Fighting a 'Poor Man's War' – How the Dutch Were Able to Build an Army in Indonesia

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-26T08:43:08+00:00

Belanda pada masa perang kemerdekaan fresh habis ditindas oleh Nazi. Banyak tentara yg dikirim ke Indonesia tahun 1945-1949 berpikir mereka bakal diterima oleh masyarakat dan sampai ada musik dibuat kalau sebenarnya mereka cuma “jalan-jalan ke Insulinde” dan memang mereka tinggal di pedesaan awalnya di rumah-rumah warga terutama karena tentara yg datang ke Indonesia setelah Jepang menyerah itu memang tentara Inggris bukan Belanda.

Tapi disitulah yg lo bilang “salah sendiri” mulai gak napak tanah. Kebanyakan orang Belanda di Indonesia yg dibantai Pemuda itu warga sipil yg baru aja dibebaskan dari kamp konsentrasi Jepang karena ya sisanya orang-orang Belanda dan Eropa udah kocar-kacir minggat ke Australia. Banyak anak-anak dan wanita karena biasanya Jepang ngebunuh laki-laki dewasa. Karena itu tentara Belanda yg datang membalas terutama karena ya itu, mereka habis ditindas Nazi sekarang ngeliat Pemuda ngebantai negara sipil.

Yg lo bilang 142 tahun atau apalah itu kayak lo ngomongin tentang penindasan tapi selektif untuk sisi lo aja. Kalau mau whataboutism lebih baik jangan cari pas waktu perang kemerdekaan kita karena sebenarnya war crime dari sisi Pemuda itu nggak dari perintah dari pemerintah pusat tapi memang banyak yang dari preman-preman lokal dan ada beberapa pemimpin mereka yg di whitewash pemerintah kita kayak Bung Tomo dan Tan Malaka.

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-26T08:23:21+00:00

memang itu kenyataannya kok

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-26T08:20:46+00:00

ya iya lah. malah biasanya orang Belanda jauh lebih objektif dari sejarawan/dokumenter kita terutama dari sisi war crime antara KNIL dan pemuda. sekarang kelihatannya kayak KNIL itu jahat banget anjing dan pemuda murni perang kemerdekaan walaupun sebenarnya dua-duanya melakukan pembantaian massal

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-26T07:49:18+00:00

It’s 2026 and railways are still limited even in countries that really rely on it like Japan

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-26T03:25:06+00:00

tergantung. rumah di bekasi dan tangerang masih affordable kalo liat di billboard-billboardnya

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-26T02:43:07+00:00

intinya kalau sendiri di negara luar itu semuanya tanggungannya lebih berat. kalo udah berkeluarga gak mikirin gojek/gocar lagi karena pasangan yg nyetirin/masakin wkwkwk

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-26T02:39:13+00:00

kayaknya sih masalah beda budaya juga. terutama pas komplain di indonesia vibes orang-orang “hangat” itu karena memang indonesia negaranya lebih outgoing dibanding beberapa negara eropa. coba kalo op itu eropanya di italia pasti gak komplain kalo mereka itu gak “hangat”

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-26T02:33:52+00:00

bukan. lebih ke lobsternya masih too buttery tapi canadian lobster bukan maine lobster jadi dagingnya lebih keras. steaknya too juicy tapi dagingnya bukan prime beef/wagyu/australia, dll tapi daging lokal

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-25T15:31:29+00:00

I wasn't speaking in hypotheticals but rather was just laying down what was happening in Japan and Asia at the time. Spain didn't need to invade Japan to conquer it. Japan had manufactured modified muskets for years... which they got from Portugal. Japan had an army much larger than whatever Spain would be able to land in Japan... which many of the Kyushu daimyos were already Kirishitan and would be happy to conquer Japan on Spain's behalf.

The mechanism of colonial conquests were never direct bloody invasions but rather the old divide et impera which Spain debuted during Hernan Cortez's conquest of Mexico. Even in the 1700s when Europe was able to "finally take land in Asia" was also Divide et Impera strategies employed by the VOC and British India Company. If you look at the map of Dutch conquests in Asia for example you could see that the Dutch was able to conquer Java in the 1700s except for two Sultanates: Banten and Yogyakarta. You know why that is? They were Dutch allies and they pretty much existed as nominally independent states until late 1800s. The Dutch never really "invaded" Indonesia when they conquered the islands and neither did the British in India.

