TEACHINGA World-Systems Perspective By Barney Warf

ew countries are as poorly understood as Indonesia, especially in the United States. The largest Muslim and fourth most populous nation in the world, with a population of 210 million, Indonesia is not well represented by large expatriate communities living overseas, nor has it figured prominently in international affairs. Given this situation, teaching about Indonesia is particularly challenging: while students may have some familiarity about China or Japan, they are likely to have no basis with which to approach Southeast ’s giant. This article argues for the use of world-systems theory to reveal Indonesia’s historical construction in a manner that is likely to capture students’ interest. The world-systems perspective argues that Indonesia can only be understood by embedding it within the dynamics of an international system. Although this point is abundantly evident with regardF to the long Dutch colonization, Indonesia’s external ties long precede the Dutch colonial occupation. Indonesia today is a palimpsest reflecting the imprints of many cultures over a long period of time, and it can only be under- stood meaningfully in those terms. This article first briefly summarizes a pedagogy revolving around world-systems theory. Second, it traces the con- tours of the long period of Indonesia’s history prior to colonialism. Third, it focuses on the impacts of Indonesia’s incor- poration into the capitalist world system under Dutch rule. Fourth, it offers some observations about the nation’s con- temporary status, particularly its growing prominence among the “new tigers” of . While the notion that external linkages are important determinants of the events within a particular place is not new, it has been given sub- stantial theoretical rigor through its formalization in terms of world-systems theory.

WORLD-SYSTEMS AS HEURISTIC TOOL

he world-systems perspective holds viability of capitalism assumes capital’s stein’s early theoretical model of a trilogy that places can only be analyzed ability to cross national borders and pit of global core, periphery, and semi- through their interactions with the places against one another. The steady periphery. Recent modifications include remainderT of the world, that all regions are expansion of capitalism—its inherent attempts to reconcile the world-systems interconnected and never exist in isolation drive to incorporate places within com- with theories of consciousness and of one another. First articulated by Waller- modity production—is driven by the the critical roles of culture and ideology,5 stein,1 this view has been highly influen- search for profits. In the twentieth century, providing antidotes to the economic deter- tial in the social sciences.2 It holds that the global system of nations and markets minism that plagued earlier conceptions. individual places can only be fruitfully has tied places together to an unprecedent- Geographers have been attracted to world- analyzed with reference to their ties to the ed degree, including international net- systems theory because of its sensitivity to world economy, that exogenous sources of works of trade, investment, subcontract- spatial differences in historical experience, change are as important as endogenous ing, and consumption.3 In light of the and the ways in which it allows regions to ones, and that the global economic and steady spread of multinational firms, be contextualized within a global setting.6 political context is of enormous impor- financial firms, and nongovernmental Dixon approached southeast Asia within tance in shaping the fortunes of regions organizations since World War II, it is the broad parameters sketched here, but over time. Unlike earlier world empires, impossible to understand any regional or paid little attention to the precolonial where a single political structure dominat- national economy without examining its period.7 ed to appropriate the surplus value pro- foreign linkages. The remainder of this article illus- duced by places on the periphery (e.g., the Unlike earlier dependency views, trates how Indonesia’s historical geogra- Roman Empire), in a true world-system which took a uniformly negative view of phy can be understood using a world-sys- there are multiple political centers. the impacts of capitalism on less devel- tems view. Its purpose is not simply to In the context of capitalism, the fun- oped regions, the world-systems perspec- recapitulate the nation’s history, but damental political structure is the interstate tive allows for both upward and down- to show how its global linkages continu- system (not the nation-state), meaning that ward mobility within the global economy.4 ally reverberated across the archipelago there is no effective way to control global There have been substantial revisions and in profoundly important ways. markets. Indeed, the very flexibility and modifications to this view since Waller-

