The Political Ethnicity of the Dutch Colonialism towards the Islamic Sultanates in Indonesia: The Socio-Historical Perspectives

The Dutch became the colonial rulers of the Dutch East Indies that had at least three centuries of power. At that time, in a pluralistic society of the Dutch East Indies, there were many Islamic empires and sultanates in the Archipelago, but the Dutch colonial government could survive. In this research, I tried to point out and to explain to what extent the role of political ethnicity of the Dutch East Indies government in the colonies. I reviewed the literature related to the role of political ethnicity of the Dutch East Indies government in the colonies. With the socio-historical approach, this paper focuses more on the analysis of the application of Dutch colonial’s ethnic politics to Islamic sultanates in the archipelago. The results showed that the politics of the Dutch colonial ethnicity was a strategy related to the social stratification policy of the Dutch East Indies, where society had split into two: the colonizers or the rulers, and the colonized or the people. This separation had consequences for the obligations of different groups (Europe, the foreign East, and the Indigenous) in a discriminatory Dutch colonial government. Particularly, based on the review of existing documents and available literature related to political ethnicity of the Dutch East Indies government in the colonies and the application of Dutch colonial’s ethnic politics to Islamic sultanates in the archipelago, four salient themes of strategies emerged: the socio-political policies-related to the policy of ethnic segregation, the socio-economic policy, the socio-religious field, and the education policy. These four strategies have led the Dutch East Indies to be able to succeed in advancing and maintaining its power in Archipelago during at least 350 years.