Clash of Monarchies: The French and Indian War

The French and Indian War was one of the most pivotal events in the history of North America. Yet, it was only part of the larger conflict known as the Seven Years War which raged in Europe from 1756 until 1763. What started as a frontier skirmish spread to be a land grab in Germany, embroiled two continents and ultimately decided the fate of all of North America. It started with one of the great figures in European history; the Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria. She had inherited the vast Hapsburg lands from her father who had spent all but his last penny buying the support of the crowned heads of Europe for the Pragmatic Sanction which would allow his beautiful but unprepared daughter to succeed him. He hoped that the Pragmatic Sanction would ensure a peaceful succession for his strong-willed, pious (and awesome) daughter but he would be disappointed in this hope. The ambitious and militaristic (as well as awesome) King of Prussia, Frederick the Great, immediately went on the attack and marched 30,000 troops into the Austrian territory of Silesia. Although her own ministers urged her to give in to Frederick, Maria Theresa proved to be a strong and determined young woman. She refused to give in to Prussian aggression nor to cede one inch of Austrian territory. Austria allied with Russia and France while the Prussians allied with Great Britain and the war was on!

George II of Britain & Louis XV of France

This formalized and enlarged the hostilities which had actually already broken out between France and Great Britain in North America in 1754. Tensions had always existed, but the growth of British and French settlements soon made conflict unavoidable. Both sides claimed disputed territories, which were; Acadia (Nova Scotia), the Great Lakes region, the area around lakes Champlain and George and the land between the Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River. In 1749 France sent an explorer named Céloron de Bienville into the Ohio River valley to reinforce the French claim. The Ohio Company did the same in 1750, sending Christopher Gist into the region for Great Britain. It was a slow-paced race to see who could take control of the disputed territories first by establishing military installations and forging advantageous alliances with the Native Americans who populated the region. The British, with a larger settler population at hand, had an advantage in building forts and holding ground but this also meant that the French had the upper hand with the Native Americans who tended to side with the French who traded with them rather than flooding their lands with European colonists.

In 1753 France established a line of forts in Pennsylvania along the Allegheny River. The British Governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie, dispatched Lieutenant Colonel George Washington with his militia to demand that the French commanders evacuate the fortifications. Naturally, the French refused to abandon their foothold and launched an attack to prevent the British from establishing a base of their own. So, Washington was sent back in 1754 to force the French out with his militia. The Virginia militia met a detachment of French troops under Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville and soundly defeated them, with the Indian allies of Washington mutilating the young French officer. Washington and his men then fell back and hastily built Fort Necessity. Any military engineer observing the position would have guessed it to be the work of an utter idiot. Built on low, marshy ground with poor fields of fire it was in every way a textbook example of where and how NOT to build a fortification. The French returned and quickly forced Washington to surrender. Given French outrage at what they considered an ambush and murder of one of their officers it is amazing Washington and his men were released at all, especially after Washington signed a formal confession to the murder of Jumonville before his brother who commanded the French counter attack. Washington later claimed he had not understood what he had signed and recanted his confession. In any event, the man later known as the ‘father of his country’ had just gone off and picked a fight with a world power and presided over the war’s first atrocity. Still, on July 4, 1754 no less, he was allowed to take his men back home.

pro-union campaign

The French and Indian War had commenced and in the first campaign Washington and his men were attacked and soundly defeated near Fort Duquesne (modern day Pittsburg). Who could have known then that this was just the beginning of a long career that would see George Washington elevated to the status of “military genius” for an almost unbroken record of defeats. The representatives and leaders of the British colonies in America met in New York at the Albany Congress to discuss the situation and adopt a plan for united military action against the French. One delegate, Benjamin Franklin, proposed a political as well as military union for the colonies but found no support for his idea. All the English-speaking colonies coming together, in some sort of “union” when they were so different and had so many conflicting interests…what an absurd notion! Throughout the conflict, the American colonists (not unreasonably) would remain primarily focused on defending their own settlements from Indian attack while the British wanted to go on the attack to conquer French territory. Relations between the British and Americans were often far from cordial as the Americans had become accustomed to the benign neglect of the government in London and resented British officers showing up to give orders. Everything with the Americans was conditional and every act of support for the war effort had to be bargained for -to the utter frustration of the British.

The war got off to a very bad start for Great Britain, despite having an immense numerical advantage over the French because of their much larger population base in North America. In 1755 General Edward Braddock led an army of British regulars and American militia in another march against Ft Duquesne, hoping to make up for the previous defeat. Braddock was an old army veteran and his force included 1,400 men in two British regiments, 450 Virginia militia (under Washington again) and some Indian allies supplied by a train of 150 wagons. Forced to cut their way through the dense wilderness, they made very slow progress and the French and their Indian allies had plenty of time to prepare for them even though their available forces consisted of less than a thousand men, most of them Indians with only a handful of French regulars and Canadian militia. The French plan was for General Braddock to march his men right into an ambush by these French and Indians. To his credit (because he seldom gets much), Braddock thought of this and made generous use of scouts and flankers and it was actually the French who made the first move. The fact that they were so outmatched tended to make the French take bolder risks and fight with greater desperation in this war.

French & Indians take down Braddock

Captain Daniel Liénard de Beaujeu, dressed in buckskins at the head of this very native looking little column happened to run right into the British advance. Captain Beaujeu was killed by the first British volley and the Canadian militia broke and ran for their lives, however, the remaining French and Indian troops showed remarkable calm and courage, stayed and pressed the attack. Showing considerable tenacity and quick thinking they attacked from the flanks, behind cover, while Braddock, used to European warfare, tried to form his troops into lines of battle only to have them cut down around him from all directions. Braddock, betraying no lack of courage himself, was killed while Colonel Washington led the few survivors in a retreat back to safety (leading well-executed retreats was Washington’s particular area of expertise). Two thirds of the officers were killed, more than 60 in all, and of the 1,400 enlisted men only 459 survived. This battle could only be considered a miraculous victory for the French and a stunning defeat for the British. This victory also helped to rally the bulk of the Indian population to the French side other than the Five Nations of the Iroquois who tended to favor the British. The war had only just begun and so far the French had bested the Brits at every turn.

And so the trend continued, to the utter delight of the Gallic population. Another attack on Ft Duquesne had failed, quite bloodily this time, and the French also beat back British  attacks on Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga in Upper New York. Despite being greatly outmatched, they were clearly winning the war so far. The sole British victory in the first part of the war was the capture of Ft Beauséjour in what is now the Province of New Brunswick, part of what was then known as Acadia. This little episode would have far-reaching consequences for North America. A great deal  of animosity lingered with the change in rule from Paris to London, animosity which ultimately led to the British deciding to clear out the local population and bring in one of their own, the food would be worse but they would be more orderly and well behaved. So it was that the French Acadians were exiled from Canada and these stalwart refugees sailed away, mostly to the south, landing in the Gulf coast around Louisiana where there was already a French population and establishing the Cajun community of the American south. However, that one loss aside, good news for French North America came in as well when the French forces in the New World received a new commander in the person of the Marquis de Montcalm in 1756. He didn’t get along with the civilian leadership and was often horrified by the practices of his Indian allies but he would bring a world of hurt down on the British.

