Violent episodes from the early history of the Dutch East India Company, including its violent depopulation of the Banda Islands in 1609-1621 in order to gain exclusive control over nutmeg, have... Show moreViolent episodes from the early history of the Dutch East India Company, including its violent depopulation of the Banda Islands in 1609-1621 in order to gain exclusive control over nutmeg, have received increasing public and scholarly attention. However, the wider conflicts in the region over cloves, which continued for decades afterwards and were mainly centred around Ambon, received less attention as yet. In this dissertation, Tristan Mostert examines these seventeenth-century spice wars, and the influence of both environmental factors and the political dynamics of the region, from the arrival of the first Dutch ships in the area to the establishment of colonial control over Ambon, Hoamoal and the surrounding islands around 1656. The dissertation explores how the escalating conflict triggered wider regional power dynamics in which Gowa (Makassar) and Ternate were heavily involved. It also shows how the VOC turned to increasingly extreme tactics in its attempts to achieve its monopoly: deliberate environmental destruction, driving out and deporting the population, dismantling existing political and social structures. It contents that in order to understand how the VOC eventually established its monopoly, one should not look for traditional military explanations, but rather to this policy of environmental warfare and colonial control, through which it transformed the landscape of the region. Show less
This study analyses the Dutch military’s tactical conduct in Indonesia during the decolonization war of 1945-1949. Its principal questions are how the Dutch armed forces understood and shaped their... Show moreThis study analyses the Dutch military’s tactical conduct in Indonesia during the decolonization war of 1945-1949. Its principal questions are how the Dutch armed forces understood and shaped their tactical military conduct in Indonesia, and to what extent this can help explain the extremely violent nature of the war.The Dutch armed forces interpreted the conflict within the conceptual framework of past colonial wars, of the restoration of authority by military means, and of regular warfare. While the Dutch military did learn some lessons during the conflict, radical new insights were not developed, for various reasons.From beginning to end, Dutch military conduct in Indonesia was characterised by harsh repressive action, the absolute prioritisation of military solutions, mistrust of the Indonesian civilian population and the disregard of the risk of civilian casualties and collateral damage. This modus operandi found backing in both the existing and new tactical regulations and the army’s organizational culture. The army’s forceful and harsh mode of conduct during the war was therefore not simply the result of situational force majeure or the political developments; it was also born from the way in which the Dutch armed forces understood the conflict. Show less
