Indonesian exploitation

VINCENT BEVINS—The existence of a country called Indonesia within its current borders is unimaginable without Dutch imperialism. There is no natural dividing line between Indonesia and the islands that now comprise the Philippines, and there was no firm cultural or linguistic division either before the Europeans arrived. At the other end of the country, where Indonesia wraps around former British possessions, the boundaries make even less sense: most of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, for instance, lies to the west of Malaysia.