Date : 1949-December-27
Country : Indonesia
Indonesia is officially called the Republic of Indonesia. It is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi. Juliana was Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 to 1980. She was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Due to Queen Wilhelmina's bad health, Juliana took over royal duties briefly in 1947 and 1948. However, in September 1948, Queen Wilhelmina abdicated, and Juliana ascended to the Dutch throne.
In 1945, when the Japanese surrendered in World War II, the East Indies Nationalists seized the opportunity to throw off the colonization of the Dutch. Also, they took the opportunity to proclaim the independent state of Indonesia, which the Japanese had promised them. Achmed Sukarno and Muhammad Hatta led the East Indies Nationalists. However, the Dutch imprisoned and exiled Achmed Sukarno and Muhammad Hatta. Both had collaborated with the Japanese and obtained help to organize a Japanese-backed Indonesian army.
The nationalists waged an armed struggle equipped with Japanese weapons against the Dutch. Here, Dutch forces obtained substantial headway in Java and Sumatra. However, there was fierce criticism in the United Nations against the Dutch, and the United States pressed for a negotiated solution. After, in August 1949, a conference of 120 delegates assembled under the chairmanship of the Dutch Prime Minister, Willem Drees, at The Hague.
On November 2, 1949, the conference reached an agreement that transferred Dutch sovereignty to the United States of Indonesia. According to that, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands got in as titular head of a new Netherlands-Indonesian Union, Sukarno as Indonesian President, and Hatta as Prime Minister. The Dutch released thousands of Indonesian political prisoners before independence was formally celebrated on December 27, 1949.
In the first year of Queen Juliana's reign, she gave attention to the Indonesian question. On December 27, 1949, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands signed the papers that formally transferred sovereignty over the territory of Dutch East Indies to the independent government of Indonesia at a ceremony held at a historic auditorium in the royal palace in Amsterdam. A simultaneous ceremony was held in Jakarta. Indonesian Deputy Prime Minister Sultan Hamengku Buwono and the Dutch high commissioner participated in it. Here, the Dutch tricolor flag was hauled down for the last time with cheered vociferously by a crowd of more than 20,000. The Indonesian national anthem was played, and the young republic’s once-banned red and white flag was hoisted up in its place.
Category : Politics