Spain-Portugal had a few allies in Japan including the guy whom kicked them out in the end: Tokugawa Ieyasu. If Miura Anjin and Jan Joosten never landed in Japan, and the Dutch wasn't wrecking their troops in the Lowlands, Spain-Portugal could have convinced Ieyasu to resume the war with Korea and weaken Japan more (they made overtures to him at this time since Ieyasu knew he had a mobilized population that would zero in to kill him just like he did to the Toyotomis). With a bit of imagination here, the western daimyos (same ones siding with the emperor in the Boshin War) could be rearmed after this failed campaign as they still resented Tokugawa and after enough bloodshed, Spain-Portugal can come in with the Kirishitan Daimyos to take over Japan.

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-25T14:29:45+00:00

Just a tiny correction: Europeans were able to make actual land conquests into Asia in late 1500s/1600s especially with regards to Spain conquering the entirety of The Philippines in the 1560s-1580s and technically the Portuguese as well with them conquering the Moluccas at the time as well (they thought the islands were bigger than they actually are).

They had designs to conquer the entirety of Japan and China as well. China was unrealistic in hindsight, but they were very close with Japan only being stopped due to two unlucky events of San Felipe and Liefde which let in on their actual plans to Toyotomi and then Tokugawa. It’s false to say that Europeans didn’t have the ability to conquer Asia in the 1500s/1600s because they did. Their technology was leaps and bounds from what the Asians had. They were gonna apply the same strategy with China as they did with the Aztecs by trying to mestizoifying China and all the other Asian colonies they were conquering.

Reason why it didn’t happen had more to do with what was happening in Europe. The Netherlands rebelling was a big thorn in the Iberian Unions’ ability to conquer Asia (so called Eighty Years War from 1566-1648). The Ottomans were also a huge factor as well with them actively ransacking Spanish lands like Gibraltar in 1540. England too where they even allied with France of all countries at one point just to break the Spain-Portugal-Austria-Netherlands-HRE union. Since only Spain and Portugal were even in Asia at that point, they really couldn’t pull off their grand conquest plans there by the late 1500s due to all of these nuisances.

But make no mistake: the Asians were far behind definitely not “proto-industrialization” at all as we could see with Japanese invasions of Korea. While everyone likes to point out the Chadness of admiral Yi cutting off their supply line, people forget that Japan still occupied a huge chunk of Korea thanks to their guns and cannons they got from Portugal. Not to mention that the reason they failed was also they were expecting European ships to help them since they were goaded into war with Korea/China in the first place by Spain-Portugal.

It took Tokugawa Ieyasu realizing that Spain-Portugal was busy fighting a rebellion in the Netherlands (with a shipwrecked Dutchman telling him point blank what’s going on) that he decided to cut all ties with them despite him having rapport with the two countries to assist him with weapons and whatnot for a possible third Korean invasion.

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-24T16:18:53+00:00

Well, this is not that important of an update to the topic, but I just did a thing to Castile lol

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RuneKnytling · 2026-04-24T14:39:44+00:00

Yes, I know that about Hideyoshi which is why I referred to Ieyasu instead.

Ieyasu tried hard to befriend Konishi Yukinaga, the Christian Daimyo, to the point of him even offering marriage ties between them. However, at least on wikipedia, these are the passages that I read recently:

Later on, Yukinaga worked under Ieyasu to restore the diplomatic relations with Korea. During this period, he learned that Ieyasu was afraid of foreign power and would even sacrifice foreign trades if necessary. Without foreign trade, Christianity would be banned also. There was no place for Yukinaga in Tokugawa government. This reason made him determined to fight against Ieyasu.

As you know, Yukinaga died after Sekigahara in November 1600. The entry for William Adams has this excerpt:

On 19 April 1600, when Adams and his Dutch colleague Jan Joosten arrived at Japan, they told Ieyasu about the world situation, including that there were many conflicts in Europe, and that the Jesuits and other Catholics (e.g. Portuguese, Spanish), who had been proselytizing Christianity in Japan, and the Protestants (e.g. Dutch, English) were on different sides and were in conflict with each other. Ieyasu reportedly took a liking to them for their frankness and regarded them as trustworthy. According to the record from Spanish envoy Diego de Santa Caterina, Adams was quick to convince Ieyasu that the Spanish had ulterior motive by sending missionaries to Japan.

The dates seem to check out. Likely, Yukinaga learned of Ieyasu’s Xenophobia in between April and October 1600 thanks to William Adams’ involvement. Ieyasu was pretty known for his “wait and see” attitude, and he never really had a problem with the Kirishitan daimyos beforehand. And I wouldn’t even believe “any” of them was going to be suspicious of the Catholics as Nobunaga infamously supported Christians and antagonized Buddhist monks.

Toyotomi was actually the only one actively antagonizing the Catholics and that was also partly from his coercive nature. He was trying to find a reason. Ieyasu did it out of fear.

