Workers begin a strike at Mariënburg sugar estate

The Koningin Emma brought 94 Javanese workers to Suriname. Recruitment from Java extended colonial labor across the empire to sustain plantations after emancipation. Workers built lasting...

Balinese forces ambushed the Dutch expedition in what Dutch sources called the “betrayal of Lombok.” That label casts an invasion as Dutch victimhood. The episode followed Dutch intervention in...

After the August ambush, Dutch forces opened a major campaign against Mataram. Dutch accounts cast the operation as restoring order, while it advanced colonial control over Lombok and led to severe...

The ruler of Mataram surrendered after Dutch attacks. Dutch forces seized gold, manuscripts, weapons, and ceremonial objects. The “Lombok treasure” later entered Dutch museums as war booty, showing...

Wilhelmina described a Dutch “moral calling” toward the East Indies. Welfare language promised education and reform but preserved Dutch sovereignty and paternalism. Military campaigns continued to...

After weeks of protest, workers confronted estate management and director James Mavor was killed. Colonial records framed the event as disorder; it arose in a plantation labor system dependent on...

Colonial forces opened fire after workers marched to the estate office; many workers were killed and wounded. This violence exposed how the post-emancipation plantation economy enforced labor...

Colonial forces under G.C.E. van Daalen attacked a fortified Alas village whose inhabitants had refused Dutch annexation. The massacre of residents, including women and children, demonstrates how...

Dutch forces landed at Sanur as part of an expedition against the kingdoms of Badung and Tabanan. The campaign followed disputes over colonial demands and advanced direct Dutch control; Balinese...

The rulers and residents of Badung marched from the palace in a final act of resistance and were shot by Dutch forces. The event, remembered as the puputan, should not be reduced to a story of...