Same edition as 9789057891113

This book narrates the story of a hundred years of social, economic, and political change in both Europe and Java
When in the 1740s the Dutch East India Company (VOC) became the governing authority in the coastal area (pasisir) of the Javanese Kingdom of Mataram, change was started that brought about ever stronger control over Javanese society. At first the Europeans were satisfied to put themselves at the top of the existing Javanese hierarchy and obtain economic gains through traditional tribute. New ideas in Europe relating to personal and economic freedom, financial rationalization, administrative reform, and democratic politics began to affect the control patterns in Java. However, these ideas were not an easy fit in Javanese society resulting in difficulties that impacted on profits. Eventually a compromise was devised between the old and the new that restored the colony's profitability but also created greater dominance.

with cd-rom and appendices

Robert Van Niel (1922) has his Ph.D. degree from Cornell University (1954). His interest in Indonesian history developed after his experience in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. He has been Professor of Southeast Asian History at the University of Hawaii at Manoa since 1965 and is now Emeritus. His earlier books are The emergence of the modern Indonesian Elite (Den Haag: Van Hoeve, 1960) and Java Under the Cultivation System (Leiden: KITLV Press, 1992). Both books have been translated into Indonesian. From 1971 to 1973 he was Foundation Dean of the School of Humanities at the newly founded Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang.