The Dutch East Indies,[3] also known as the Netherlands East Indies (Dutch: Nederlands(ch)-Indië; Indonesian: Hindia Belanda), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Dutch government in 1800.

During the 19th century, the Dutch fought many wars against indigenous rulers and peoples. At the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, the Dutch reign reached the greatest territorial extent in the early 20th century. The Dutch East Indies was one of the most exploited colonies under European rule.[4]

Using various means of exploitative labour, the colony contributed to Dutch global prominence in spice and cash crop trade in the 19th century, and coal and oil exploration in the 20th century.[5] The colonial social order was based on rigid racial and social structures with a Dutch elite living separate from but linked to their native subjects.[6] The term Indonesia came into use for the geographical location after 1880. In the early 20th century, local intellectuals began developing the concept of Indonesia as a nation state, and set the stage for an independence movement.[7]

Japan's World War II occupation dismantled much of the Dutch colonial state and economy. Following the Japanese surrender on 15 August 1945, Indonesian nationalist leaders Sukarno and Hatta declared independence instigating the Indonesian National Revolution. The Dutch responded by the build up of an army of nearly two hundred thousand troops which defeated the Indonesian nationalists by attrition warfare. Heavy pressure from the United States that threatened to terminate the financial aid for the Netherlands lead to the recognition of Indonesian sovereignty at the 1949 Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference. Indonesia became one of the leading nations of the independence movement after World War II. During the Indonesian Revolution and after Indonesian independence, close to all Dutch citizens were repatriating to the Netherlands.

In 1962, the Dutch turned over their last possession Dutch New Guinea (Western New Guinea) under the provisions of the New York Agreement.[8] At that point, the entirety of the colony ceased to exist.