During the Napoleonic Wars, Britain found itself at one time or another fighting against most European countries. And amongst those was the Netherlands, which was defeated and made into a French puppet before being annexed entirely. During this period of Dutch subjugation, Britain seized its overseas empire until the end of the war, at which point the United Kingdom returned Indonesia, an extremely profitable colony, to the Netherlands, in spite of keeping other, less valuable lands. Which raises the question, why? Why did Britain return Indonesia to the Netherlands?
So, as the Napoleonic Wars dragged on, one of Britain's primary goals was to starve France and her allies of overseas trade. When the Netherlands was annexed into the French Empire, the British decided to act, and deprive France of the Dutch East Indies and its profits. It conquered Java in 1811 and held onto it until Napoleon's first defeat in 1814. At this point, the coalition allies opted to restore the Netherlands to a kingdom with these borders. The reason for this was that Austria, Russia and Britain wanted a buffer state between France and Prussia.
to stop any wars before they started and keep the balance of power intact. Now, Britain was in possession of the Dutch overseas empire and as a result held all of the cards. And as such, it was up to Britain to decide what to return and what to keep, and it kept all of these, notably taking half of Dutch Guiana and Cape Colony.
But Britain handed the Dutch East Indies back, so why? Well, the primary reason was to make sure that the Netherlands remained strong. If robbed of all of their colonies, the Dutch would lose access to a lot of wealth and thus would be too weak to deter either France or Prussia. Now, Britain could have kept that wealth for itself, but the hope was that Britain wouldn't have to get involved in continental affairs if the Netherlands was a deterrent.
Initially, the British government had intended to hand all of the Dutch colonies back. However, Guyana made a lot of money for British sugar companies, and the Royal Navy wanted to keep control of the waters around the Cape of Africa. And so, the Prime Minister was under a lot of pressure to keep the useful bits. Another reason was that the British government was asked by the East India Company not to keep Java. The reason was that the East India Company was worried about overextending itself and potentially being dragged into a war that would cost money.
The cost of extra defences would be pricey and the returns were now much smaller. This was because when Britain was running the colony, it took over the growing of its cash crops, and because making money was popular they stole the secrets of how to grow them as well as the crops themselves. It did however give the Netherlands the ability to expand across the region and make more money than they were previously, which to Britain seemed like a win and would also act as a means of keeping the Dutch friendly. and also Britain acknowledging their ownership of Java would hopefully act as a warning to others. Interestingly though, this was not the last time that the UK would hand Indonesia back to the Dutch, because in the immediate aftermath of Japan's surrender in World War 2, Britain occupied Indonesia.
The UK did this to give the Netherlands time to build up the troop numbers necessary to repress any push for independence. In 1946 the Dutch were able to return and Britain immediately handed over control and tried to help them suppress the Indonesian revolutionaries. The hope was that by re-establishing the Dutch Empire, there would be less pressure on the UK to relinquish its empire in the area too. This ultimately didn't work and it signalled the end of Britain and the Dutch having any say in Indonesia. I hope you enjoyed this episode with a special thanks to my Patrons, James Bizanet, Kelly Moneymaker, Skye Chappell, Katoitska, Anthony Beckett, Rod D. Martin, Yudhwan Wang, Marcus Arsner, YN Hockey, Alex Schwinn, AF Firefly, Captain Psydog, Spencer Lightfoot, Gustav Swan, The McWopper, Shuwenin, Marvin Kassel, Winston Kayward, Spinning Three Plates, Andy McGeehy, Kamoon Yoon, Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard, Todd Short, Copper Tone, Maggie Patskowski, Words About Books Podcast, Jim Stroomberg, Miss Izzet, and Charles I.