Skye here with another episode of the History-Emplug podcast.

From the beginning of the Age of Discovery in the 15th century, European powers set up

colonies all over the world.

They lasted until the middle of the 20th century, when the international community pushed

for decolonization after World War II.

Decolonization took on many forms.

Sometimes sovereignty was handed to former colonies peacefully, other times it took a violent

war of independence.

That's exactly what happened in Indonesia, which the Netherlands had controlled directly

since 1800.

The Dutch Army tried vaguely drinking control of its former colony in a war that lasted

from 1945 to 1949.

Dutch forces burned villages and carried out mass attentions, torture and executions,

resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands.

The Indonesian Army wasn't a proper army as we understand it, but made up of fragmentant

bands of police, auxiliary forces that were trained by Japan during its occupation in

World War II and radical student groups.

Today I'm speaking to Mark Lonestein, author of the Dutch Indo-Nesian War.

We look at how the Indonesian nationals were defeated by Dutch and Dutch-led local forces

in urban areas, but how their guerrillas evaded Dutch troops in the jungle hills and swamps.

Looking at this war really helps in understanding the process of decolonization, which was sometimes

extremely violent.

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