Polity · 1800 CE – 1949 CE
Dutch East Indies
Nederlands-Indië
- Peak recorded area
- 2,020,550 km²
- 1915 CE
- Rulers on record
- 8
- from 1916 CE
- Data series
- 50
- 1800 CE–1945 CE
Overview
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies, was a Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which declared independence on 17 August 1945. Following the Indonesian War of Independence, Indonesia and the Netherlands made peace in 1949. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, the Dutch ceded the governorate of Dutch Malacca to Britain, leading to its eventual incorporation into Malacca (state) of modern Malaysia.
Lead section from Wikipedia, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article.
Territory
41 dated territorial extents on record from Cliopatria. Areas are measured off the recorded polygons; the line steps because each extent holds until the next one is recorded — nothing is interpolated. CShapes 2.0 holds 3 further extents, measured on a different basis and deliberately not merged into this series.
The record
The best-attested series in each category; where several projects publish the same quantity, the one with the most observations is shown. Each row is the most recent value the record holds at or before 1949 CE, shown with the year that value belongs to. Some statistical series also publish forward projections — the year column is the honest guide. Nothing on this page is interpolated or estimated by us.
People
6 of 18 series| Series | Value · year · source |
|---|---|
| Population131 obs · 1 CE–1945 CE | 77.5Mpersons1945 CE · Maddison Project Database 2023 |
| Height Men16 obs · 1770 CE–1940 CE | 160.4cm1940 CE · Clio-Infra |
| City Pop Jakarta15 obs · 1673 CE–1925 CE | 290Kpersons1925 CE · Chandler/Modelski Historical Urban Population |
| City Pop Surabaya9 obs · 1600 CE–1925 CE | 230Kpersons1925 CE · Chandler/Modelski Historical Urban Population |
| City Pop Achin8 obs · 1637 CE–1886 CE | 30Kpersons1886 CE · Chandler/Modelski Historical Urban Population |
| City Pop Surakarta8 obs · 1750 CE–1900 CE | 109Kpersons1900 CE · Chandler/Modelski Historical Urban Population |
Economy
6 of 9 series| Series | Value · year · source |
|---|---|
| GDP per capita127 obs · 1815 CE–1941 CE | 1,8082011 int'l $1941 CE · Maddison Project Database 2023 |
| GDP per capita PPP126 obs · 1820 CE–1945 CE | 933.3int'l $ (inflation adj.)1945 CE · Gapminder |
| Income Inequality Gini6 obs · 1820 CE–1929 CE | 50gini (0-1)1929 CE · Clio-Infra |
| Agriculture Intensity5 obs · 1900 CE–1940 CE | 6ordinal1940 CE · D-PLACE Ethnographic Atlas (Murdock) |
| Subsistence Agriculture5 obs · 1900 CE–1940 CE | 6ordinal1940 CE · D-PLACE Ethnographic Atlas (Murdock) |
| Subsistence Fishing5 obs · 1900 CE–1940 CE | 2ordinal1940 CE · D-PLACE Ethnographic Atlas (Murdock) |
Territory & resources
| Series | Value · year · source |
|---|---|
| Coal Production46 obs · 1900 CE–1945 CE | 0TWh1945 CE · Our World in Data Energy |
| Gas Production46 obs · 1900 CE–1945 CE | 0TWh1945 CE · Our World in Data Energy |
| Oil Production46 obs · 1900 CE–1945 CE | 11.35TWh1945 CE · Our World in Data Energy |
Governance
6 of 8 series| Series | Value · year · source |
|---|---|
| Electoral Democracy Index146 obs · 1800 CE–1945 CE | 0.113index (0-1)1945 CE · V-Dem v15 |
| Liberal Democracy Index146 obs · 1800 CE–1945 CE | 0.091index (0-1)1945 CE · V-Dem v15 |
