Indonesia was once a part of the Dutch East Indies, a colony of the Netherlands. The Dutch East Indies was made up of present-day Indonesia, as well as East Timor and part of Papua New Guinea. The Dutch began colonizing the region in the 16th century, and by the 1800s, the Dutch East Indies was one of the world’s most powerful empires.
However, after World War II, Indonesia gained independence. In 1949, the Dutch recognized Indonesian independence, and the Dutch …