Rising Profits and Fears of Forfeiture in Neutral Netherlands East Indies during World War One

We intend to investigate briefly two aspects of the colony the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) – now Indonesia – before, during and immediately after World War I from 1910–1920.  First, we look at profits to Dutch and non-Dutch countries from the only neutral colony in Southeast Asia which during World War I rose markedly. We propose to examine mainly the private business parts of the Colonial Surplus of, and to present the estimates in current and constant terms to judge the impact of inflation at the time. Secondly, we also examine
the extent to which the Netherlands actually controlled the colony to maintain it as a Dutch colony rather than that of another country and the extent to which other powers guaranteed or undermined the de facto existence of the Netherlands Indies.