Marquis de Montcalm

Now, instead of repelling British attacks, the French went on the offensive themselves, despite being heavily outnumbered. With large numbers of Indian allies and a hard core of French soldiers and marines, Montcalm continued the wave of French victories with his successful attacks on Forts Oswego and William Henry in Upper New York. Ft Oswego was captured, a great strategic victory, giving the French control of Lake Ontario and Montcalm with his French and Indian forces compelled the British at Ft William Henry under Lieutenant Colonel George Munro to surrender under generous terms. It was a good thing too as Montcalm was running low on ammunition when he gallantly delivered the intercepted message to Munro from his superior informing him that he could expect no reinforcements. However, afterwards, many of the British prisoners were killed by some of the Indians allied with the French in a massacre still controversial and much debated today. There is no doubt though that many of the French were horrified and Captain Louis Antoine de Bougainville expressed how much he feared his own Indian allies. The idea that Montcalm subtly ordered the atrocity is a total fabrication.

For France, it all must have seemed to good to be true. Despite the odds against them, the French forces under Montcalm were totally dominating the war in North America. Some British American colonists were reluctant to join the militia for fear that their farms would be attacked by Indians in their absence. There were raids and some of this fear was genuine but much of the hysteria was also intentional. British propagandists tried to stir up fear and hatred of the French and Indians in a number of ways such as tales of lurid Indian atrocities or claims that the French would force all the colonists to convert to Roman Catholicism if they were victorious. Of course, while these tactics were successful in making the colonists fear France and the Indians, it also meant that they were reluctant to march off to war and leave their farms and families behind -so the effectiveness of such propaganda was a mixed blessing for Britain. Such scare tactics are often a sign of a desperate situation and by 1757 the British situation certainly seemed desperate, but all that was about to change. Traditionally, Britain has been very good at looking at failures honestly, learning from them and improving going forward. One way in which the British fought back was beating the Indians at their own game and that was the result of one unit in particular; the famous Roger’s Rangers. These men were formed under the command of Captain Robert Rogers as a company of light riflemen who carried out similar duties to those of the Indians fighting with the French; they even scalped on occasion.

Lord Amherst

In 1758 there was also a major change in London when William Pitt became Prime Minister to King George II of Great Britain and his administration brought new vitality into the British war effort. King Louis XV and his ministers had always focused mostly on the European front and King George II was likewise always most concerned with his homeland of Hanover in Germany. There was a constant struggle in London between those who wanted to focus on America and those who wanted to focus on Europe. Under Pitt, the British gained a clear direction; North America was to be given priority as it held immense potential for the future and whichever country controlled it would be in an immensely stronger position going forward. That same year British troops  under their new commander in America, Lord Jeffery Amherst, went on the attack with new vigor. They stormed Louisburg after a six week siege (where the wife of the French governor, Madame Drucour, was on the battlements helping man the artillery) and besieged and captured Forts Frontenac and Duquesne. George Washington doubtless took great satisfaction in this last victory as he participated in it among the British forces of General John Forbes. Unfortunately for Washington the French evacuated and blew up the fort before Forbes arrived; robbing the British of a little piece of their glory. Nonetheless, the French were sent reeling and were unable to regain the initiative. After so many humiliating defeats, the British Empire was striking back in a big way.

They had the ball and ran with it, sending over large numbers of reinforcements from Britain to set up a knock-out blow against the French in America. In the summer of 1759 the British conquered Forts Niagara and Ticonderoga (known as Fort Carillon to the French) as well as Crown Point. Present at the Crown Point victory was William Johnson whose command included Roger’s Rangers who were used to great effect. These men gained such a reputation for expertise that before long all British commissioned and non-commissioned officers of the light infantry first served with the Rangers to learn their trade (even today, the special forces of the U.S. army trace their roots back to that green-clad elite group). Upper New York and most of the Great Lakes region was now in British hands and the string of French victories had been totally reversed. The heart of French North America, modern Quebec, also came under attack when British forces under General James Wolfe moved to attack the formidable walled city which was held by 15,000 French soldiers under the Marquis de Montcalm. For three months the British troops besieged Quebec City but could find no advantage. Finally, in September, in one of the most famous battles in British military history, General Wolfe launched a surprise attack across the Plains of Abraham which won the battle and gave Britain control of modern Canada. Unfortunately, neither General Wolfe nor the Marquis de Montcalm survived the battle. The French had gone as far as their limited resources could take them, and done astonishingly well, but when the British put their all into it, they had turned the war around and dealt France a crippling blow.

The death of General Wolfe

The fall of Quebec proved to be decisive and it convinced the French that the time had come to make peace on British terms. The fighting straggled on for a time though, at least until Lord Amherst captured Montréal, but the issue had already been decided at Quebec and in 1763 the French signed the Treaty of Paris which surrendered all French territory in Canada and east of the Mississippi River to Great Britain. Spain surrendered Florida to the British but gained control of all French territory west of the Mississippi as well as the vital city of New Orleans. By the time all was said and done the French kept only the small islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon south of Newfoundland as the only remnants of their once vast North American empire. Britain had taken the majority of the territory and had only the weakened Kingdom of Spain to share the continent with. The French and Indian War was over and the fate of North America had been decided and the future of the continent would belong to the English rather than the French speaking people.

Many may not often remember the French and Indian war today, especially in the United States (it is more remembered in Canada where the French population still have yet to get over it), but so much of our modern world and how it has developed descends from that one conflict, mostly due to the impact of the United States rising to global super-power status. The fact that North America is dominated by the Anglo, Protestant culture would not be so were it not for that war. Had Britain lost there might today be a North America dominated by French, Catholic culture instead. There would not be a United States or a Canada, at least as we know them, and even Mexico and the southwest might be vastly different from what they are today had the French and Indians won the war that bears their name (at least on this side of the Atlantic). So much comes from the conflict; it was where George Washington first saw combat and first felt slighted by the British social and military hierarchy. It saw the birth of Roger’s Rangers, the forefathers of our modern day U.S. Army Rangers and thanks to Benjamin Franklin it saw the first proposition that the American colonies should join together in some kind of union. It gave the British Empire one of its most famous martyrs in General Wolfe and saw the battle which made the reputation of the highlanders of the “Black Watch” as one of the most courageous regiments in the British army.

Washington & the French at Yorktown, 1781

The conflict also produced a fair share of literary works for such a forgotten war, from Longfellow’s “Evangeline” poem about the exile of the Acadians to the famous novel “The Last of the Mohicans” which weaves the fall of Ft William Henry into its story of romance and cultural clash. Perhaps most importantly, the total expulsion of the Kingdom of France from North America left a deep hatred in the hearts and minds of the French people that would not go away. By removing the French as a threat many Americans saw no further need of allegiance to Britain and this helped to get the colonies on the road that ultimately led to the American War for Independence. The French, eager to take revenge on Britain for the terms they had been forced to accept, were eager to aid the Americans, even if they were republicans, for the chance to give Britain back some of what the French had tasted and possibly regain some of what had been lost. In this clash of monarchies, the French of King Louis XV stunned everyone with their skill by dominating the game to the first half but it was the British of King George II (succeeded at the end by King George III) whose great strength, material superiority and bold attacks saw it through to victory in the end. The conflict allowed Britain to dominate North America but also set the stage for the American War for Independence and the creation of what would become the most powerful republic in world history.

