Continued Indonesian resistance made colonial restoration difficult. International pressure increased its costs and helped bring the Dutch back to negotiations.
The December 1948 Dutch offensive provoked strong international criticism. The United Nations (UN), an organisation of states, pressed for a political settlement. The US could put pressure on the Netherlands through its diplomatic relationship and postwar assistance. Asian diplomatic support also kept Indonesian independence before the international community. These pressures made continuing the war more costly, while resistance prevented a simple Dutch restoration.
Source B shows why Republican leaders needed more than release from detention. US officials wanted them to have a base from which to reach resistance forces. Leaders who could communicate with fighters and gain their acceptance could make an agreement work; a signature from leaders cut off from those forces might not stop the war.
The Round Table Conference in The Hague, a city in the Netherlands, led to the transfer of sovereignty - independent governing authority - on 27 December 1949. The recipient was a federal United States of Indonesia, an Indonesian federation of states. West New Guinea, the western part of the island of New Guinea to the east of the main Indonesian islands, was excluded and remained under Dutch control and in dispute. The federation became a unitary Republic in 1950, with authority organised under one central state rather than a federation of member states. That later change is context; this chapter explains the 1949 settlement.
Worked example: Why pressure worked on an unresolved conflict
Outside governments press the Netherlands to negotiate.
- International criticism and pressure raise the diplomatic and economic costs of continued Dutch warfare.
- The Republic's survival gives negotiators a partner who can speak to resistance forces, so a settlement has a better chance of taking effect.
- External pressure helps turn an unresolved struggle into an agreed transfer; it does not replace the Indonesian organisation that sustained the claim.
Watch out for this
The US alone gave Indonesia independence.
Indonesians proclaimed independence, built institutions and sustained resistance. US and UN pressure helped secure the later transfer in a conflict that these efforts had kept unresolved.
Check your understanding
Which statement accurately describes the December 1949 settlement?
- The Dutch transferred sovereignty directly to a unitary Republic including West New Guinea.
- Sovereignty passed to a federal Indonesian state, with West New Guinea excluded.
- The United States of Indonesia meant the islands became part of the United States of America.