Japanese surrender Proclamation of Indonesian Independence The
unconditional surrender of Japan on August 15, 1945 was eagerly received by the radical and politicised
pemuda (Indonesian for 'male youth') groups. They pressured Sukarno and Hatta to proclaim Indonesian independence on 17 August 1945, two days later. The following day, the
Preparatory Committee for Indonesian Independence (PPKI) elected Sukarno as
president, and Hatta as
vice-president.
Revolution and Bersiap '', the first Indonesian flag, is raised on 17 August 1945. It was mid-September before news of the declaration of independence spread to the outer islands, and many Indonesians far from the capital
Jakarta did not believe it. As the news spread, most Indonesians came to regard themselves as pro-Republican, and a mood of revolution swept across the country. External power had shifted; it would be weeks before
Allied Forces shipping entered Indonesia (owing in part to
boycotts and strikes, in Australia, on coaling, loading and manning Dutch shipping from Australia, where the Netherlands East Indies Government in exile was based). These strikes were only fully broken in July 1946. The Japanese, on the other hand, were required by the terms of the surrender to both lay down their arms and maintain order; a contradiction that some resolved by handing weapons to Japanese-trained Indonesians. The resulting power vacuums in Java and Sumatra in the weeks following the Japanese surrender created an atmosphere of uncertainty, but also one of opportunity for the Republicans. Many
pemuda joined pro-Republic struggle groups (
badan perjuangan). The most disciplined were soldiers from the Japanese-formed but disbanded
Giyūgun (
PETA, volunteer army) and
Heiho (local soldiers employed by Japanese armed forces) groups. Many groups were undisciplined, due to both the circumstances of their formation and what they perceived as revolutionary spirit. In the first weeks, Japanese troops often withdrew from urban areas to avoid confrontations. By September 1945, control of major infrastructure like railway stations and trams in Java's largest cities had been taken over by Republican
pemuda, such as the
Railway Youth Force, who encountered little Japanese resistance. To spread the revolutionary message,
pemuda set up their own radio stations and newspapers, and graffiti proclaimed the nationalist sentiment. On most islands, struggle committees and
militia were set up. Republican newspapers and journals were common in Jakarta,
Yogyakarta, and
Surakarta, which fostered a generation of writers known as
angkatan 45 ('generation of 45') many of whom believed their work could be part of the revolution. Republican leaders struggled to come to terms with popular sentiment; some wanted passionate armed struggle; others a more reasoned approach. Some leaders, such as the leftist
Tan Malaka, spread the idea that this was a revolutionary struggle to be led and won by the Indonesian
pemuda. Sukarno and Hatta, by contrast, were more interested in planning government and institutions to achieve independence through diplomacy. Pro-revolution demonstrations took place in large cities, including one in Jakarta on 19 September with over 200,000 people, which Sukarno and Hatta, fearing violence, successfully quelled. By September 1945, many of the self-proclaimed
pemuda, who were ready to die for '100% freedom', were getting impatient. It was common for ethnic 'out-groups' – Dutch internees,
Eurasian,
Ambonese,
Chinese,
Minahasans, well-off Natives – and anyone considered or accused to be a spy, to be subjected to intimidation, kidnapping, robbery, murder and organised massacres. Such attacks would continue throughout the course of the revolution, but were most present during the 1945–46 period, which is known as the
Bersiap. Estimates of the death toll of the Bersiap period vary from 3,500 to 30,000.
NIOD concluded a Dutch casualty number of approximately 5,500 with possible higher numbers but not above 10,000. In the week following the Japanese surrender, the Giyūgun (PETA) and Heiho groups were disbanded by the Japanese. Command structures and membership vital for a national army were consequently dismantled. Thus, rather than being formed from a trained, armed, and organised army, the Republican armed forces began to grow in September from usually younger, less trained groups built around charismatic leaders. Creating a rational military structure that was obedient to central authority from such disorganisation, was one of the major problems of the revolution, a problem that remains through to contemporary times. In the self-created Indonesian army, Japanese-trained Indonesian officers prevailed over those trained by the Dutch. A thirty-year-old former school teacher,
Sudirman, was elected 'commander-in-chief' at the first meeting of Division Commanders in Yogyakarta on 12 November 1945.
Allied situation (1945) . The Dutch accused Sukarno and Hatta of collaborating with the Japanese, and denounced the Republic as a creation of
Japanese fascism. The Dutch East Indies administration had just received a ten million dollar loan from the
United States to finance its return to Indonesia.