Anniversary of the Emperor of Japan

This year marks the Silver Jubilee (as it would be called in the west anyway) of HM the Emperor of Japan who had his formal enthronement ceremony twenty-four years ago today. It was truly an historic event, coming after the 63-year reign of his father, the Showa Emperor, which was the longest reign in Japanese imperial history. Although born in the time of the Empire of Japan, the current Emperor was still only about 12-years old when Japan surrendered in 1945. He did most of his ‘growing up’ during the days of the American occupation and the post-war State of Japan. As such, things were quite different for him compared to past Japanese emperors and on his shoulders rested an immense responsibility. He would be the first monarch to reign after the war, after the empire and under the new constitution and the new place Japan found itself in on the world stage. Fortunately, he had the advantage of a long-reigning father who presided over the most dramatic changes and so the Emperor was able to be brought up in this new atmosphere and fully prepared for his position and what would be required of him by the time he came to the throne in 1989. Since then, he has proven himself to be one of the great monarchial leaders of the world and an example to his own people and to others worthy of emulation.

The past 25 years of the current imperial era have seen high points and low points for Japan but through it all, the Emperor has been exactly the monarch that the situation, and the times, needed him to be. He came to the throne at a time when Japan was undergoing astounding economic success. The country had risen from the ashes of war to become the second largest economy on earth and, for a time, it even looked as though Japan might surpass the economic powerhouse of the United States as the value of the currency rose and investment poured in. However, over-confidence, reckless spending and bad decisions by banks, businesses and the government soon caused the bubble to burst and Japan experienced the infamous “Lost Decade”, which was actually more than a decade, of economic stagnation. Over the many years of difficulties, the Emperor was a symbol of reassurance to the public as well as an example of frugality and simplicity. The Japanese monarchs have long been known for living elegantly but simply and the current Emperor has been no exception. He always set an example of being majestic and dignified without being ostentatious. The public, after the economic bubble burst, took this to heart and began to follow his example; extravagance was no longer fashionable.

On the political front, the long rule of the Liberal Democratic Party (the most conservative mainstream party) came to an end in 1993 but the coalition that replaced it soon collapsed and the LDP made its way back into politics in a bizarre coalition of its own that gave Japan its first socialist prime minister in half a century. Although most remembered today for his high profile apology to the other nations of Asia for the Japanese role in World War II, the election of a socialist prime minister was just the first in a string of disasters Japan had to deal with. His massive amounts of new regulations and entitlements did the economy no good, in 1995 a major earthquake struck Kobe and two months later a cult group carried out a poison gas attack on a Tokyo subway that killed 13 people and injured many, many more. The Emperor responded to such events with a dutiful adherence to his constitutional role and by acting in a kind and compassionate way to give comfort to his people in times of natural disasters. Both of these duties the Emperor would be called on to perform throughout his 25-years on the throne. In terms of politics, the Emperor has remained above the turmoil, never drifting to one side or the other but always on the side of Japan as a whole.

Although the Emperor is not a political figure in that he is not involved in politics or policy making, he is a leader and is undoubtedly the greatest leader Japan has and not simply by virtue of being the Emperor. He has shown more wisdom, moderation and foresight than virtually any political or social leader in Japan in his lifetime. In terms of domestic politics, the Emperor has always been scrupulous about following the rules and sticking to the constitution. This has made him an invaluable source of stability in very politically unstable times. Even when Japan was undergoing rapid turnovers of governments, one after another, there was no collapse in confidence domestically or in foreign countries. Anywhere else where governments came and went so quickly this would cause a panic but not in Japan and that is because, simply by being there, the Emperor has a calming effect. The politicians in Tokyo may bicker and feud but everyone feels that it will all be okay because the Emperor is still in his palace and all is right with the world. The Emperor, going about his duties, closing one Diet session and opening another, is a sign of survival. The Emperor is still there, just as he always has been, so Japan is still here, the country will not cease to exist because politicians cannot come to an agreement.

On the world stage, the Emperor has been, perhaps even more important over these last 25 years. His reign has seen the start of Japan reemerging as a force in world affairs and as a major military power (even if it is not, legally, a formal military). Japan deployed forces (in a non-combatant capacity) abroad for the first time since World War II, showing an increasing willingness to put the past behind them and become more self-sufficient in defense matters. Of course, this has not always been welcomed by those in other countries and bigoted elements at home and abroad (though they despise each other) have both sought to cling to memories of the war and keep Japan shackled to the past, a focus of hostile and suspicious feelings. However, so far, they have been unsuccessful thanks in no small part to the actions of the Emperor himself. In contrast to the narrow-minded chauvinism of the radicals, the Emperor has traveled the world, solidifying relations with allies, renewing old friendships and forming new and better relations with foreign countries as the embodiment of a confident, peace-loving, mature Japan. He has struck just the right note on every occasion, expressing regret for past events but honoring past heroism and sacrifice, acknowledging history but not being enslaved by it. Rather than carry on old grudges, the Emperor has set his focus on strengthening the Japan of today and tomorrow by goodwill and strong friendships in the international community. And, where Japan has been met by bigotry, the Emperor has taken the moral high ground, meeting such animosity with polite kindness, an open mind and an outstretched hand. Such warmth and dignity on his part has served more than once to highlight the immaturity of those powers which cling to bitterness.

While serving as an inspiring example at home and putting the best image of Japan forward around the world, the Emperor has also been a great comfort to his people in times of crisis. At no time was this more evident than in the worst disaster Japan has suffered since the end of the war; the earthquake and tsunami of 2011. The Emperor took the almost unprecedented step of addressing the entire nation personally in a televised message, the nearest thing to which that was ever done before being the address by radio to the people by HM the Showa Emperor in 1945. The Emperor and Empress also made numerous visits to the victims of the disaster, greeting them personally, talking to them, listening to them and comforting them. No one who experienced such a visit or even witnessed one could not have failed to be moved by the genuine sympathy and compassion the Emperor showed to every one of his unfortunate subjects at such a sad and difficult time. Once again, he set the perfect example and the people of Japan came together in a most heart-warming way to help each other, care for each other and to join in resilient determination to rebuild, recover and improve the afflicted area. With the moral leadership that the Emperor provided, everyone could see that the old values many had thought had disappeared in Japan, were still alive and could come back into focus in times of crisis for the country.

Throughout his reign, the Emperor has seen a number of natural disasters afflict his country. There has also been an increase in tension with Japan’s closest neighbors with harsh words and military scares from China, Korea and Russia. This, naturally, has led to Japan placing more emphasis on national defense and this, in turn, has provoked protests from Korea, China and Russia with China and Russia in particular clinging to the memory of World War II and wishing to, in their words, “preserve the post-World War II world order” which of course would include a powerless Japan. However, so far, their efforts to frighten other countries and divide Japan and her closest allies have proven mostly fruitless, thanks in no small part to the Emperor himself. He has always made it clear that he values nothing higher than peace, remembering the horrors and ruination of the war very well himself, and he has always been ready to reach out in friendship to any country. His actions have shown the rest of the world that any tensions, such as between China and Japan, are not being instigated by Japan but by China. The Emperor has also been of immense benefit in strengthening existing friendships with American and European powers as well as forging new and better relations with other Asian countries such as India.

The Emperor cannot keep the peace on his own, but he has set the right example, the right moral tone and been the best sort of ambassador Japan could ever have. He has spread trust and goodwill wherever he has gone and won over people in every country he has visited with his kind smile and genuine warmth. The last 25-years have, in many ways, been difficult for Japan. The country has troublesome neighbors, more national debt than any country in the world, faces a looming demographic crisis and has had to deal with many natural disasters. However, the people have also been coming together like never before, becoming more realistic and more involved in the world community and have shown the talent and creativity to overcome great problems. And through it all they have had the Emperor’s prayers to support them, the Emperor to set a matchless example for them, an Emperor to be their best public face to the world, an Emperor who has comforted them in times of crisis, congratulated them on great achievements and reminded all Japanese people everywhere of their shared history and illustrious national story. In brief, the Emperor has been, in every way, the model monarch and a matchless moral leader for his country and all his people. Congratulations on 25-years on the throne and may the Emperor reign on, until the pebbles grow to might stones. 天皇陛下万歳! 万歳! 万歳!

