Bridges to New Business

This monograph offers the first comprehensive history of the decolonization of the Indonesian economy, a process with a different momentum and timing from the achievement of political independence. It traces the origins of economic decolonization to the late-colonial period, covers developments during the Japanese occupation and the Indonesian Revolution as well as continued operations by Dutch enterprises in Indonesia during the 1950s. The account culminates with the takeover and nationalization of Dutch private enterprises in the late 1950s.

The book is based on research in a wide variety of primary sources. Themes discussed include economic policies, the changing position of Indonesian personnel inside Dutch-owned firms as well as the emergence of new Indonesian entrepreneurship.

Published in cooperation with the Netherlands Institute of War Documentation (NIOD), as part of the NIOD research program "Indonesia across Orders".