17 EARLY INDONESIA AND THE PRE-CAPITALIST WORLD-SYSTEM

ituated near the great culture realms Sung and Ming dynasty China, Mughal from Gujarat and the Malabar and Coro- of China and , the 13,000 India, Indonesia, Mamluk mandel coasts of India.16 An active divi- islands that comprise Indonesia Egypt, and feudal , all of which sion of labor among the islands generated haveS long been subject to cultural influ- were sutured together by trade routes a vibrant trade that included Javanese ences from both.8 Much of the islands’ overland (the Silk Road) and over water, , , Sumatran pep- earliest history borrowed greatly from primarily the Indian Ocean.12 Abu- per, Timorese sandalwood, and Moluc- India, from which Indonesia acquired the Lughod attributes the Srivijayans’ signif- can , all of which testify to a Hindu/Buddhist culture that dominated icance entirely to their domination over thriving regional exchange system.17 for a millennium until the Muslim arrival the Strait, linking their rise to an The collapse of Srivijaya reflected in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. eighth-century upswing in trade and their three concurrent factors in the thirteenth- The Hinduization of , starting in the collapse with the thirteenth-century disin- century world-system. First, a series of fourth century, was initiated by waves of tegration of Sung Dynasty China from conflicts occurred with the Chola king- Indian traders traveling by sea.9 the Mongol invasion, which annihilated doms in India, including Chola raids From the seventh to the thirteenth the eastern terminus of that trading sys- against Malacca as the two struggled for centuries, the western islands of Indone- tem.13 She argues (p. 303) that “If the control over trade in the eastern Indian sia flourished under the powerful Srivi- political definition of dependency is that Ocean.18 Second, the Mongol conquest jaya Empire, the most important in its externally generated decisions have an of China and Burma created vast turmoil history. At its apex under the Buddhist inordinate effect on internal events that a throughout Asia, including Kublai Sailendra dynasty, Srivijaya’s influence country is powerless to withstand, then Khan’s attempted invasion of Java using extended across southeast Asia to include the Strait area must be conceptualized, at Chinese mercenaries in 1293, only to be southern Vietnam.10 Coedes notes that least in part and in the preceding cen- defeated by the Javanese navy and malar- the opening for this kingdom was made turies, as a dependency of China.” ia. Third, the Thai conquest of the Malay possible by the collapse of Funan in While her view emphasizes the role peninsula robbed Srivijaya of northern Indochina, which had dominated the of the world-system, it reduces Indonesia control of the Straits.19 region’s seas for the preceding five cen- to a mere entrepot function, one that min- Externally, Srivijaya’s collapse facili- turies.11 A common explanation of Srivi- imizes the significance of the local pro- tated the emergence of the Khmer king- jaya’s success centers upon control over duction and exchange systems that flour- dom in as Indochina was liber- the strategic Malacca Strait and the grow- ished there, such as textiles, bam- ated from Indonesian control.20 Internally, ing trade network between China and boo artifacts, stone carvings, and peppers it set the stage for the ascendancy of the India. and spices.14 Javanese rice exports pro- Javanese Empire (1300–1478) Abu-Lughod describes in detail a vided that island with the basis of its over the Sumatran-based Srivijaya. Coedes world system not under the domination political power,15 in return for Chinese notes that “the simultaneous, if not com- of Europe, linking cultures as diverse as silks, Bengali opium, and iron and cotton bined, action of the Javanese and the Thai

Cultures linked to Srivijaya Indonesia by land (the Silk Road) and sea trade routes: Dutch arrival in 1602 Sung and Ming dynasty China, Mughal India, Portuguese seizure of Malacca in 1511 Mamluk Egypt, feudal Europe 700 1200 1300 1500 1600 EXAMPLE EXPORTS: batik textiles, bamboo artifacts, stone carvings, and peppers and spices IMPORTS: Chinese silks, Bengali opium, and iron and cotton from India INTER-ISLAND TRADE: Javanese batiks, Sulawesi cloves, Sumatran Pepper, Timorese sandalwood, and Moluccan nutmeg. Sumatran-based, Srivijaya Empire Java-based with control of the Malacca Strait Majapahit Empire Dominance of Hindu/Buddhist culture The arrival of Islam