The Great War in German Africa

World War I was a truly global conflict. Although the western front dominates the popular imagination with its frustrating, static trench warfare, the conflict raged from Finland to Greece, from the Caucasus to Arabia and from Turkey to the coast of China. It is not often given much attention but the Great War also raged across the entire continent of Africa as well, north to south and east to west. The Turks launched attacks on Egypt and Turkish forces supported guerilla attacks against the Allies there and in Libya as well as in Somalia where local rebels and  Ethiopians joined with Turkish support against the Italian presence on the Horn of Africa (previously covered here). The French also did battle with rebel forces in Morocco and Algeria that were supported by the Central Powers. South of the Sahara, however, it was the Germans who were on the defensive and the Allies who were on the attack as the German colonies of Togoland (Togo), Kamerun (Cameroon), German Southwest Africa (Namibia) and German East Africa (Tanzania) were early targets for the Allies, Great Britain in particular. In fact, unknown to most, the first British shot of the war was fired, not by a Tommy of the BEF in Belgium but by an unknown African soldier in the British colonial army in Togoland.

Whereas the fighting on the western front in Europe involved hundreds of thousands of men struggling over mere yards of devastated terrain, in Africa relatively small armies fought for control of vast territories. It was also fought with all of the latest technological advancements seen elsewhere. Alongside native African scouts armed with spears and shields of animal hide were employed modern rifles, machine guns, airplanes and artillery. The conflict in Africa was also just as deadly. When considering the much smaller size of the armies involved and taking into account the immense number of deaths due to disease, the African front was just as deadly as that in Europe. Also, like the fighting in Europe and the Middle East, the war in Africa would have very far-reaching consequences. Territory would change hands, new governments and new policies, the rekindling of old hatreds and the emergence of a new African nationalism and confidence all had their roots in the Great War. A number of important figures emerged from the war or gained a new type of notoriety from it. For the British, Jan Smuts, once a Boer enemy of the British Empire, would be cast in a new light as one of its greatest heroes. On the German side, none would match the rise to fame of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, a relatively unknown Prussian colonial officer who would make his name as arguably the greatest master of irregular warfare in history, sometimes referred to (a few decades later) as the “Rommel of World War One”. The clash of Rommel and Montgomery in the deserts of Libya and Egypt in the Second World War may be more famous but it was certainly not the first time that German and British armies did battle on the continent of Africa.

For the German Empire, Africa was not to be a priority. Any war would be fought and won in Europe and regardless of what happened in Africa, the map could be redrawn afterwards accordingly, and the Germans did hope to make extensive gains in Africa. They would leave North Africa to their Turkish allies while Germany would dominate most of the rest, linking their 1914 colonies together to create a massive “German Central Africa” sprawling across the continent. This was to be done after Germany won the war in Europe at the negotiating table. As such, the German colonies in Africa were not heavily defended at all. Togoland possessed only a military-police force and Kamerun had only a small garrison. German Southwest Africa had earlier seen a native rebellion and was the one colony where native Africans were not trusted to bear arms so that the garrison was entirely German, very professional but quite small. The most important colony, German East Africa, had a colonial military force made up mostly of Africans under German command and was the most substantial but still far from being considered a significant force. The German colonies were all separated from each other by vast distances and surrounded by enemy territory. Once war began no help was to be expected to reach Africa from Germany due to the dominance of the British Royal Navy and both sides expected the German colonies to be picked off one by one with relative ease.

Togoland police troops

Of course, this was not to be the case. As soon as war was declared the Allies began moving in on German Africa, starting with the colony of Togoland. British colonial troops invaded from the Gold Coast and a French colonial force invaded from Dahomey (Benin). Togoland was the only west African colony with no army to defend it. The only force on hand was the military-police force which consisted of two German army officers, six German policemen and 560 African personnel. The German governor, Duke Adolf Friedrich zu Mecklenberg, tried to make peace with the Allies, saying that not to do so would only cause needless deaths among the Africans and be an unseemly spectacle of Europeans fighting against each other in a continent where they were vastly outnumbered. This was not an uncommon sentiment. The Belgians had hoped to keep the war away from their massive colony but German attacks on Belgian shipping on Lake Tanganyika put a stop to that. Also in German East Africa the governor, Heinrich Schnee, also hoped to avoid fighting but his own local military commander, Lt. Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was having none of that and determined to fight (the two never got on well). But, even before the war, the British decided that keeping Africa out of it would not be in their best interests. There was too much to gain by going in and there was, throughout the conflict, quite a competition among the Allies to see who could gain the most territory since, correctly as it turned out, what an army held they were most likely to keep when it was over.

In Togoland, despite being vastly outmatched, the small German police force put up a spirited resistance. They carried out what was basically a slow, fighting-retreat until finally surrendering to the Allies on August 26, 1914. Togoland was subsequently divided up between Britain and France. The only non-territorial goal that could be pointed to in these opening campaigns were the wireless stations in Togoland and Kamerun. In Kamerun there was a small German colonial army expanded to about 6,000 men but which was totally outmatched by the tens of thousands of Allied troops surrounding them and they were soon beset by a joint Anglo-French-Belgian invasion force. After an initial victory the Allied attack stalled at German forts in Mora and Garua. At one point the Germans even went on the offensive and launched a raid into Nigeria but this was unsuccessful. Many fled into the unexplored interior and continued to be a distraction for the Allies for more than a year before the last German forces surrendered in 1916. Again, the territory was divided between the French and the British in the aftermath.

German Southwest cavalry patrol

German Southwest Africa proved a tough nut to crack but not only because of the German colonial troops defending it. The initial British offensive, launched in September of 1914 from South Africa, was defeated by the Germans under General Joachim von Heydebreck at the battle of Sandfontein even though the Germans were considerably outnumbered. The following month saw South Africa distracted by the outbreak or at least the attempted outbreak of a rebellion by pro-German Boers who still considered the British their enemies. This uprising was led by General Manie Maritz, a veteran of the Second Boer War. However, the old guard Boer leadership, particularly Louis Botha and Jan Smuts, decided to stick with the British and despite German assistance to the rebels the insurrection was put down with relatively little difficulty by the South Africans themselves. A German counter-offensive into South Africa was defeated and British imperial troops drove into German Southwest Africa in great strength. The Germans fought hard but were outmatched and finally defeated or forced to surrender by the summer of 1915. In fact, they had tried to surrender earlier but were refused by Botha. The war would really be a defining moment for South Africa and in the end German Southwest Africa became a “colony” of South Africa.

Lettow-Vorbeck

The biggest struggle, however, would be for the Allied conquest of German East Africa, the most important German colony in Africa. Governor Schnee may not have wanted a fight but the local commander of the German colonial army, Lt. Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck did. He decided that the best thing he could do would be to wage a campaign that would draw inordinate amounts of Allied troops, supplies and attention to East Africa and away from fronts that were more vital to the German war effort. In that goal, Lettow-Vorbeck was to be an absolute success. Before the war was over he would be promoted to Major General, earn the Pour le Merite (“Blue Max”) and establish himself as one of the greatest military commanders Germany, or the Kingdom of Prussia, has ever produced. He never commanded much more than 10,000 men at one time, indeed his force would at times shrink to a mere 1,500 but he managed to tie down, defeat or generally bedevil hundreds of thousands of Allied troops for the duration of the war. Truly, no other military commander was ever able to do so much with so little for so long as General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. And, just as incredible as his battles and maneuvers were his logistical accomplishments. That he and his army were able to survive and sustain themselves and their war effort in such a wilderness for so long, existing ultimately from foraging, their own inventiveness and captured enemy stores alone, is a feat that would merit his inclusion in the history books. It also doesn’t hurt that he was a staunch monarchist.

