why after over 300 years of dutch rule, contrary to other former colonies, Indonesia neither has significant leftovers of dutch culture nor is the dutch language spoken anywhere.

Question

why after over 300 years of dutch rule, contrary to other former colonies, Indonesia neither has significant leftovers of dutch culture nor is the dutch language spoken anywhere.

In: 9430

Answer 1

“Colonialism” wasn’t always exactly the same.

In some places, colonial powers moved a lot of people into the colony, who settled and pushed out the native population, partly by warfare and partly by disease. (Example: The English in what became the United States.)

In some places, colonial powers moved some people in, took over and religiously converted the natives, and intermarried. (Example: The Spanish and Portuguese in South and Central America, and Mexico; and *some* of the French in Canada.)

In some places, colonial powers mostly genocided the natives, brought in African slaves, and extracted value from slave plantations. (Example: Various European powers in most of the Caribbean.)

In some places, colonial powers ran the place from on high and extracted value from the native populations via spices, tea, opium, or other wealth. (Example: the Dutch East Indies; British India; for an especially horrific example, Belgian Congo.)

And in a few places, it was more like “um, we’re a European power so we’re supposed to have overseas colonies, but we don’t really know what to do with them.” (Example: German Cameroon.)