By 1520 Islam had converts Chola kingdom conflicts in India, Chola raids against Malacca throughout Java and much of Mongol conquest of China and Burma, and ’s attempted invasion of Java (excluding ) Thai conquest of the , giving them northern control of the Malacca Straits

stripped Srivijaya at once of its island and continental posses- sions.” 21 Majapahit Indonesia, in turn, col- lapsed in the face of the arrival of Islam in the fourteenth and fif- teenth centuries.22 The collapse of Srivijaya effectively left international com- merce to the ,

who rapidly took con- Figure 1: Indonesia: expansion of Dutch influence. Based on Fisher 1964: 257, redrawn by Helge Swanson. trol of the all-impor- tant .23 Itinerant Arabic sailors, travelers, and missionaries played a key Modelski periodizes the history of the protection may have eroded its profitabili- role in the spread of Islam.24 Thus, the capitalist world economy into distinct ty, as did increased competition with the arrival of Islam accelerated trade between epochs, each of which was dominated by a British.35 Following the , the eastern and western edges of the Indian hegemonic national power. 28 The first the became a crown Ocean.25 Islam’s ascendancy also reflected period, which saw the rise to world promi- possession. the geopolitics of the region, particularly nence of the Portuguese, started in South- The expansion of Dutch control over the interests of local Javanese kings who east Asia with their seizure of Malacca in the East Indies was temporal- wished to counter the old Hindu Majapahit 1511. The Portuguese were well aware of ly very extended and highly uneven geo- state, the Buddhist Siamese, or the new the importance of this strait to Europe: graphically. Control over the and European presence.26 Islam spread rela- explorer Tome Pires, for example, claimed nutmeg trade in Ambon, Banda and the tively rapidly throughout Indonesia that “Whoever is lord of Malacca has his Moluccas in 1602 gave them a foothold, to (excepting Bali), diffusing along coastal hands on the throat of Venice.”29 be followed by the founding of the port of areas and through the conversion of In 1602, the Dutch arrived, signaling Batavia (later ) in Java in 1617, and elites.27 By the early sixteenth century the second great hegemon.30 The primary the seizure of Malacca in 1641. Two cen- much of Sumatra had been converted, and vehicle for the Dutch colonization of turies later, in the 1830s, the Dutch subju- by 1520 Islam had gained converts Indonesia was the Dutch East India Com- gated the Minangkabau in western Suma- throughout Java, effectively annihilating pany (Vereenigte Oost-Indische Compag- tra. in northern Sumatra succumbed the old Indian influence. nie, or VOC), the world’s largest trading in 1904, and Bali was the last to fall, in and shipping company in the seventeenth 1908. The prominence of Batavia saw a and eighteenth centuries.31 Dutch activity realignment of power away from Indone- DUTCH INDONESIA: in Southeast Asia was an integral part of sia’s traditional capital, Jogjakarta, which INCORPORATION INTO its struggle against the Spanish and its reflected the importance of the maritime trade rivalry with Britain.32 Dutch rule world economy (Figure 1). THE APITALIST ORLD C W during the seventeenth century was aided The Dutch molded Indonesia into a ECONOMY by the rise of the Mataram kingdom, profitable source of export-based cash which fostered a period of Indonesian crops, including cinnamon, nutmeg, servitude that suppressed indigenous mer- cloves, copra, pepper, sugar, coffee, tea, he colonization of Indonesia by chants and craft workers in favor of the cotton, indigo, and tobacco, mostly pro- Europeans marked a distinctive colonialists.33 duced in a vast network of plantations that break from previous eras and its Like the Hudson Bay and British accelerated the commodification of agri- steadyT incorporation into the expanding West and East Indies Companies, the VOC culture and transformed the VOC from world system wrought by capitalism. was a chartered monopoly representing merchant to landlord, from a maritime to a While the broad contours of Indonesia’s both public and private interests, which naval power. With the global wave of colonial experience are familiar to any under mercantilism were often hard to sep- time-space compression that accompanied student of colonialism, they also reflect arate. A pillar of the Dutch state, the VOC the Industrial Revolution, particularly the the enduring legacy of the precolonial was also important in South Africa and Sri introduction of the steamship and the com- T epoch, the specific policies and practices Lanka, as well as trade with Japan through pletion of the Suez Canal in 1869, the of the Dutch, the timing of the nation’s Deshima, on Ky†sh†. The VOC dominat- European demand for Indonesian goods incorporation into the world of global ed Indonesia until its abolition in 1798, expanded to include tin, palm oil, copper,

