Walking the Netherlands 4 (#3): the Dutch empire comes to a sticky end

1945 saw both the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies liberated from occupation by the Nazis and Imperial Japan. Many Dutch thought this would signal a return to their pre-War status as an imperial power in its own right, from Amsterdam to Batavia. This was not to be, and in this 3rd video from my walk across Texel I look at what happened in those immediate post-War years.

The end of the Dutch East Indies was a grubby affair, with many reluctant conscripts shipped east to take part in a confusing and bloody struggle against Sukarno's independence fighters, with local populations caught in the middle. There were atrocities - not least from the troops under the command of Raymond Westerling, the Netherlands' very own version of Colonel Kurtz (although his subsequent career as an aspiring opera singer, second hand bookshop assistant and swimming pool assistant would have changed the tone of 'Apocalypse Now').

The Indonesians did achieve independence, of course. But by then, the Dutch had turned their back on that great cause, happy to forget and try to establish their country at the heart of a new European project. Some say they're only just coming to terms with it all...

I'm Nicholas Walton, I'm a journalist and author, and this channel is for everybody who likes going for a walk and seeing what it tells you about life, the universe and everything. I've also just published a book on the Netherlands: 'Orange sky, rising water: the remarkable past and uncertain future of the Netherlands', available now. (Previous books are 'Singapore Singapura' and 'Genoa La Superba'.)

Website: www.tenwalksexplain.com
Substack: https://nicholaswalton.substack.com
Maps are from the excellent https://www.milesmap.co.uk/

Music credit: https://freesound.org/people/cheesepu... (Piano Remix.mp3 by cheesepuff -- https://freesound.org/s/112071/ -- License: Creative Commons 0)