--Previous Message--
: The arrangement of things in the former Dutch
: East Indies was very different from those in
: Malaya or India, of for that matter French
: Indo-China.
:
: The Dutch were very much more business like.
: They didn't have treaties, which have a
: status in international law. Instead, they
: had contracts with the local ruler, regent,
: regency council or other native authority.
:
: The word "contract" tells you
: quite a lot about the purpose. Originally,
: the Dutch East India Company were primarily
: interested in trade, and more specifically,
: ensuring a monopoly over trade with the East
: Indies. The purpose of the original
: contracts were to secure trade and ensure
: that the local rulers did not trade with
: other nations. Each ruler had to sign a new
: contract on his succession, provided his
: succession was recognised or agreed with the
: Governor-General in Batavia. Gradually over
: time each ruler was required to agree to
: more and more conditions, which went beyond
: mere trade.
:
: As contracts, rather than treaties, the
: local rulers were not recognised as
: sovereigns, either by Dutch or international
: law.
:
: Because of the treaty system, the British
: would only ever recognise a single sovereign
: authority within a given polity. Which,
: contrary to the usual nationalist refrain of
: divide and rule, resulted in the
: consolidation and unity of states over time.
:
: The Dutch system, on the other hand, meant a
: willingness to sign contracts with whomever
: was willing to do so and supply the trading
: needs of the company. Often, this would mean
: than in a given polity, contracts would be
: signed with a multiplicity of local regional
: magnates, landlords and noblemen, not just
: the supreme ruler. This led to gradual
: dismemberment of the original polity into
: smaller and smaller entities over.
:
:
:
: --Previous Message--
: Did the various monarchs in Indonesia during
: the time of the Netherlands control have the
: same powers as the Princes of India &
: the Sultans of Malaya? Did the various
: states have specific boundaries as the
: states in India did? In other words were
: they sovereign internally over specific
: states?
:
:
:
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