commodity production, and in turn set the when it went bankrupt and faced mounting lumber, and, after 1903, rubber.36 While

stage for the nationalist movements of the British naval competition.34 Rising expen- plantations generated huge increases in twentieth century. ditures associated with administration and exports of raw materials, the majority of 19

the rural population remained locked in INDONESIA IN COLD WAR CONTEXT subsistence rice production,37 forming a classic dual economy. If colonialism impoverished Indonesia, it made the n August 17, 1945, President risked the fate of many other Netherlands wealthy, reviving the ship- Sukarno proclaimed the indepen- national leaders who attempted to defy ping industry and turning Amsterdam into dence of the Republic. Despite the superpower priorities that emphasized a major trade entrepot.38 four-year-longO Dutch attempt at recolo- quiescent Third World nations amenable Anticolonial struggles in Indonesia nization, Indonesia attained sovereignty. to foreign capital, especially given the were also conditioned by the world-sys- President Sukarno, who played a key role intense jockeying between the U.S. and tem. In the sixteenth century, using in the formation of the new republic, the Soviet Union during the years of Cold imported Turkish arms, the Acehnese attempted to integrate the multitude of War rivalry. attacked Portuguese-held Malacca.39 islands and peoples into a modern nation- In the aftermath of the October, 1965 Emboldened by the Napoleonic Wars and state.41 However, Sukarno’s strident coup that overthrew Sukarno, roughly the brief British occupation (1811–16), nationalism and anti-Western rhetoric— one-half million or more people were mounting discontent with the Dutch led to including expropriation of Dutch holdings killed, particularly in Bali and eastern the Second Javanese War (1825–30). and expulsion of Dutch nationals in 1957, Java. Many of the victims died in orga- Turkish participation in the takeovers of British and U.S. businesses nized pogroms against the Chinese minor- (1854–56) inspired many Javanese to a in 1963, a sustained distrust of foreign ity, who comprised 3 percent of the popu- pan-Islamic, anti-Western perspective.40 capital,42 and withdrawal from the United lation but served as a lightning rod for Steamships made it possible for large Nations—was accompanied by the steady Muslim hotheads, who portrayed them as numbers to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, growth of the Communist Party of wealthy, greedy infidels. fueling a resurgence of religious fervor. In Indonesia (PKI). The events of 1965 spelled the end of the early twentieth century, secularized, Illustrating the difficulty a former Indonesia’s nationalist, import-substitu- urbanized Indonesian nationalists were colony has when it attempts development tion phase and the beginning of its rapid inspired by Japan’s victory against Russia in isolation of the world-system (much integration into the international econo- in 1905 and by the Chinese Revolution in like similar attempts in Burma and Tanza- my. As Emmerson noted, “Where 1911. Dutch rule was eventually broken nia), Indonesia’s economy under Sukarno Sukarno struggled for self-reliance with- by the brutal Japanese occupation during collapsed, with negative GNP growth and out the West, has tried to achieve World War II, which shattered the myth of rapid inflation.43 Sukarno attempted to it by using the West.” 44 Suharto’s poli- European invincibility. minimize domestic conflict by appealing cies emphasized unfettered markets, to foreign crises, even generating his own deregulation, convertibility of the rupiah, to divert attention from the deteriorating and overtures to foreign capital.45 In con- economy, including the 1962 campaign to trast to the stagnation suffered under wrest Irian Jaya from the Dutch, which Sukarno, these policies succeeded quite incorporated a distinctly Melanesian peo- well. Calling himself the Father of Devel- ple into a predominantly Asian society. opment, Suharto succeeded in delivering By contradicting the strategic interests of 7 percent annual economic growth for the post-WWII hegemon, the U.S., three decades, one of the most rapid rates

