In 1883, the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) became a sovereign nation after the Dutch withdrew from the Sultanate of Aceh. The withdrawal was a result of Aceh’s refusal to pay an increased tax to the Dutch.
Aceh had been a Dutch colony since the 1870s, and the Dutch were not happy about having to give it up. They had been trying to force the Acehnese to pay higher taxes for years, and when the Sultan of Aceh refused to …