German troops at Tanga

The British struck first out of British East Africa but their forces were utterly defeated at the battle of Kilimanjaro in early November. The main push, however, came simultaneously with an attack on the port of Tanga by a largely Indian British imperial force. Lettow-Vorbeck was in command himself with a mere 1,000 troops (mostly Africans) to combat 8,000 British and Indian troops under General Arthur Aitken. It was a stunning victory for the Germans who lost only 71 men killed and 76 wounded compared to British losses of 360 killed, 487 wounded and 148 missing. The Germans also captured enough weapons and ammunition to outfit several additional companies of colonial troops. This episode taught the British that German East Africa would be no easy conquest and more strength was organized for a combined offensive from several directions. Lettow-Vorbeck knew he could not defend static positions indefinitely, so he took his little colonial army into the interior of Africa to fight a war of movement and maneuver, raiding Allied outposts, fighting small battles when the odds were favorable and disappearing into the wilderness when confronted with overwhelming strength. A big part of his success was the quality of his troops. The rank and file were almost entirely African, as were many non-commissioned officers with German NCO’s and commissioned officers to lead them. This provided the perfect combination of German mastery of leadership, discipline and tactics as well as the African expertise at survival, knowledge of the terrain and remarkable endurance. The German colonial army also had a much higher ratio of Europeans integrated within the African units than the other more segregated armies and this proved to be a marked advantage.

German colonial forces attack

1915 opened with a German raid on the Uganda Railway and later an attack on Saisi in the summer. Also that summer the German cruiser Koenigsberg was cornered and destroyed in the Rufiji Delta. Never one to let anything go to waste, Lettow-Vorbeck absorbed the sailors into his army under their commander, Captain Max Looff. They stripped the naval guns from their ship and turned them into field artillery for the German army. The opening months of 1916 saw the British gain control of Lake Tanganyika, defeating the German flotilla there and finally opening a new offensive in the Spring. At the same time, Belgian forces began attacking east from the Congo and more British troops struck north from Rhodesia. The Portuguese tried to launch an attack from the south but were defeated at the Rufiji delta. The Germans resisted where possible but took care to retreat when the odds were hopeless, fighting rear-guard actions and making the Allies, under the overall command of Smuts, pay heavily for every bit of ground gained. In July, British forces under General Jacob van Deventer captured Dodoma and in August General Smuts took Morogoro. In September the capitol of Dar-es-Salaam surrendered and about two weeks later Belgian colonial forces under General Charles Tambeur captured the outer-capitol of Tabora. The Portuguese launched another attack that did better than before but before November was out they were driven back across the border.

German colonial company on the march

By 1917, to look at a map, it seemed that German East Africa was conquered and Smuts relinquished his command after a successful offensive. However, the German colonial army remained at large and while the major towns were in Allied hands, Lettow-Vorbeck was still very much a threat and had not been defeated. From March through September he invaded Portuguese East Africa, capturing large amounts of supplies to sustain his little army while the Allies chased after other, smaller, German forces; the British from Kilwa and the Belgians toward Mahenge. In October the Germans fought a major engagement at Kilwa against the British which was yet another German victory, though a costly one they could ill-afford. Still, it set the British back and forced them to call in the Belgians from their recently seized prize of Mahenge to reinforce them. The following month, Lettow-Vorbeck doubled back and crossed into Portuguese East Africa again, defeating the Portuguese at the battle of Negomano. There seemed to be no end in sight and the British landed additional troops toward the end of the year. Lettow-Vorbeck was sometimes called “the Bush Ghost” and it is no wonder as he and his army seemed to be invisible until they appeared where least expected, attacked and then vanished again before overwhelming force could be brought against them.

aiding a wounded comrade

For much of 1918 the Germans remained elusive, to the consternation of the Allies. However, one should not get the impression that their forces were incompetent, far from it. Their troops, South African, British or the natives of the King’s African Rifles were disciplined and courageous, it was only that their commanders were outclassed. There were many colorful figures and units involved on the Allied side such as an eccentric British officer named Spicer-Simpson who wore a skirt, there was a unit of British fusiliers made up of an odd assortment of elderly men who actually proved to have more endurance in Africa than the youngsters. The Belgian colonial army also gained a great reputation in the campaign though the native troops of the other Allied armies refused to camp too close to the Belgians for fear that the Congolese natives of the Force Publique would eat them, such was their fearsome reputation. The Portuguese fared the worst probably and they were the only power to transfer large numbers of European troops from Portugal for service in Africa. At times they fought very well but the natives were not very reliable and the troops from Portugal were not adapted to the climate and conditions and it is no wonder they were often outfought by the veteran Germans.

Generalmajor Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck

In July, Lettow-Vorbeck defeated a combined Anglo-Portuguese force at the battle of Namacurra but by the autumn an effort to aid them from Germany was underway. The Germans finally decided to send a zeppelin loaded with supplies from Turkey all the way to their forces in East Africa. Unfortunately for them, the Allies sent out a false report that the German army in Africa had surrendered and so the zeppelin turned back somewhere over the Sudan. It was not true of course and Lettow-Vorbeck continued his campaign of hit-and-run raids that kept the Allies in constant pursuit but never catching him. In September he crossed back into German East Africa, just long enough to make his presence known and then daringly turned south to invade Rhodesia. He was there, still going strong, when the war came to an end. The British informed him of Germany’s downfall, which he asked to have confirmed and which was done; the war in Africa being fought with considerable chivalry on both sides. The German colonial army marched to the nearest British outpost at Abercorn and surrendered, though Lettow-Vorbeck was furious when he found out that van Deventer had deceived him, saying that the armistice terms required his “unconditional surrender” when, in fact, it stated only that the German forces in Africa must be “evacuated”, however, despite his protests nothing came of the matter. He and his German personnel were shipped home where, quite rightly, there were given a hero’s welcome with a triumphal parade through the Brandenburg Gate. They had ended the war still undefeated.

Monarch Profile: King Victor Emmanuel I of Piedmont-Sardinia

HRH Prince Victor Emmanuel, Duke of Aosta, was born at the Savoy Royal Palace in Turin on July 24, 1759, the second son of King Victor Amadeus III and Queen Maria Antoinetta of Spain. He had the looks of his father and the religious conservatism of his mother. Being a second son would normally make a prince destined for a military career but in the House of Savoy this went without saying as probably nowhere outside of Prussia was the army given a higher status in society than in the Piedmontese region of northern Italy. It was no surprise that he gained a life-long fascination with the military and served as an army officer as a young man. If anything, he would surpass his father in terms of being a very traditional legitimist royal. When his father, full of righteous indignation at the French Revolution, declared war on republican France, the Duke of Aosta went with the army to wage a hopeless fight against the revolutionary forces. When his father died shortly after being forced to make peace with France it was left to the Duke’s older brother, King Charles Emmanuel IV, to preside over the disastrous aftermath in December of 1798. Eventually, all the Savoy lands on the continent would be occupied and annexed by France, forcing the Royal Family to relocate to the safety of the island of Sardinia.