October 1965 coup overthrows Sukarno Beginning of Indonesia’s rapid integration into the August 17, 1945, President Sukarno proclaims international economy the independence of the Republic The Dutch arrival in 1602 Dutch rule broken May 21, 1998, during Japanese Suharto resigns 1617 Dutch founding of the port of Batavia (Jakarta) in Java Dutch East Indies occupation of WWII 1641 Seizure of Malacca becomes a crown possession 7 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

1798 abolition of the 1830 fall Fall of 1957 May 1997, Dutch of the Aceh (1904) expulsion the beginning of the Minangkabau Bali (1908) of Dutch end of the in western nationals “Asian Miracle” Sumatra Beginning in the seventeenth 54 of sustained economic growth in history. century, Dutch colonialism nation’s foreign revenues. Because Suharto’s emphasis on economic develop- most foreign investment is concentrated ment also included family planning, saw Indonesia reduced in Java, while the Outer Islands remain increasing literacy, and self-sufficiency in to the periphery of the largely dependent upon extraction of raw rice production. As a result, the poverty world-system as the VOC materials, Indonesia’s position in the rate declined from 70 percent in 1970 to world economy has accentuated its long- 15 percent in 1990. Because Suharto con- accelerated the standing bifurcation between core and ducted so much of his business with the commodification of cash periphery. ethnic Chinese minority, who control the crops through a vast These events also have important economy, that group witnessed particular- ecological repercussions. Beseiged by ly dramatic increases in prosperity.46 plantation system. The decades rising population levels and both local Given the austere international poli- following Sukarno’s ouster and foreign demand for hardwoods, tics of the Cold War from the 1960s in 1965 witnessed Indonesia Indonesia’s vast rainforests, primarily through the early 1990s, Indonesia’s mili- those located on and Suma- tary-dominated government became an steadily incorporated tra, are rapidly being destroyed at the increasingly repressive garrison state. As into the global economy, rate of six million acres annually, partic- Suharto’s replaced Sukarno’s elevating Indonesia to the ularly under conditions of El Nino-dri- Guided Democracy, thousands of people ven drought. Japanese, Korean, Ameri- languished in the government’s gulag sys- semi-periphery and pulling can and Indonesian lumber and timber tem. Political repression is particularly millions out of poverty. companies have turned Indonesia into harsh in the case of East , where the world’s largest plywood producer.55 separatists, mindful of their Portuguese, Like many developing nations, Indonesia Catholic ancestry, have long struggled tributed to a steady, if uneven, improve- faces a brutal “jobs or trees” tradeoff. against its forced incorporation into ment in the quality of life for rural peas- Whereas many Westerners envision a Indonesia in 1974. In 1975, a govern- ants. Nonetheless, like most peripheral land of pristine rainforests and indige- ment-inspired massacre and simultaneous states in the world-system, Indonesia’s nous tribes, parts of the nation have been famine accentuated by the island’s fre- reliance upon petroleum reflected a reduced to the tropical equivalent of quent