Guide to the archives on relations between the Netherlands and Indonesia 1945-1963

Guide to the archives on relations between the Netherlands and Indonesia 1945-1963, door P.J. Drooglever, M.J.B. Schouten en Mona Lohanda (1999)

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In 1996 volume 20 of the documentary edition Officiële bescheiden betreffende de Nederlands-Indonesische betrekkingen 1945-1950 was published. A sequel to this series is currently in preparation with documents covering the years 1950-1963. In these documents the dispute between Indonesia and the Netherlands on the future of Western New Guinea figures prominently. When completed, the core documents in the Dutch archives that focus on the decolonization of Indonesia between 1945 and 1963 will be available in print format and as digital appendices.

Aside from these core documents, the archives in the Netherlands contain vast amounts of additional information on this subject that are not included in the documentary edition or that are only lightly touched upon. Moreover, many archival sources outside the Netherlands contain information on this subject too. It is therefore the purpose of the present publication to serve as a Guide to all relevant archives, both in the Netherlands and abroad.

The Guide to the archives on relations between the Netherlands and Indonesia 1945-1963 is divided into seven chapters, in which the official and semi-official archives in the Netherlands, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Australia, the usa, and Belgium and those of the United Nations in New York are discussed. Each chapter contains information on the the role of one of these participants in the dispute, their institutions and individuals involved, their administrative and filing systems and a summary of the content of the relevant records. Since the Dutch-Indonesian dispute is often not the sole or main focus in the foreign filing systems, the archival collections outside the Netherlands are represented in greater detail, often to the level of the separate files. The Guide has been realised together with the Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia.