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When sultans asked for Dutch arms and assistance to help put down a rival sultan or usurper, the Dutch would always gain more land in exchange for the help that they gave. Not content with mere trading as middlemen and carriers, the Dutch began to seek control of the very sources of production. New crop plants were introduced and a plantation agriculture was established and expanded. It was during their efforts to develop a coffee crop in West Java in 1723 when the Dutch first appointed supervisors to organize production, the beginning of a Dutch administrative system in Indonesia. A forced cultivation system, called in history the Culture System, was instituted by the Dutch in 1830, and soon not only coffee, but also sugar, indigo, pepper, tea and cotton were raised to supply the demand in Europe. During this period all of Java was turned into a vast state-owned labor camp run somewhat like the 17th Century slave plantations of southeastern USA. Javanese farmers were even starved to produce cash crops: in 1849-50 serious rice famines occured in the great rice producing area of Cirebon. The island of Java made the Dutch such profits that they were able to build railways, pay off national debts, and even to start a war with Belgium. The history of Dutch colonial rule was based on a racial caste structure: swimming pool signs read 'No Natives or Dogs'. Pick up any of the old phrase books: 'Master, children have entered the garden, sir.' and 'Don't just stand there! Answer me when I speak to you! Be off with you! Wash it again!' The formal position from which to address a Dutch master was from the floor.

The Dutch regarded Indonesians as 'half-devil, half-child'; they carried their White Man's Burden with pride. In exchange for their work and for the wealth of their land, the Dutch would bestow upon them all the benefits of white civilization: their education, technology, social order, their arts, even let the Indonesians love their god. The hangover of the Dutch 350 presence is still with the people to this day. It is especially evident on Java which was colonized for the longest period. Tourists are still greeted with Be/anda! Be/anda!' which originally meant Hollander, but now has come to mean any white person. And boys still call male travelers by the honorific 'Om'which is Dutch for 'uncle'. The Dutch softened later in the early 20th Century with their humanitarian inspired Ethical Policy which showed more of a desire to begin a true partnership with the Indonesian people. By 1938 the Dutch owned and controlled over 2400 estates equally divided between Java and the outer islands. They never really thought about handing these regions over to the indigenous peoples and did little to educate them. Under Dutch rule no higher education was available until the 1920's when 3 colleges were finally started. By 1940 only 630 Indonesians were attending them and just 240 Indonesians graduated from high school. About 90% of the people were illiterate and only 2 million children were in schools in a country of 68 million. There was only one university in the whole archipelago, opened in Batavia in 1941