Allied occupation The Netherlands, however, was critically weakened from World War II in Europe and did not return as a significant military force until early 1946. The Japanese and members of the Allied forces reluctantly agreed to act as caretakers. Australian forces of
I Corps under general
Leslie Morshead had
landed in
Borneo in May 1945, to destroy the Imperial Japanese forces stationed there, as well as maintaining order on the island until the Dutch could return. As US forces were focusing on the Japanese home islands, the archipelago was put under the jurisdiction of British Admiral Earl
Louis Mountbatten, the
Supreme Allied Commander,
South East Asia Command. Allied enclaves already existed in
Kalimantan (Indonesian
Borneo),
Morotai (
Maluku) and parts of
Irian Jaya; Dutch administrators had already returned to these areas. In the Japanese navy areas, the arrival of Allied troops quickly prevented revolutionary activities where Australian troops, followed by Dutch troops and administrators, took the Japanese surrender (except for
Bali and
Lombok). Due to the lack of strong resistance, two
Australian Army divisions succeeded in occupying eastern Indonesia. The British were charged with restoring order and civilian government in Java. The Dutch took this to mean pre-war colonial administration and continued to claim sovereignty over Indonesia. The
British and
Indian troops did not, however, land on Java to accept the Japanese surrender until late September 1945. Lord Mountbatten's immediate tasks included the repatriation of some 300,000 Japanese, and freeing prisoners of war. He did not want, nor did he have the resources, to commit his troops to a long struggle to regain Indonesia for the Dutch. The first British troops reached Jakarta in late September 1945, and arrived in the cities of
Medan (
North Sumatra),
Padang (
West Sumatra),
Palembang (
South Sumatra),
Semarang (
Central Java) and
Surabaya (
East Java) in October. In an attempt to avoid clashes with Indonesians, the British commander Lieutenant General Sir
Philip Christison diverted soldiers of the former Dutch colonial army to eastern Indonesia, where Dutch reoccupation was proceeding smoothly. Tensions mounted as Allied troops entered Java and Sumatra; clashes broke out between Republicans and their perceived enemies, namely Dutch prisoners,
Dutch colonial troops (KNIL), Chinese,
Indo-Europeans and Japanese. The first stages of warfare were initiated in October 1945 when, in accordance with the terms of their surrender, the Japanese tried to re-establish the authority they had relinquished to Indonesians in the towns and cities. Japanese military police killed Republican
pemuda in
Pekalongan (Central Java) on 3 October, and Japanese troops drove Republican
pemuda out of
Bandung in
West Java and handed the city to the British, but the fiercest fighting involving the Japanese was in Semarang. On 14 October, British forces began to occupy the city. Retreating Republican forces retaliated by killing between 130 and 300 Japanese prisoners they were holding. Five hundred Japanese and two thousand Indonesians had been killed and the Japanese had almost captured the city six days later when British forces arrived. The Allies repatriated the remaining Japanese troops and civilians to Japan, although about 1,000 elected to remain behind and later assisted Republican forces in fighting for independence. The British subsequently decided to evacuate the 10,000 Indo-Europeans and European internees in the volatile Central Java interior. British detachments sent to the towns of
Ambarawa and
Magelang encountered strong Republican resistance and used air attacks against the Indonesians. Sukarno arranged a ceasefire on 2 November, but by late November fighting had resumed and the British withdrew to the coast (refer
Battle of Ambarawa). Republican attacks against Allied and alleged pro-Dutch civilians reached a peak in November and December, with 1,200 killed in Bandung as the
pemuda returned to the offensive. In March 1946, departing Republicans responded to a British ultimatum for them to leave the city of Bandung by deliberately burning down much of the southern half of the city in what is popularly known in Indonesia as the "
Bandung Sea of Fire".
Battle of Surabaya light tank used by Indonesian nationalists and captured by British forces during the fighting in Surabaya. The Battle of Surabaya was the heaviest and bloodiest single battle of the revolution and became a national symbol of Indonesian resistance.
Pemuda groups in Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia, seized
arms and
ammunition from the Japanese and set up two new organisations; the Indonesia National Committee (KNI) and the People's Security Council (BKR). By the time the
Allied forces arrived at the end of October 1945, the
pemuda foothold in Surabaya city was described as "a strong unified fortress". In September and October 1945 Europeans and pro-Dutch Eurasians were attacked and killed by Indonesian mobs. Ferocious fighting erupted when 6,000 British Indian troops landed in the city.