The new king spent most of his time in Rome, leaving Victor Emmanuel in charge in Sardinia and when his beloved queen died in 1802, the grief-stricken monarch abdicated in favor of his younger brother to join the Society of Jesus. So, on June 4, 1802 the Duke of Aosta came to the throne as King Victor Emmanuel I, ruling Sardinia, all that remained of the Savoy patrimony, from Cagliari. To carry on the struggle against France, he gave great attention to reinvigorating the army. This included the institution of the Military Order of Savoy, the formation of the famous Grenadiers of Sardinia as well as the Carabinieri, a special gendarme corps that is still the official military-police force of Italy today. He instituted some administrative reforms on Sardinia but remained greatly attached to the way things had been before the wave of revolution swept Europe. He rebuffed all French attempts at a compromise peace and was determined to see his kingdom restored to exactly what it had been which meant that he would spend the first twelve years of his reign ruling in Sardinia until the fortunes of war turned against Napoleon. His focus on military matters was also not confined to the army and, ruling from an island, was the monarch responsible for the formation of the Department of the Navy.

It was a time of hardship and waiting for opportunities. Victor Emmanuel I, however, was a man who understood enduring misfortune. In 1789 he had married the Hapsburg Archduchess Maria Teresa of Austria-Este, daughter of Duke Ferdinand of Modena (who was the son of the Austrian Emperor Francis I). She was as ardently conservative and traditional as her husband was and the two were a very well-matched couple and had a very happy marriage. However, securing the succession remained a problem. While his older brother had never been able to have children, King Victor Emmanuel I fathered seven children, all but one of whom were daughters. The eldest ultimately married her uncle, Duke Francis IV of Modena, the next did not survive childhood, the third lived an even shorter time. The next eventually married the Duke of Parma, the fifth married Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria and the sixth married King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies. There was only one boy among them, Prince Charles Emmanuel, born in 1796 and sadly he died of smallpox in 1799. Once again, the Savoy crown would have to pass from brother to brother rather than father to son (and a brother who would be childless as well). They knew personal tragedy with the loss of two children, one a potential heir, yet their shared faith and values allowed them to endure it as they later endured their exile on Sardinia. But, that was something that would change.

When Napoleonic France was finally defeated and King Victor Emmanuel I was able to return in triumph to the Savoy citadel of Turin in 1814, it was the start of a gloriously reactionary era. This wasn’t just a restoration of the monarchy as all monarchists hope for, this was the sort of restoration that ardent, hardcore monarchists imagine in their wildest dreams. It is an oft-quoted truism that one cannot turn back the clock, but if the clocks stayed the same, King Victor Emmanuel I managed to turn back just about everything else. It was a matter of principle and if that meant showing up to Turin wearing fashions nearly twenty years old, he would do it. The Code Napoleon was abolished and the legal system of Victor Amadeus II was restored. Education ceased to be secular and was handed back to the Catholic Church. All the hereditary posts at court were restored, everyone entitled to a position was given one and if that meant having “page boys” that were forty-year-old alongside teenagers, so be it! The Queen did her part as well, making sure that anyone who had anything to do with the French regime was excluded from high society. Even then there were also those who were pushing for a constitution but, needless to say, King Victor Emmanuel I was having none of that. He also restored the old religious laws which placed restrictions on Jews and the Protestant Waldensians. The Catholic, absolute monarchy was back in full force.

In short, the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, under the restored Savoy monarchy, was as close to perfection for a reactionary monarchist as one could get. Victor Emmanuel I also ruled over a somewhat larger kingdom than had his father and older brother as the Congress of Vienna awarded Piedmont the territory of the old Republic of Genoa with the port becoming the base of the new Piedmontese navy. As a side note, interesting to legitimist monarchists at least, when his brother died in 1819, King Victor Emmanuel I also became heir of the Stuart claims for the diehard Jacobites. For them, he became “King Victor I of England, Scotland, Ireland and France” though, of course, he never pressed such a claim in any way. There is a well known anecdote that, when Victor Emmanuel I died, the British Prime Minister wrote to a friend (presumably in a joking way) that there should have been public mourning in the UK since quite a few people recognized the Savoy monarch as their “true” king. He was probably wrong about the number but it is slightly humorous the way the British government continued to worry about the Jacobites so long after they ceased to be relevant. In any event, King Victor Emmanuel I had enough to concern him with the government of Piedmont-Sardinia. His campaign of total, absolute restoration may have cheered old fashioned monarchists but the years of French rule had also left their mark and not everyone was happy about things going back to the way they had been.

This was the beginning of the rise in secret societies, plots and conspiracies in northern Italy (spreading of course throughout the whole peninsula soon enough). The Carbonari would become the most prominent but there were many conspiratorial groups with many different agendas. Some were nationalists pushing for Italian unity, others were liberals who wanted constitutional monarchy and free trade, others were radical revolutionaries who wanted what amounted to socialist republics. Some had elements of all of these but common themes included a desire for a constitution in Piedmont-Sardinia, some sort of unity amongst the Italian people and war against Austria to liberate the lands of Lombardy-Venetia that the Hapsburgs had gained through a deal with republican France. King Victor Emmanuel I was not favorable toward any of these grand schemes and was not about to even consider granting such agitators a single concession. The problem was how popular many of these ideas were. The reach of the secret societies spread even into the army which really proved to be the crucial point as it meant that the primary instrument of force available to the Crown was not entirely reliable. King Victor Emmanuel I responded strongly against such conspiracies in the civilian population but if the military could not be entirely relied upon, that was a more serious matter and more difficult to deal with.

It was, finally, a mutiny in the army that signaled the end of the reign of Victor Emmanuel I. Rebel troops seized control of the citadel in Turin and demanded that the King grant a constitution with guaranteed civil rights and a war against Austria to liberate Milan and Venice. Anyone at all familiar with the character of King Victor Emmanuel I would know intuitively that he would never agree to any such demands. The content of them really did not even matter as he would never have agreed to anything put forward by mutinous troops and riotous subjects making demands on their sovereign. The political issues he was absolutely opposed to and while he had no great love for Austria (because of their shifting policies in the war and territorial acquisitions) and would have been as pleased as anyone to restore northern Italy to Italian rule, he was certainly not going to be coerced into a specific action and would never stand for being dictated to by a riotous mob. Yet, with the mobs in the streets and the loyalty of the army being either absent or questionable; what could he do? There seemed to be no choice but to give in, yet, for the King, that was out of the question. If King Victor Emmanuel I could not rule as he saw fit, he decided that he would not rule at all and preferred to abdicate rather than give in to pressure from disloyal elements. So, on March 21, 1821 he formally abdicated his throne in favor of his brother, who was away in Modena, with his nephew Prince Charles Albert on hand to oversee things in the interim. The Queen (who some even blamed for the crisis) had offered to act as regent but in the event went with her retired husband to Nice (then part of Piedmont-Sardinia). He died at Moncalieri castle a few years later on January 10, 1824.