droughts in combined to dependence upon the export of primary Iowa. kill up to 200,000 people. In 1991, gov- sector raw materials. As the price of oil ernment troops opened fire on demonstra- collapsed in the 1980s and 1990s, the tors, killing between fifty and one hun- nation was forced to explore other alter- INDONESIA AFTER dred. Similar, less visible repression con- natives, paving the way for a more diver- THE COLD WAR tinues in Irian Jaya, whose non-Muslim sified economy. inhabitants resist Java’s attempts to con- In the 1990s, Indonesia has aggres- trol its rich mineral and timber resources. sively courted foreign capital.49 In he historical geography of global The core-periphery dichotomy Wallerstein’s terms, this process catapult- capitalism is replete with successive between Java and the outer islands, ed the region from the status of periphery epochs of expansion and contrac- repeatedly reinforced through Indonesia’s to semi-periphery.50 Indonesia became tion.T These “long waves” of growth and foreign linkages, has had important policy particularly attractive to firms located in decline constitute a fundamental part of effects. The Indonesian government has the later phases of the product cycle, world-systems theory.56 Although the long sought to encourage transmigration when large quantities of cheap, unskilled long post-WWII economic boom in East from that overpopulated isle (which, with labor are most in demand. Nike shoes, for Asia may have appeared to continue 100 million people, contains one-half of example, has been abandoning its South indefinitely to the millions scattered in the the nation’s population) to the “outer Korean plants for cheaper operations in region stretching from Tokyo to Surabaja, islands,” particularly Sumatra, Kaliman- Indonesia.51 In an attempt to imitate its the late 1990s brought about a sudden, tan, Sulawesi, and Irian Jaya.47 Between more successful neighbor Malaysia, massive contraction in their economic 1950 and 1984, more than 2.3 million Indonesia initiated an infant industry in fortunes, abruptly ending the steady eco- people were thus relocated. semiconductors and electronic parts,52 nomic progress that made that part of the The OPEC oil shocks of the 1970s which was linked to its hopes of estab- globe an inspiration to many impover- initiated a new era of economic change. lishing an aerospace industry (the heavily ished nations. Beginning in May, 1997, a As OPEC’s only Asian member, Indone- subsidized Aircraft Company catastrophic currency crisis signaled the sia benefited from the 1973–82 global oil in Bandung). As Indonesia joined the end to the “Asian miracle.”57 The severe boom, during which petroleum constitut- “new tigers” of southeast Asia, annual depression that diffused throughout the ed three quarters of the nation’s exports, GNP growth rates in the late 1980s and Asian economies inevitably brought with half the government’s budget revenues, 1990s hovered around 8 percent it important political repercussions. and one-fifth of GNP.48 While oil rev- annually,53 although by the late 1990s Indonesia’s position economically enues accelerated the corruption for they declined precipitously. Tourism, was particularly precarious. Like many which Indonesia is famous, they also con- especially in Bali, has also increased the neighboring countries, its financial sys-

