Slavery formally abolished in directly governed Indies territories

Dutch officials captured Imam Bonjol under the pretext of negotiations and exiled him far from his homeland. The arrest followed the fall of Bonjol and demonstrates how colonial power operated through...

A group of 18 Chinese workers was contracted in Batavia for Suriname’s Catharina Sophia plantation. This experiment preceded larger schemes designed to replace enslaved labor with bound contract...

The Dutch government appointed a commission to recommend measures concerning enslaved people. The delay that followed reflected plantation influence and state concern with compensation, labor...

The Dutch parliament adopted a basic regulation for colonial government in the East Indies. It extended administrative structures while preserving racialized legal distinctions and state authority....

Forces associated with Antasari attacked Dutch posts at Martapura and Pengaron, beginning a major phase of the Banjar War. Opposition grew from Dutch intervention in succession politics, territorial...

Eduard Douwes Dekker published Max Havelaar, exposing abuses and forced cultivation in Java through fiction informed by his experience as a colonial official. It broadened metropolitan criticism,...

The king signed laws abolishing slavery in Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean, effective 1 July 1863. The legislation compensated slaveholders, while people held in slavery received no payment. In...

The law abolishing slavery was proclaimed in Suriname. Its delayed effective date and ten-year state supervision show how abolition was structured to protect plantation production. Owners received...

About 45,000 people were legally freed. Suriname’s emancipated population remained under state supervision and compulsory labor until 1873. Former owners received compensation; the people whose...

A new regulation created a small elected assembly in Suriname. Voting was restricted by property and tax qualifications, excluding most people, including the newly emancipated majority. The reform...