Although the presence of Europeans in Indonesia dates back to the 16th century, the European population in Indonesia only increased rapidly in the 19th century.
It had been a long time since the Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese came to Indonesia, but they did not form colonies except a little. Their merchant shipped back and forth carrying spices which sold at high prices in Europe. They fought each other over the monopoly of the spice trade in Indonesia, the Dutch came out victorious.
The transportation and telecommunications revolution in the 19th century changed everything. The invention of the steam engine gave rise to a faster transportation mode with the creation of the steamship. Also, the invention of the telegraph made telecommunications between Europe and Asia much faster. Coupled with the opening of the Suez Canal, which cuts the distance and travel time between Europe and Asia, the relationship between the two continents became even closer.
At the same time the Dutch colonial government in Indonesia made laws to attract capital from the Netherlands to be invested in Indonesia. As a result, the flow of capital and people from the Netherlands poured into Indonesia, entering various sectors such as mining, plantations and trade.
The increasing number of Dutch people in Indonesia made the Dutch colonial government build cities in Indonesia like cities in the Netherlands. They built Batavia (Jakarta), Bandung, Surabaya, Semarang etc. in the style of cities in the Netherlands. In these cities housing, water systems and tram networks were built to serve the needs of the Dutch living in Indonesia.
The photo above shows Dutch housing in Java around 1915-1925, a housing complex with European style but with typical Indonesian wagon transportation called delman.
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