Lombok verloren, rampspoed geboren

Abstract

This thesis revolves around the question whether both the military and political policy of the Dutch government around 1900 could be labelled as modern imperialistic. The research builds upon the Dutch historiographic imperialism-debate that had taken place in the 1970s. The research in this thesis used historical newspapers from the years 1894-1895 to identify certain patterns of modern imperialism. During those years both the Dutch and Dutch East-Indian government undertook an military expedition called the Lombok-expedition. In what ways was this expedition part and parcel of the behaviour of a modern imperialistic state? The findings of the research offered insights in the difference of our current understanding of ‘imperialism’ in relation to nineteenth-century contemporaries. The results of the research pointed to many features of what modern scholars would label nowadays as imperialistic. The most distinctive features that characterized the imperialistic policy of the Dutch were their duty to civilise the Indonesian people and the safeguarding of their status as important colonial power. Although this thesis researched the essential core of Dutch imperialism, much added research is needed to comprehend Dutch imperialism from the nineteenth-century onwards to its fullest.