The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor (W W Norton & Company; 1998)

FOR LOVE OF GAIN^149

that Asians could beat Europeans, that the Europeans were not invin­
cible.
Japan's surrender returned the archipelago to the Dutch, but only
for a moment. In 1949, the Netherlands granted the islands indepen­
dence, the more readily because Dutch public opinion had been pre­
pared by several generations of penitent self-criticism. A new
Indonesian republic took command. It too was an empire, claiming
sovereignty over all the lands received from the Dutch, plus extra pieces
like East Timor, regardless of local identity and aspirations. Unhappy
dissenters from Indonesian dominion could seek shelter in the Nether­
lands—the Dutch would treat them better. Ironically, thanks to the
VOC and Western imperialism, the dream of the old sultans of Suma­
tra and Java was finally realized by the new sultans of "popular democ­
racy."