“ A governor-general holds the superior administrative and executive authority, and is assisted by a council of five members, partly of a legislative and partly of an advisory character, but with no share in the executive work of the government. ”

“ A military academy is established at Meester Cornelis, near Batavia. Schools for soldiers are attached to every battalion. There are certain local forces outside the regular army—militia in some of the large towns, native infantry in Madura, and guards of some of the vassal princes. Unlike the army, which is purely colonial, the navy in Netherlands India is partly colonial, partly belonging to the royal navy of the Netherlands, and its expenses are therefore borne partly by the mother country and partly by the colony. ”

“ An important fact in the physical geography of the archipelago is that Java, Bali, Sumatra and Borneo, and the lesser islands between them and the Asiatic mainland, all rest on a great submerged bank, nowhere more than 100 fathoms below sea-level, which may be considered a continuation of the continent; while to the east the depth of the sea has been found at various places to be from 1000 to 2500 fathoms. ”

“ No portion of the regular army of the Netherlands is allowed to be sent on colonial service, but individual soldiers are at liberty to enlist, by permission of their commanding officers, in the army of Netherlands India, and they form its nucleus. Native and European soldiers are generally mixed together in the same battalions, though in separate companies. The officers were all Dutch till 1908, when a trial was made of native officers from noble Javanese families. The artillery is composed of European gunners, with native riders, while the cavalry are Europeans and natives. ”

“ In local government a wide use is made of natives, in the appointment of whom a primary consideration is that if possible the people should be under their own chieftains. In Surakarta and Jokjakarta in Java, and in many parts of the Outposts, native princes preserve their positions as vassals; they have limited power, and act generally under the supervision of a Dutch official. ”

“ A large proportion of the Europeans are government officials, or retired officials, for many of the Dutch, once established in the colonies, settle there for life. The remaining Europeans are mostly planters and heads of industrial establishments; the Arabs are nearly all traders, as are some of the Chinese, but a large number of the latter are labourers in the Sumatra tobacco plantations and the tin mines of Banka, Billiton, &c. The bulk of the natives are agriculturists. ”

“ The governor-general not only has supreme executive authority, but can of his own accord pass laws and regulations, except in so far as these, from their nature, belong of right to the home government, and as he is bound by the constitutional principles on which, according to the Regulations for the Government of Netherlands India, passed by the king and States-General in 1854, the Dutch East Indies must be governed. There are nine departments, each under a director: namely, justice; interior; instruction, public worship and industry; agriculture (created in 1905) ; civil public works ”

“ A Hindu strain is evident in Java and others of the western islands; Moors and Arabs (that is, as the names are used in the archipelago, Mahommedans from various countries between Arabia and India) are found more or less amalgamated with many of the Malay peoples; and the Chinese form, from an economical point of view, one of the most important sections of the community in many of the more civilized districts. Chinese have been established in the archipelago from a very early date: the first Dutch invaders found them settled at Jacatra ”

“ Justice for Europeans is administered by European judges, but, as with administration at large so in judicial matters, native chiefs have extensive powers in native affairs. For European justice the High Court of Justice is established at Batavia; there are councils of justice at Batavia, Semarang and Surabaya, with authority not only over Java but over parts of the Outposts; there is a resident court of justice in each residency. For native justice there are courts in the districts and regencies; residents act as police judges ”

“ Large sums have been voted in Holland for the establishment of primary and secondary schools, and the government has undertaken to assist in the establishment of parochial schools, the object being that every village, at least in Java, should possess one. There are schools for higher education at Batavia, Surabaya and Semarang; at the first two of these towns are government schools for mechanical engineering, and at Batavia a crafts school and a medical school for natives. There are five colleges for native schoolmasters and four for sons of native officials. ”

