 – 1830) against Diponegoro and the Aceh War which started in 1871 and apart from a few breaks actually never ended untill today.  After many “pacifications” enforced under Governor-general J.B. van Heustz, Indonesia became in 1910 the territory what it is now, so one can state the country has been formed by the Dutch. Van Heutsz was a soldier and a quite tough one, one can say a “war criminal” but who cared in those days. Actually the shaping of Indonesia took 2 very tough and cruel men: Jan Pieterzoon Coen, the founder of Batavia, as the center of the VOC imperium and Van Heutz. In fact JPzC also wanted to conquer China as he saw great possibilities  but China was ‘a bridge too far’  It seems strange but to advance Indonesia it takes tough men, we can compare Coen and Van Heutsz with Suharto, who actually did great things to pull Indonesia out of the mess in which Sukarno the country had left. But Suharto has got a bad name in Indonesia,  I suppose when he will be dead he will receive a “Pahlawan Nasional” status of unknown proportions and his name will placed besides that of Soekarno as Bapak Pembangunan. We will have Jl. Raya Suharto in every town and city and of course lots of ugly statues of this “smiling general” here and there. 

The Dutch also introduced the Malay language in the Archipelago in a form that could be used by everybody. In the 19^th century at first the candidate civil servants had to learn Javanese, but this was too complicated (see: De Indologen, ambtenaren voor de Oost 1825 – 1950 by Cees Fasseur) and also not practical. With al the outpostst established in the 19^th century the Dutch needed an easy language that could be used by them and the ‘inlanders’ that was the Malay language that had already been used in the Archipelago as the linga franca for ages. In 1901 Prof. Ch.A. van Ophuysen published his 'Kitab Logat Melajoe' a dictionary with the Malay language in the Latin spelling, before that book appeared the Malay language was written in Arabic script, so for many people not accesible. In 1908 the Dutch founded de “Commisie voor Volkslectuur” (Balai Poestaka) to promote and spread cheap and good literature in Malay among ordinairy people. The Malay language became also the language to be taught in schools and used in newspapers. One can say the introduction of the Malay language was a big succes, everybody who could read loved reading after books and newspapers were spread. In 1910 Van Ophuysen published his Maleische Spraakkunst . This book was translated by T.W. Kamil under the title Tata Bahasa Melayu which became important for the speading of the Malay language under the native population of Indonesia.

So when the Indonesian Youth Congress took place on Octobre 28, 1928 a lot of work for the Sumpah Pemuda was already done by the Dutch.  ‘Satu Nusa & Satu Bahasa’ was ready for the taking they just added ‘Satu Bangsa’ which was the ultimate dream in those days, and actually still is. As the making of Satu Bangsa costed the TNI lots of work and bullets apart of that a lot of money was spent on transmigration projects. The Satu Bangsa has been misused by all the Indonesian goverments for Javanisasi of the Republik Indonesia. Today the people of Aceh and Papua still don’t believe they have to suffer under Javanese colonisation. The national anthem of Indonesia ‘Indonesia Raya’ composed by WR Supratman, welknown because his face is on the 50.000 Rp note, which was played for the first time in public on the mentioned Youth congress is also said to be an imitation of a Dutch song i.e. ‘Pinda, Pinda, Lekka, Lekka’ sung in the 1920’s by Willy Derby, a man who became famous in Indonesia because he is also the composer of ‘Hallo Bandoeng