workingclasshistory:On this day, 15 August 1945, nationalist leaders in Indonesia declared independe
workingclasshistory:On this day, 15 August 1945, nationalist leaders in Indonesia declared independence following the defeat of Japan in World War II. The Netherlands, which had previously occupied the country for 350 years, promptly re-invaded and spent the next four years engaged in a brutal war to reconquer its former colony. Perversely, they attempted to justify their invasion as a continuation of the WWII fight for “democracy” against Japanese fascism. Dutch forces were backed up by 30,000 British troops (mostly from India), and they killed up to 100,000 Indonesian fighters as well as tens of thousands of civilians, many of them in mass, summary executions. There were also conflicts within the nationalist ranks: when an Indonesian Soviet Republic was declared by socialists and communists in 1948 it was quickly suppressed by the nationalists, and its leader killed. Eventually, despite a string of military victories by the colonists, by 1949 they were forced to grant Indonesian independence. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1501828170002328/?type=3 -- source link
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