King Victor Emmanuel I is often portrayed in a tragic light, as a sad, gloomy man who endured kingship and whose reign has been described as one long Lenten period. Most modern historians have not been kind to him, describing his policies as harmful and out of date while at best admitting that he was well-intentioned and an upstanding gentleman in his private life. Actually, he was a man of firm principles, a dutiful monarch, a man of integrity and firm convictions. Given how his reign ended, some of his decisions may have been mistakes but that does not mean they were wrong. His determination to set everything back to the way it had been before the revolution, to do what most have always held to be impossible, was a decision based on his values and sense of right and wrong rather than political considerations. In the end, it did not work and it may be that, from a practical standpoint, he should have tempered this policy to take into account in some way what thinking had taken root during the French occupation but that is something known with certainty only in hindsight. The old system had worked well enough before so there was no reason why it absolutely could not have worked again. Victor Emmanuel I deserves to be remembered as a dutiful monarch, a monarch who tried always to do what was right as his faith guided him. It is also just plain inaccurate to portray his reign as some sort of purgatory to be endured; his reign saw the restoration of the venerable Savoy monarchy, the end of French domination and the expansion of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in both territory and international esteem. It was, until the end, a success by any measure.

How Indonesia Became a Republic

The fate of modern Indonesia was, like so many countries, decided during the Second World War. Prior to the conflict, Indonesia was a colony of the Kingdom of the Netherlands known as the Dutch East Indies. It had grown in importance under the Dutch Crown, first as a center of trade and later as a major oil producer after the Dutch discovered this vast natural resource and set up the necessary infrastructure to extract and export it around the world. As long as they did not threaten the colonial authorities, the Dutch mostly left the native principalities alone, allowing them to carry on in a cultural capacity and to deal with certain legal issues on a very local level. There had been some anti-colonial agitation, some of it nationalist, some of it Islamic in motivation, but the professional Dutch colonial army had little trouble dealing with it. To most observers the Dutch East Indies seemed like a model colony, as good as or better than most other European colonies around the world at the time. There was even a Volksraad or “People’s Council” made up of Indonesians which was established by the Dutch government in 1918 to provide local political representation. Even when World War II broke out in Europe and the Netherlands fell under German occupation, life in the Dutch East Indies went on much like before under the direction of Queen Wilhelmina and her government-in-exile in England. However, all of that changed in 1941.

President Roosevelt

In order to put pressure on the Empire of Japan, whose forces were engaged in conflict with the Republic of China, the United States placed an oil embargo (along with other vital resources and a freezing of all Japanese assets) on the island nation. Japan had purchased most of its oil from the United States but, so that alternative sources could not be obtained in the Dutch East Indies or Malaysia, the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt urged Great Britain and the Netherlands to join in the embargo as well. Both countries were eager to stay in the good graces of the United States for the assistance the American government was already sending them in their fight against the Germans and in hope that America would join the fight and bring its massive industrial, economic and military strength against Germany, the Churchill government and the Dutch government-in-exile quickly agreed to join in the boycott of Japan. As the Empire of Japan was placed in the position of submitting to American demands for a total withdrawal from China or to fight and take the resources they needed by force, the Dutch East Indies became a target. With its vast natural resources and limited defenses, it was an inviting one. With the homeland under occupation, there would be little the Dutch government-in-exile could do to further defend the East Indies in the event of an attack.

The decision was made in Tokyo to fight and the course of East Asian history was changed forever when Japanese forces bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. What followed was a land, sea and air version of “lightning war” done the Japanese way. The Philippines were attacked, the British colonies of Hong Kong, Malaya and Singapore came under immediate attack as well. Operating from bases in French Indochina, the Japanese quickly brought Southeast Asia under their control. The Dutch East Indies also came under immediate attack. As an archipelago, everything depended on the naval battle. The land forces of the Dutch colonial army were tough and determined but without naval mastery they would be isolated and unable to coordinate or keep themselves supplied. Still, they fought the invaders as best they could while another battle waged in the waters surrounding them. The Dutch resisted admirably, their tiny flotilla of submarines actually doing considerable damage to the Japanese fleet but the main fleet engagement proved disastrous. The Allies, hastily assembled, failed to coordinate properly and were soundly defeated by the Imperial Japanese Navy using the classic tactics of Britain’s Admiral Nelson.

General Hitoshi Imamura

After the naval defeat, the total Japanese conquest and occupation of the Dutch East Indies became inevitable and the island chain quickly fell to Japanese control. However, the Japanese had no clear plan about what to do with Indonesia once they had taken it. At first, as in other countries, the Japanese sought out nationalist, anti-European leaders to seek their collaboration. Some of these nationalist forces fought on against the Japanese just as they had the Dutch but others collaborated such as Sukarno and Mohammed Hatta. However, this was a result of the local Japanese commander operating on his own authority rather than based on a clear policy from the government in Tokyo. Lieutenant General Hitoshi Imamura released Sukarno from prison and, while making no promises regarding Indonesian independence, said that the occupation would go better if the locals learned to speak Japanese. Sukarno went to work at this and began organizing pro-independence forces in cooperation with the Japanese. However, not all Japanese were impressed by the way Imamura was running things and sent complaints up the chain of command. The result was an investigation which showed that Imamura was keeping order with only a minimum force and so advised Prime Minister Tojo and the Chief of Staff to allow him to continue. His policies were allowed to continue and he was even given command of an army group in the hope that he could send assistance to the beleaguered defenders of Guadalcanal.

The fate of Indonesia, however, was certainly not something that had been decided at that point. When Japan hosted the leaders of The Philippines, Burma, Thailand, Manchuria and the pro-Japanese government of China at the Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere conference Sukarno was noticeably absent as were any leaders from Indochina where Japan was allowing the French colonial regime (answerable to Vichy) to remain in charge. Kenryo Sato, chief of the Army Affairs Bureau, said this was because Prime Minister Tojo was reluctant to see Japan give up control of the vast resources of Indonesia, saying that the locals were not “quite ready to handle all that treasure”. This would not be surprising given how, particular in the war situation, Japan vitally needed those resources. Even without it, Sukarno was working in collaboration with the Japanese and there was no shortage of talk and speculation about what the future might hold in the event of a Japanese victory. One idea was to merge Malaysia (minus the border territories handed over to Thailand) with the East Indies to create a “Greater Indonesia”. Sukarno, of course, presumed he would be in authority over such an entity.

Indonesian Homeland Defense Volunteer Army

None of this boded well for the cause of monarchy in the East Indies. The Dutch had taken a casual attitude toward the local princes. Coming from a constitutional monarchy themselves, they had no problem with the local princes as long as they caused the Dutch no trouble and stayed out of politics above the most local level. Such a situation could have endured under the Japanese were it not for the person of Sukarno. He detested all things traditionally Indonesian and was a very anti-capitalist, pro-egalitarian socialist. Although he was perfectly willing to make use of religion as a tool against the Dutch (just as he was willing to make use of the Japanese if it could aid his cause) he was himself no devout Muslim but an ardent secularist. He despised the native monarchies of Indonesia, blaming them and what he termed as “feudalism” for allowing Dutch colonial rule to ever take hold in the first place. Any future for Indonesia with him in charge was a future that would have no place for the traditional monarchies of the region.

Sukarno established a militia force allied with Japan and helped organize a huge force of Indonesian laborers to build, to clear land and to gather resources for the Japanese war effort. Not everyone in the Japanese leadership trusted him but he seemed the only option to work with and none could complain about how the occupation was going. As the war dragged on and the situation became increasingly worse for Japan, there was also more talk about independence to keep Indonesia on side. By the end of 1944 Japanese Prime Minister Kuniaki Koiso promised Sukarno that independence would come but would not set a definite timeline. The Japanese military authorities began to allow the establishment of an Indonesian government, under Sukarno, but Sukarno himself was not given the green light to declare independence until the summer of 1945. He was actually brought to Tokyo, heaped with praise and honors and told he had the full blessing of Japan to establish an independent Indonesia but this was not until after the first atomic bomb had been dropped and negotiations for surrender were under way. Of course, Sukarno was not told about this at the time and did not learn about it until after he returned to Indonesia and was informed by some of his followers who heard about it from an Allied broadcast on a hidden radio.

