The Commissioners General (1816–1819)

Abstract

Although practically no contact had existed between the Netherlands and the Indies since 1795 and although this period of separation had witnessed profound political changes, nevertheless it would be impossible to conceive a new colonial policy without acknowledgment of the past. Nor would it be possible to ignore the political concepts of liberalisme and the ideas which governed Dutch colonial thought. Furthermore, none of these essential considerations could be applied unilaterally without assessing the laws and customs which governed the native community. In order to make possible a more correct evaluation of the difficulties which confronted the Commissioners General, we therefore included a short description of these elemental factors in the preceding chapters.