“Trapezoidal Zone”: Dutch Colonialism and Economic Integration in Indonesia

Abstract

By using historical documents, this article seeks to answer the question as to how the Duth colonial government tried to build an integrated economy in colonial Indonesia since the second half of the nineteenth century when the expansion of foregn shipping companies occurred especialy the culmination of the Anglo-Dutch rivalry. The Dutch colonial government tried hard to build an integrated economy through shipping and trade which could be functioned also for the political control over their territory by implementing what the so called ‘trapezoidal zone’. Keywords Dutch colonialism, economic integration, Anglo-Dutch rivalry, shipping and trade, trapezoidal zone.