Sukarno and
Hatta negotiated a ceasefire between the Republicans and the
British forces led by
Brigadier Mallaby. Mallaby was killed on 30 October 1945 while he was travelling about Surabaya under a white flag to spread the news about the cease fire agreement and rescue some stranded
Mahratta troops, despite being warned of the danger by
Force 136 troops. Following the killing of Mallaby on 30 October, the British sent more troops into the city from 10 November under the cover of air attacks. Although the European forces largely captured the city in three days, the poorly armed Republicans fought on until 29 November and thousands died as the population fled to the countryside. Despite the military defeat suffered by the Republicans and a loss of manpower and weaponry that would severely hamper Republican forces for the rest of the revolution, the battle and defence mounted by the Indonesians galvanised the nation in support of independence and helped garner international attention. For the Dutch, it removed any doubt that the Republic was a well-organised resistance with popular support. It also convinced Britain to lie on the side of neutrality in the revolution, and within a few years, Britain would support the Republican cause in the United Nations. The last British troops left Indonesia in November 1946, but by this time 55,000 Dutch troops had landed in Java.
Situation from Dutch landing on Java until Linggadjati (January–December 1946) and a few Japanese rifles, 1946 With British assistance, the Dutch landed their
Netherlands Indies Civil Administration (NICA) forces in Jakarta and other key centres. Republican sources reported 8,000 deaths up to January 1946 in the defence of Jakarta, but they could not hold the city. The Republican leadership thus established themselves in the city of
Yogyakarta with the crucial support of the new sultan,
Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX. Yogyakarta went on to play a leading role in the revolution, which would result in the city being granted its own Special Territory status. In
Bogor, near Jakarta, and in
Balikpapan in Kalimantan, Republican officials were imprisoned. In preparation for the Dutch occupation of Sumatra, its largest cities, Palembang and Medan, were bombed. In December 1946,
Special Forces Depot (DST), led by commando and
counter-insurgency expert
Captain Raymond "Turk" Westerling, were accused of
pacifying the southern Sulawesi region using arbitrary terror techniques, which were copied by other anti-Republicans. Westerling would target a village by herding them together, have soldiers search people's houses, shoot suspected Republicans in the head, as well as those who would refuse to name names, and sometimes additional victims beyond those suspected to be Republicans. There are disputes on how many were killed during this period, with some estimating as many as 3,000 while others estimate between 3,500 and 6,500. These war crimes were not officially recognized until 2015, when The Hague held the Netherlands responsible, leading to monetary reparations for the victims. On Java and Sumatra, the Dutch found military success in cities and major towns, but they were unable to subdue the villages and countryside. On the outer islands (including Bali), Republican sentiment was not as strong, at least among the elite. They were consequently occupied by the Dutch with comparative ease, and autonomous states were set up by the Dutch. The largest, the
State of East Indonesia (NIT), encompassed most of eastern Indonesia, and was established in December 1946, with its administrative capital in
Makassar.
Diplomacy and major military engagements (1946–1949) 's mandate regarding Indonesian independence in the front wall of
Yogya Kembali Monument Linggardjati Agreement The
Linggadjati Agreement or
Linggardjati Agreement, brokered by the British and concluded in November 1946, saw the Netherlands recognise the Republic as the
de facto authority over Java,
Madura, and Sumatra. Both parties agreed to the formation of the
United States of Indonesia by 1 January 1949, a semi-autonomous
federal state with the
monarch of the Netherlands at its head. The Republican-controlled Java and Sumatra would be one of its states, alongside areas that were generally under stronger Dutch influence, including southern Kalimantan, and the "
Great East", which consisted of Sulawesi, Maluku, the
Lesser Sunda Islands, and
Western New Guinea. The Central National Committee of Indonesia (KNIP) did not ratify the agreement until February 1947, and neither the Republic nor the Dutch were satisfied with it. On 25 March 1947 the
Lower House of the Dutch parliament ratified a stripped-down version of the treaty, which was not accepted by the Republic. Both sides soon accused the other of violating the agreement.