Sukarno declaring independence

Sukarno was, given this, rather reluctant to declare independence for feat of how the Allies would react given that they had just won the war. In fact, he had to be practically forced to make the declaration. However, his reluctance was rather pathetic as he had already collaborated as closely as anyone could, even more than some leaders whose countries actually were given their independence by Japan, and so he should have been just as “tainted” as other leaders like the Vietnamese Emperor Bao Dai, in fact even more so since the Vietnamese Emperor collaborated with the Japanese for only a few months in 1945 between the time that the Japanese removed the French administration and their final surrender. In any event, Sukarno did declare independence and no one at the time paid any attention other than the Japanese authorities. The Dutch actually requested that the Imperial Japanese Army stay in place in Indonesia rather than be surrendered and repatriated to Japan until their own colonial forces could return. The British did something similar in southern Vietnam which is the only reason South Vietnam remained free of communist control post-war. Unfortunately, unlike in Vietnam, the Japanese refused to cooperate and a few thousand even stayed in Indonesia to fight for independence under Sukarno. Of course, the fact that he would have spent the war in prison rather than rising to a position of national leadership thanks to the Japanese, and in spite of the fact that they basically trained the hard core of the army he would lead against the Dutch in the war for independence, Sukarno still had the audacity to demand (and receive) more than a billion dollars in compensation from Japan for all that Indonesia had suffered under their occupation -an occupation he fully endorsed and collaborated with.

However, as it turned out, Sukarno did not need to be too worried about how his collaboration would look to the Allied powers because, ultimately, the only Allied power whose approval mattered was the United States but we will come to that in a moment. The Netherlands certainly did not recognize his declaration of independence and were soon returning to reestablish control of Indonesia. Many Dutch people and certainly Queen Wilhelmina herself, were full of righteous indignation over the whole affair. They viewed the entire invasion, at a time when the homeland was occupied and in a fight for its survival, as a stab in the back and had not forgotten the extreme misery suffered by the Dutch people who had been living in Indonesia with many suffering horrifically at the hands of Sukarno’s followers who took sadistic glee in tormenting their former rulers when the Dutch were helpless and the Indonesians were backed up by the Imperial Japanese Army. For Queen Wilhelmina, there was no debate on the subject; the Dutch Crown would be restored but even after all that had happened, she was willing to grant full self-government to a proposed “United States of Indonesia”. When Sukarno and his party rejected this, the Dutch Queen determined to go to war and deal with the nationalists as both rebels and collaborators.

Queen Wilhelmina

This would not, in most cases, have included the Indonesian principalities. Their suffering came entirely at the hands of Sukarno who was as anti-monarchy as one could be and he made no secret of that with the basis of his government being a sort of pan-Indonesian nationalism, democracy (under his control of course) and Marxist style socialism. When he gained power and where and when he had the ability he carried out a horrific sort of “cultural revolution” all his own. He called this a campaign for “social justice” but it was simply the sort of repression seen in leftist revolutions all over the world with the traditional elites and princes being persecuted or killed off. When the Dutch launched a military campaign to regain control of Indonesia, some of the local princes tried to stay out of it while others tried to join the revolution and so most ended up being punished by one side or the other and some by both. The princely states were wiped out in the course of the conflict or in the immediate aftermath in the usual round of “land reforms” which meant the confiscation of royal estates and princes and aristocrats being punished in show-trials meant to display the egalitarianism of the Sukarno regime.

It must be said, in all fairness, that to an extent the native monarchies made their cause an almost hopeless one because of their lack of unity. There were a large number of them, many had conflicting territorial claims and a great many had disputed successions. In fact, many had succession disputes that went back hundreds of years and which are still around today. Even during World War II and the revolution there were some that were still carrying on private little wars of their own against royal rivals to reclaim a certain state or overthrow some other branch of the royal family in question. Often, third parties, whether the Japanese, Dutch or native republicans, found it all a disorienting mess that it was better to just ignore or sweep away. Sukarno largely swept them away, though some who supported him sufficiently were allowed to survive and eventually some of the princely states were recognized by the Indonesian government in less oppressive times. That the country overall would be a republic was a forgone conclusion, at least so long as Sukarno won his war for independence against the Dutch.

Queen Juliana

What was extremely frustrating to at least some people in the Netherlands, and certainly to Queen Wilhelmina, was that the Dutch practically won the war. Full of understandable anger over all that had happened to the Dutch in Indonesia, they fought the war with zeal and tenacity. In virtually every major engagement the Dutch military forces were victorious, almost every operation was successful and even Sukarno himself was, at one point, taken prisoner by the Dutch. The communists even came out to try to take advantage of the chaos and seize power but they were defeated as well. Unfortunately, at this point of victory, the Netherlands was undercut by its former wartime ally; the United States. The Truman administration basically ordered the Netherlands to give up their victory and threatened to cut off Marshall Aid to the war torn country if the Dutch did not desist in all military operations in Indonesia. This, combined with growing complaints at home by the wealthy elites who opposed the war, forced the Dutch to give in. Queen Wilhelmina, exhausted and embittered, abdicated in favor of her daughter Queen Juliana. The new Queen recognized the independence of the Indonesian Republic the following year. It was an economic disaster for the Netherlands and a social one as well as the entire Dutch population of the archipelago (as well as many Indonesians) were deported back to the Netherlands, many of whom had never even visited the country.

Some of the Dutch and pro-Dutch forces tried to hold on in Eastern New Guinea, declaring it a separate colony as Netherlands New Guinea but the Sukarno regime claimed the territory of course and sent in military forces to seize it. These were defeated by Dutch troops and supportive natives. However, once again, a liberal American administration came to the rescue when President Kennedy (a long-time admirer of Sukarno) sent his brother Robert to the Netherlands to brow-beat the Dutch into abandoning West New Guinea, which took shape after an agreement signed in 1962. In the aftermath, Sukarno became even more vociferous in his anti-western rhetoric, first opposing the British in Malaysia, drawing closer to Communist China and the Soviet Union and then finally becoming more openly anti-American. He even withdrew from the UN for a time when America supported Malaysia taking a seat on the Security Council. About the only monarchy the Republic of Indonesia has remained on consistently good terms with has been Japan. Indonesia has been largest recipient of Japanese investment and charity and has been largely economically dependent on Japan ever since independence.

Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the aftermath of a failed coup that still managed to see Sukarno removed from power with America backing his successor Suharto who led the country until 1998. Some local monarchies still exist in a ceremonial capacity with their status recognized by the government (though they have no official position) while others have been swept away. Despite being virtually irrelevant in an overall republican system, plenty of the old titles are still being fought over by feuding claimants. Indonesia itself, despite its vast wealth in resources, has remained far from prosperous, peaceful or stable with various minor factions, some driven by political ideology, others by religion, continuing to cause trouble. What would seem to be most in order for the cause of monarchy in Indonesia would be some recognized judicial body to sort out royal claims and a greater political unity amongst the various princely families. Some such organizations already exist but they need to be mobilized for political action. This could then push for a conversion from republicanism to monarchy on a national scale with Malaysia providing an example for a sort of federal system that could work in Indonesia.