The Indonesian National Awakening (Indonesian: Kebangkitan Nasional Indonesia) is a term for the period in the first half of the twentieth century, during which people from many parts of the archipelago first began to develop a national consciousness as "Indonesians".
In the pursuit of profits and administrative control, the Dutch imposed an authority of the Dutch East Indies on an array of peoples who had not previously shared a unified political identity. By the start of the twentieth century, the Dutch had formed the territorial boundaries of a colonial state that became the precursor to modern Indonesia.
In the first half of the twentieth century, new organizations and leadership developed. Under its Ethical Policy, the Netherlands helped create an educated Indonesian elite. These profound changes amongst the indigenous Indonesian population are often referred to as the "Indonesian National Revival". They were accompanied by increased political activism and culminated in Indonesian nationalists' proclaiming independence on 17 August 1945.
Read more about Indonesian National Awakening: Background, Education, Indonesian Nationalism, Repression of Indonesian Nationalism, End of The Colonial State
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“The inference is, that God has restated the superiority of the West. God always does like that when a thousand white people surround one dark one. Dark people are always “bad” when they do not admit the Divine Plan like that. A certain Javanese man who sticks up for Indonesian Independence is very lowdown by the papers, and suspected of being a Japanese puppet.”
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