Operation Product At midnight on 20 July 1947, the Dutch launched a major military offensive called
Operatie Product, with the aim of regaining control of economically lucrative areas in Java and Sumatra and deep ports in Java, thus covering the cost of the ~120,000-strong Dutch military presence. Claiming violations of the Linggajati Agreement, the Dutch euphemistically described the campaign as "
police actions" to restore law and order. In the offensive, Dutch forces drove Republican troops out of parts of Sumatra, and East and West Java. The Republicans were confined to the Yogyakarta region of Java. International reaction to the Dutch actions was negative. Neighbouring
Australia and newly independent
India were particularly active in supporting the Republic's cause in the UN, as were the
Soviet Union and, most significantly, the United States. Dutch ships continued to be boycotted from loading and unloading by Australian waterside workers, a blockade that began in September 1945. The
United Nations Security Council became directly involved in the conflict, establishing a Committee of Good Office (CGO, known in Indonesia as Komite Tiga Negara, KTN, but not confused with Unilateral Committee.) to sponsor further negotiations, making the Dutch diplomatic position particularly difficult. A ceasefire, called for by
UNSC resolution 27, was ordered by the Dutch and Sukarno on 4 August 1947.
Renville Agreement The United Nations Security Council brokered the Renville Agreement in an attempt to rectify the collapsed Linggadjati Agreement. The agreement was ratified in January 1948 and recognised a cease-fire along the so-called '
Van Mook line' or '
Renville line'; an artificial line which connected the most advanced Dutch tanks' positions. Many Republican positions, however, were still intact behind the Dutch lines. Some Republican militias, particularly laborers, peasants, and student troops, just couldn't leave thus must live (and operate) behind Renville Line. The agreement also required referendums to be held on the political future of the Dutch-held areas. The apparent reasonableness of Republicans garnered much important American goodwill. The Indonesian Republic faced economic hardship due to losing economically productive areas & the continued naval blockade and land blockades at Renville line (Renville Agreement forbids economic blockades) which led to insufficient availability of not only arms, but also food, clothing, medicine, mails, books, magazines, material to service and repair transportation, and overpopulation due to people fleeing from Dutch advances in Operation Product. This economic hardship was paired with political crisis spurred by accepting the terms of the Renville Agreement, as well as internal conflicts between Republicans and other Indonesian nationalists, which fed fuel to what would later become the
Madiun Affair, and Darul Islam Rebellion. Diplomatic efforts between the Netherlands and the Republic continued throughout 1948 and 1949. Political pressures, both domestic and international, hindered Dutch attempts to decide upon objectives. Similarly, Republican leaders faced great difficulty in persuading their people to accept diplomatic concessions. By July 1948 negotiations were in deadlock and the Netherlands pushed unilaterally towards Van Mook's federal Indonesia concept. The new federal states of South Sumatra and East Java were created, although neither had a viable support base. The Netherlands set up the
Bijeenkomst voor Federaal Overleg (BFO) (or
Federal Consultative Assembly), a body comprising the leadership of the federal states, and charged with the formation of a
United States of Indonesia and an interim government by the end of 1948. The Dutch plans, however, had no place for the Republic unless it accepted a minor role already defined for it. Later plans included Java and Sumatra but dropped all mention of the Republic. The main sticking point in the negotiations was the balance of power between the Netherlands High Representative (successor to office of Governor-General) and the Republican forces. Mutual distrust between the Netherlands and the Republic hindered negotiations. Indonesia who feared a second major Dutch offensive. Meanwhile, the Dutch objected to continued pro-Republican activity on the Dutch side of the Renville line. In February 1948, the Siliwangi Battalion of the Republican Army, led by Abdul Harris Nasution, marched from Central Java to West Java; the relocation was intended to ease internal Republican tensions involving the Battalion in the Surakarta area. The Battalion, however, clashed with Dutch troops while crossing
Mount Slamet, and the Dutch believed it was part of a systematic troop movement across the Van Mook. The fear of such incursions actually succeeding, along with apparent Republican undermining of the Dutch-established Pasundan state and negative reports, led to the Dutch leadership increasingly seeing itself as losing control.