“ Many important financial and agrarian measures were carried between 1860 and 1890. In 1863 Fransen van de Putte, minister for the colonies, introduced the first of the annual colonial budgets for which the Regulations had provided, thus enabling the states-general to control the revenue and expenditure of Netherlands India; in 1865 he reduced and in 1872 abolished the differentiation of customs dues in favour of goods imported from Holland, substituting a uniform import duty of 6% and establishing a number of free ports throughout the archipelago. ”

“ Natives, Chinese and Arabs, are given seats, and in certain instances some of the members are elected, but more generally they are appointed by government. The islands are often described as of two groups, Java and Madura forming one, and the other consisting of Sumatra, Borneo, Riouw-Lingga Archipelago, Banka, Billiton, Celebes, Molucca Archipelago, the small Sunda Islands, and a part of New Guinea—the Outposts as they are collectively named. ”

“ The mountains of Borneo, however, rise rather in short ridges and clusters. Nothing in the general physiognomy of the islands is more remarkable than the number and distribution of the volcanoes, active or extinct. Running south-east through Sumatra, east through Java and the southern islands to Timor, curving north through the Moluccas, and again north, from the end of Celebes through the whole line of the Philippines, they follow a line roughly resembling a horseshoe narrowed towards the point. The loftiest mountain in the archipelago would appear to be Kinabalu in Borneo (13,698 ft.) ”

“ The enterprise of Sir James Brooke (q.v.) led, after 1838, to the establishment of British sovereignty in North Borneo; in 1895 New Guinea was divided between Great Britain, Germany and the Netherlands; and the Spanish-American War of 1898 resulted in the cession of the Philippines, Sulu Island and the largest of the Mariana Islands to the United States, and the sale of the Caroline group to Germany. Australian and Japanese trade in the archipelago was stimulated by the establishment of the Australian Commonwealth (1901) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5) . ”

“ In 1536, after a period of war and anarchy caused by the tyrannical rule of Menezes, Antonio Galvão, the historian, was appointed governor of the Moluccas. He crushed the rebellion and won the affection of the natives by his just and enlightened administration, which had no parallel in the annals of Portuguese rule in the archipelago. He returned to Europe in 1540 (see Portugal: Literature) , after inaugurating an active missionary movement, which was revived in 1546–1547 by Francis Xavier (q.v.) . At this period the Portuguese power in the East was already beginning to wane ”

“ From these two have come all the peoples—other than Negrito or Papuan—found to-day from the Malay Peninsula to the farthest islands of Polynesia. The Malay Archipelago was thus first invaded by the Caucasians, who eventually passed eastward and are to-day represented in the Malay Archipelago only by the Mentawi islanders. They were followed by an immigration of Mongol-Caucasic peoples with a preponderance of Caucasic blood—the Indonesians of some, the pre-Malays of other writers—who are to-day represented in the archipelago by such peoples as the Dyaks of Borneo and the Battas of Sumatra. ”

“ Government schools for the European education of Chinese children are established in the principal towns. Private mechanical and crafts schools are established at Jokjakarta, Surabaya and Semarang, and there is an agricultural school at Buitenzorg. ”

“ The population is legally divided into Europeans and persons assimilated to them, and natives and persons assimilated to them. The first class includes half-castes (who are numerous, for the Dutch are in closer relationship with the natives than is the case with most colonizing peoples) , and also Armenians, Japanese, &c. The total number of this class in 1900 was 75,833; 72,019 of these were called Dutch, but 61,022 of them were born in Netherlands India; there were also 1382 Germans, 441 British and 350 Belgians. ”

“ Decline of Dutch Power, 1749–1811.—In the second half of the 17th century the monopoly system and the employment of slaves and forced labour gave rise to many abuses, and there was a rapid decline in the revenue from sugar, coffee and opium, while the competition of the British East India Company, which now exported spices, indigo, &c. from India to Europe, was severely felt. The administration was corrupt, largely because of the vast powers given to officials, who were invariably underpaid ”

“ Administratively they are further divided into residencies, divisions, regencies, districts, and dessas or villages. In the principal towns and villages there are parish councils, and in some provinces county councils have been established. ”