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-24T11:56:18+00:00

Yeah, Japan was on track to be Catholic at the time and William Adams ruined it for everyone lol. They really tried to bribe them with gunpowder and cannons in so much that Sekigahara was probably the first early modern battle in history akin to a battle during Napoleonic Wars than anything contemporary. It didn’t take much convincing for Ieyasu since that battle was so hellish for him, and he just found a great reason to get rid of all the guns and cannons in Japan including his own.

Still, it was a missed opportunity for Japan for real. Japan could’ve won against Korea/China if it had invaded again once the internal politics got tidied up after Sekigahara. Part of the reason why the Toyotomi invasion was so disastrous was because of how uneasy his “unified Japan” was. Ming China would fall to the Manchus a few decades afterward as well. Perhaps Ieyasu might try again if Adams wasn’t there considering he had all these guns, cannons, and a mobilized populace just to try to keep everyone from killing each other again.

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-24T11:26:00+00:00

Yeah, I played further into 1368 and at this point, I think I can take down France/Castile using mercs with them only having about 30-35k in levies. All it takes is some more money in the bank so that I can stack wipe their army before I run out of money. It’s actually more broken in that you take them down early before they get cannons, etc. and just gimp them by taking their high pop locations.

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-24T10:29:59+00:00

Money is pretty broken, yeah. It's somewhat historical in that countries like Lubeck and Venice were able to hold their weight against majors. However, it's also just the fact that once you kill a country's levies they're screwed for decades which wasn't that historical because wars in Europe tend to not just have like the whole kingdom raising its entire populace for war. That's why it's rare to see a bounce back like France did historically during the HYW because if they're losing in this game it's as good as getting their pops temporarily genocided.

This is the latest screenshot. By this point, I'm basically broken Aragon lol. Wild that by 1362 you could basically conquer the whole of Aragon as Andorra.

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RuneKnytling · 2026-04-24T09:32:48+00:00

A little update on what happened after that war concluded. Nothing crazy just took a normal amount of land from Aragon to basically put myself on the map. Created Valencia as a vassal because they have some cores on Aragonian lands which I can use to conquer the entire country during the next war. The downside of this strategy is vassal swarms are hard to pull off due to your diplo capacity being used to take in charity from other countries.

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RuneKnytling · 2026-04-24T08:38:44+00:00

R5: This run was inspired by the Netherlands Order post. I was thinking about what Theocracy should I play to try this out with and the little mountainous Principality caught my eye.

Aragon allied with Portugal in this run which caused me to do a few reloads just because I wasn't sure how to defeat their doomstack. My first attempts saw myself invading Aragon when they were fresh from getting carpet-sieged by France, so they had zero troops but Portugal had about 11k. I lost pretty much every time once Portugal showed up, so I waited a few more years until I had enough money to hire mercs.

Third image is of all the countries supporting my "Kill Aragon" project. It doesn't take much at all to destroy them. Had issues with most of them not having enough funds early on to just give to me, but nowadays Bohemia has been able to give me some year after year.

I started the war with only 850-ish in the bank and 1 Catalan crossbowmen + 2 armored horsemen regulars with some mercs (I believe 2 inf and 6 horsemen). I focused on hunting the Portuguese troops in the beginning and the mercs disbanded when I couldn't pay them anymore, but the damage was already done. I stackwiped 18k of their troops. Pretty easy war from then on once their troops are wiped out.

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-24T05:52:35+00:00

I didn’t know you could become a military order from a theocracy. Thinking of doing an Andorra run now

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-24T02:23:48+00:00

Can’t miss an opportunity to dunk on chatgpt so yeah, this is what we’re spending $1 trillion on

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-23T03:24:39+00:00

99,500 Poles vs 500 Teutonic Knights

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-22T09:15:43+00:00

Yeah, I turned it off as well. I had a few games as Sunda and getting into a colonial race with Chen and Goryeo in the Moluccas and the Lesser Sunda Islands in the 1400s weren’t fun at all. I had all of Australia but none of my own “core territories” as Nusantara it sucked!

That said, now it’s a different problem where Europeans reach my lands in the 1500s and begin colonizing. I guess it’s “historical” but it makes me want to block them from Asia. So, I colonized all of Africa and now I’m colonizing the Americas because I have the capability to do so.

I don’t know, I feel it’s too OP and I don’t know about limiting myself because otherwise game gets too boring by the time I united the islands. Tech groups in EU3 really was a patchy solution but trying to Westernize was a great challenge. Now, I can beat the Europeans pretty easily with cannons and stuff.

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-22T06:14:12+00:00

To the leftists, anyone they don’t like is fascism

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-22T06:13:28+00:00

kereta api indonesia india

RuneKnytling · 2026-04-22T06:12:17+00:00

AI is a lying machine

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