Operation Kraai and General Offensive (Serangan Oemoem) Frustrated at negotiations with the Republic and believing it weakened by both the
Darul Islam and
Madiun insurgencies, the Dutch launched a military offensive on 19 December 1948 which it termed 'Operatie Kraai' (Operation Crow). By the following day it had conquered the city of Yogyakarta, the location of the temporary Republican capital. By the end of December, all major Republican held cities in Java and Sumatra were in Dutch hands. The Republican president, vice-president, and all but six Republic of Indonesia ministers were captured by Dutch troops and exiled on
Bangka Island off the east coast of Sumatra. In areas surrounding Yogyakarta and Surakarta, Republican forces refused to surrender and continued to wage a
guerrilla war under the leadership of Republican military chief of staff
General Sudirman, who had escaped the Dutch offensives. An emergency Republican government, the
Pemerintahan Darurat Republik Indonesia (PDRI), was established in West Sumatra. Although Dutch forces conquered the towns and cities in Republican heartlands on Java and Sumatra, they could not control villages and the countryside. Republican troops and militia led by
Lt. Colonel (later President)
Suharto attacked Dutch positions in Yogyakarta at dawn on 1 March 1949. The Dutch were expelled from the city for six hours but reinforcements were brought in from the nearby cities of Ambarawa and Semarang that afternoon. Indonesian fighters retreated at 12:00 pm and the Dutch re-entered the city. The Indonesian attack, later known in Indonesia as
Serangan Oemoem (new spelling:
Serangan Umum '
1 March General Offensive'), is commemorated by
a large monument in Yogyakarta. A large-scale attack against Dutch troops in
Surakarta on 10 August the same year resulted in republican forces holding the city for two days. Once again, international opinion of the Dutch military campaigns was one of outrage, significantly in both the United Nations and the United States.
U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall threatened to stop all of the economic aid program to the Netherlands unless they immediately withdraw from Indonesia and transferred all of the sovereignty to Indonesia. In January 1949, the
United Nations Security Council passed a resolution demanding the reinstatement of the Republican government. United States aid specifically earmarked for Dutch Indonesia was immediately cancelled and pressure mounted within the
US Congress for all United States aid to be cut off. This included
Marshall Plan funds vital for Dutch post-World War II rebuilding that had so far totalled $US 1 billion. The Netherlands Government had spent an amount equivalent to almost half of this funding their campaigns in Indonesia. That United States aid could be used to fund "a senile and ineffectual imperialism" encouraged many key voices in the United States – including those amongst the US
Republican Party and from within American churches and NGOs – to speak out in support of Indonesian independence.
Indian role The
British Empire assisted the Dutch, however, it departed from the war by November 1946. About 600 Muslims in the Indian army defected to fight in favor of Indonesian fighters. India defied the air blockade over Indonesia, imposed by the Dutch, during 1947 to 1949 and provided supplies and military equipment to the Indonesian freedom fighters. India also stopped the Dutch from using their air space after July 1947. In 1948, India invited Indonesians to form a government-in-exile in India if needed. Nehru also ordered a covert operation which involved Indian military rescuing prime minister
Sutan Syahrir and
Sukarno out of Indonesia.
Biju Patnaik carried out this task.
Internal turmoil The internal turmoil happened was called as social revolutions and insurgencies of Communist and Islamist. It is argued there were common causes because of general similarity of these separated actions. The common causes are extreme polarization of
pergerakan and aristocrat groups, the harshness of Japanese requirement for labour and rice; the vacuum of central authority; powerful Islamic sentiment for mass mobilization; and activity of minute semi-underground revolutionary cadres (commonly communist).
Social revolutions The so-called 'social revolutions' following the independence proclamation were challenges to the Dutch-established Indonesian social order, and to some extent a result of the resentment against Japanese-imposed policies. Across the country, people rose up against traditional aristocrats and village heads and attempted to exert popular ownership of land and other resources. The majority of the social revolutions ended quickly; in most cases the challenges to the social order were quashed, although in
East Sumatra, the sultanates were overthrown and there were mass killings of members of the aristocratic families. A culture of violence rooted in the deep conflicts that split the countryside during the revolution would repeatedly erupt throughout the whole second half of the 20th century. Violence was one of the many lessons learned during the Japanese occupation, and figures identified as '
feudal', including kings, regents, or simply the wealthy, were often attacked and sometimes beheaded. Rape became a weapon against 'feudal' women. In the coastal sultanates of Sumatra and Kalimantan, for example,
sultans and others whose authority had been shored up by the Dutch, were attacked as soon as Japanese authority left. The pro-Dutch aristocratic administrators (
uleëbalangs) secular local lords of
Aceh, who had been the foundation of Dutch rule, were executed during local civil war, and its place was taken over by pro-Republican religious leaders. (
ulama). Meanwhile, monarchical officials in
Surakarta was kidnapped by anti-monarchist movement which led to the freezing and abolition of the special region. Many Indonesians lived in fear and uncertainty, particularly a significant proportion of the population who supported the Dutch or who remained under Dutch control. The popular revolutionary cry 'Freedom or Death' was often interpreted to justify killings under claimed Republican authority. Traders were often in particularly difficult positions. On the one hand, they were pressured by Republicans to boycott all sales to the Dutch; on the other hand, Dutch police could be merciless in their efforts to stamp out smugglers on which the Republican economy depended. In some areas, the term
kedaulatan rakyat ('exercising the sovereignty of the people') – which is mentioned in the preamble of the Constitution and used by
pemuda to demand pro-active policies from leaders – came to be used not only in the demanding of free goods, but also to justify extortion and robbery. Chinese merchants, in particular, were often forced to keep their goods at artificially low prices under threat of death.