| Participatory Democracy Index146 obs · 1800 CE–1945 CE | 0.055index (0-1)1945 CE · V-Dem v15 |
| Rule Of Law Index146 obs · 1800 CE–1945 CE | 0.298index (0-1)1945 CE · V-Dem v15 |
| Regime Type46 obs · 1900 CE–1945 CE | 0RoW index (0-3)1945 CE · V-Dem v15 |
| Jurisdictional Hierarchy5 obs · 1900 CE–1940 CE | 4ordinal1940 CE · D-PLACE Ethnographic Atlas (Murdock) |
Development
6 of 12 series| Series | Value · year · source |
|---|---|
| Freedom Of Expression Index146 obs · 1800 CE–1945 CE | 0.656index (0-1)1945 CE · V-Dem v15 |
| Tech Railway Line Km87 obs · 1853 CE–1939 CE | 7,388km1939 CE · CHAT (Comin-Hobijn) |
| Tech Telegraph64 obs · 1876 CE–1940 CE | 1.42count1940 CE · CHAT (Comin-Hobijn) |
| Tech Mail Items60 obs · 1878 CE–1939 CE | 128items1939 CE · CHAT (Comin-Hobijn) |
| Tech Railway Passenger Km28 obs · 1854 CE–1939 CE | 1,765passenger-km1939 CE · CHAT (Comin-Hobijn) |
| Tech Commercial Vehicles15 obs · 1925 CE–1940 CE | 17count1940 CE · CHAT (Comin-Hobijn) |
Rulers
8 on record with dated reigns. Reign years follow the house convention: BCE years are negative.
- Gerardus Johannes Bisschopmayor of Batavia1916 CE – 1920 CE
- Hendrik van Breenmayor of Batavia1919 CE – 1920 CE
- Arnold Meijroosmayor of Batavia1920 CE – 1933 CE
- Dirk FockHead of State1921 CE – 1926 CE
- Andries Cornelis Dirk de GraeffHead of State1926 CE – 1931 CE
- Johan Everwijn Dambrinkmayor of Batavia1927 CE – 1928 CE
- Bonifacius Cornelis de JongeHead of State1931 CE – 1936 CE
- Alidius Tjarda van Starkenborgh StachouwerHead of State1936 CE – 1942 CE
Language & currency
- Official & national languages
- Dutch
- Currency
- Netherlands Indies guilder
Sources
Every figure above comes from one of these. Nothing on this page is estimated, interpolated or model-generated.
Chandler/Modelski Historical Urban PopulationChandler 1987 / Modelski 2003
Chandler, T. (1987). Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth; Modelski, G. (2003). World Cities: -3000 to 2000.
Compiled from published works (Chandler 1987; Modelski 2003)
CHAT (Comin-Hobijn)2009 (FinalCHAT_72909)
Comin, D. & Hobijn, B. (2009). The CHAT Dataset. NBER Working Paper 15319.
NBER research data, freely downloadable
Clio-Infra2017 datasets
Clio-Infra project (2017). Reconstructions of global inequality and well-being. International Institute of Social History.
Academic use, attribution
Seshat Global History Databank. Cliopatria: a historical basemap of polity borders (cliopatria.geojson).
D-PLACE Ethnographic Atlas (Murdock)Ethnographic Atlas (D-PLACE 2.3)
Kirby, K.R. et al. (2016). D-PLACE: A Global Database of Cultural, Linguistic and Environmental Diversity. PLoS ONE 11(7).
CC BY 4.0
Gapminderv14 / systema globalis
Gapminder Foundation. Gapminder systema globalis dataset.
CC BY 4.0
Maddison Project Database 20232023
Bolt, J. & van Zanden, J.L. (2024). Maddison Project Database 2023. University of Groningen GGDC.
CC BY 4.0
Our World in Data (2024). Energy dataset. Based on Energy Institute & Ember.
CC BY 4.0
V-Dem v15v15
Coppedge, M. et al. (2025). V-Dem Country-Year Dataset v15. Varieties of Democracy Project.
Free academic/non-commercial use, attribution
Wikipedia contributors. Article lead sections, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Dutch East Indies is one of the polities with a sourced record deep enough to publish.