Dutch Influence On Indonesia

At the age of exploration, people from different countries began to travel and explore the world for numerous reasons such as conquering territories, or exchanging goods. Countries that travel all around the world includes the European and one of them was the Dutch. The Dutch reached Indonesia in the 16th century looking for spices that they want to monopolize for example: nutmegs in Banda Island and cloves in Ambon. The Dutch ruled over Indonesia for over 400 years and this brought many influences to Indonesia. The Dutch affected the economics, religion, and arts in Indonesia.
The Dutch affected the economics in Indonesia. In the 16th century, Europeans were trying to find the Spice Islands because spices were so precious and worth a lot of

However, finding the Spice Island was not so easy so the Dutch needed help from the locals. When the Portuguese went away from Indonesia, the Dutch had a chance to monopolize the commodities like spices. Kings and princes used to rule their own territories and commodities before the Dutch came. In 1602, the Dutch founded VOC (Vereenidge Oost- Indische Compagnie) or Dutch East India Company that the purpose was to gain as much money as possible. According to Epic World History, the VOC was permitted by the Dutch government to have diplomatic relations and to have foreign powers so they are allowed to have military actions and have their own weapons. The VOC used to control Java and other islands. After a series of naval campaigns, they created a monopoly of trade in the islands. The Dutch was harsh and they fought with people who were against them. They controlled the commodities of the spices. The VOC ended on December 31, 1799 due to bankruptcy since "the British and French expanded their territories in the West Indies and elsewhere ("VOC Bankruptcy and the British

In some parts of the VOC's territories, they did some missionary activities and "although by 1900 missionary activities had been established throughout the colony (except for Muslim regions such as Aceh and West Sumatra), the number of Christians had hardly increased compared to one hundred years before. Only two regions showed a major increase in the number of indigenous Protestants, to wit the Minahasa (North Sulawesi) and Tapanuli (North Sumatra). The general 'failure' to convert locals to Christianity on a large-scale basis was mainly due to the lack of financial means, limited manpower and the inadequacy of the methods used ("Christianity in Indonesia").” Parts of Indonesia that had the most number of Christianity is where the Dutch stayed in Indonesia such as Ambon and Moluccas. This influenced Indonesia's religions because according to Hays, there is 7 percent of Indonesia's population are Christians and 4.1 percent (around 16.5 million people) are Protestant which was introduced when the Dutch came to Indonesia. The Dutch not only affect Indonesia's religions, but also Indonesia's