Communist and Islamist insurgencies , Indonesia. On 18 September 1948, an 'Indonesian
Soviet Republic' was declared in Madiun, east of Yogyakarta, by members of the PKI and the
Indonesian Socialist Party (PSI). Judging the time right for a
proletarian uprising, they intended it to be a rallying point for revolt against "Sukarno-Hatta, the slaves of the Japanese and America". Madiun however was won back by Republican forces within a few weeks and the insurgency leader, Musso, killed.
Ario Soerjo, the governor of East Java, as well as several police officers and religious leaders, were killed by the rebels. This ended a distraction for the revolution, and it turned vague American sympathies based on anti-colonial sentiments into diplomatic support. Internationally, the Republic was now seen as being staunchly
anti-communist and a potential ally in the emerging global
Cold War between the American-led 'free world' and the Soviet-led bloc. Members of the Republican Army who had come from Islamic militias Hizbullah and Sabilillah felt betrayed by the Indonesian Government for ratifying the Renville Agreement
Transfer of sovereignty '' newspaper regarding the independence of Indonesia date 28 December 1949 The resilience of Indonesian Republican resistance and active international diplomacy set world opinion against the Dutch efforts to re-establish their colony. The second 'police action' was a diplomatic disaster for the Dutch cause. The newly appointed
United States Secretary of State Dean Acheson pushed the Netherlands government into negotiations earlier recommended by the United Nations but until then defied by the Netherlands. The
Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference was held in The Hague from 23 August 1949 to 2 November 1949 between the Republic, the Netherlands, and the Dutch-created federal states. The Netherlands agreed to recognise Indonesian sovereignty over a new
federal state known as the '
United States of Indonesia' (RUSI). It would include all the territory of the former Dutch East Indies with the exception of
Dutch New Guinea; sovereignty over which it was agreed would be retained by the Netherlands until further negotiations with Indonesia within a year of the transfer of sovereignty. The other issue on which Indonesia gave concessions was paying the Netherlands East Indies debt which amounted to 4.5 billion guilders. This amount would mean, Indonesia paid for the colonial government expenses of "". Sovereignty was formally transferred on 27 December 1949, and the new state was immediately recognised by the United States of America. , December 1949 – the Republic of Indonesia is shown in red Republican-controlled Java and Sumatra together formed a single state in the seven-state, nine-territory RUSI federation, but accounted for almost half its population. The other fifteen 'federal' states and territories had been created by the Netherlands since 1945. These entities were dissolved into the Republic over the first half of 1950. An
abortive anti-Republic coup in Bandung and Jakarta by Westerling's
Legion of the Just Ruler (APRA) on 23 January 1950 resulted in the dissolution of the populous
Pasundan state in West Java, thus quickening the dissolution of the federal structure. Colonial soldiers, who were largely Ambonese, clashed with Republican troops in
Makassar during the
Makassar Uprising in April 1950. The predominantly Christian Ambonese were from one of the few regions with pro-Dutch sentiments and they were suspicious of the Javanese Muslim-dominated Republic, whom they unfavourably regarded as leftists. On 25 April 1950, an independent
Republic of South Maluku (RMS) was proclaimed in Ambon but this was suppressed by Republican troops during a campaign from July to November. With the state of East Sumatra now being the only federal state remaining, it too folded and fell in line with the unitary Republic. On 17 August 1950, the fifth anniversary of his declaration of Indonesian independence, Sukarno proclaimed the Republic of Indonesia as a
unitary state. ==Impact and casualties==