21 tem was caught in the collapse of a spec- sition movement, including Sukarno’s periphery of the world-system as the ulative bubble that included an overval- daughter Megawati Sukarno, claimed VOC accelerated the commodification of ued currency, overbuilding in the com- credit for the change, others point to the cash crops through a vast plantation sys- mercial real estate market, and poor gov- army as the decisive power broker.59 tem. The decades following Sukarno’s ernment oversight of lending practices, The course to be pursued by the ouster in 1965 witnessed Indonesia leading to a wave of bankruptcies, fore- new government, led by President B. J. steadily incorporated into the global closures, and layoffs. Between mid-1997 Habibie, is still unclear, although there economy, elevating Indonesia to the and mid-1998, the rupiah declined by 80 are hopes for the release of political semi-periphery and pulling millions out percent relative to the U.S. dollar, mak- prisoners, the repeal of repressive laws, of poverty. The Suharto regime, which ing imports prohibitively expensive for free elections, the end of press censor- negotiated this process, received firm the middle class and poor and swelling ship, and a resolution to the continuing backing from its patron, the U.S., in popular discontent. The prices of Indone- problem in East Timor. Without a quick return for the staunch anticommunism sian debt and equity on the bond and economic recovery, Indonesia could that was one of its primary political stock exchanges were reduced to deriso- easily slide into chaos, fertile grounds pillars. ry levels, allowing “bottom-fishing” for anti-Western radicalism or Islamic Finally, the collapse of the Suharto investors brave enough to withstand the fundamentalism. As Barber has percep- regime reflects not only the end of the nation’s murky markets to make high tively pointed out, the global upsurge in long-standing Asian economic miracle levels of profits in the case of an eco- ethnic politics after the Cold War largely and the beginning of a new epoch of nomic rebound. reflects the struggles of the economically heightened uncertainty, but also the Under the watchful eye of the Inter- marginalized against globalization.60 In geopolitical realities of the post-Cold national Monetary Fund, Indonesia has Indonesia’s case, the ethnic politics of War era. In short, the internal dynamics been forced to overhaul its financial globalization could translate into of Indonesia can be best understood in markets, restructure debt, reduce subsi- renewed attacks against the Chinese relation to their external context, i.e., the dies for public transport and cooking minority, which prospered so well under world system that has repeatedly struc- oils, and in general conform to the global Suharto and continues to control 70 per- tured and restructured Indonesia over the prerequisites of neoliberal economic cent of the national economy. last two millennia. This sort of analysis is internationalism. Winters attributes likely to have similar applicability to many of Indonesia’s changes from other places. n the 1970s to the 1990s to the growing CONCLUSION mobility of international capital and its ability to leverage its interests against orld-systems theory offers a nation-states.58 useful means to illustrate These circumstances politically Indonesia’s historical geogra- brought about the collapse of the authori- phyW to students. While numerous works The author thanks Jan Kodras and tarian Suharto regime, which had ruled have studied places in their global con- three anonymous reviewers for Indonesia throughout the long decades of text, this perspective allows the diverse their helpful comments. the Cold War. Widespread resentment welter of facts and anecdotes about a against government corruption and inac- complex, diverse set of islands to be tion fueled a long-standing latent hostili- organized systematically. In light of this ty toward the minuscule Chinese minori- view, Indonesia’s internal social and spa- ty, leading to attacks on shopkeepers and tial structures are profoundly shaped by merchants. Buffeted by massive, angry its external connections. student riots and demonstrations, and Such linkages predate the colonial growing calls for democracy among the world system.61 For example, early trade urban poor, Suharto, one of the world’s routes across the Indian Ocean brought longest-reigning dictators, resigned on Hinduism and , which deci- May 21, 1998. sively shaped Indonesia’s cultures and Without the need for a bastion of landscapes. Trade repeatedly connected anti-Sovietism in Southeast Asia, the Indonesia with China and India, leading withdrawal of U.S. support was also to a series of trading states (e.g., Srivi- important; in the political context of the jaya, Majapahit). However, a diversity of post-Cold War world-system, U.S. local production systems (rice, sandal- BARNEY WARF ([email protected]) is Profes- sor and Chair of Geography at Florida State support for dictatorial regimes was ren- wood, spices) testify that Indonesia was University. An economic geographer by train- dered largely unnecessary to further its far more than a mere entrepot with con- ing, his research focuses primarily on producer geopolitical aims. Unlike the 1965 coup, trol over the Malacca Strait. Beginning services and telecommunications, largely from the perspective of political economy. He is however, this transition was relatively in the seventeenth century, Dutch colo- also interested in East Asian social and political bloodless. While the disorganized oppo- nialism saw Indonesia reduced to the change.

22 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 3, Number 3 Winter 1998 NOTES 1. I. Wallerstein, The Modern World System: 14. O. Wolters, The Fall of Srivijaya in Malay Giyanti [1755] to the [1825–30],” Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the History (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, Modern Asian Studies 20:1–26, 1986. European World Economy in the Sixteenth 1967). 41. G. Tibbetts, 1956. op cit. Century (London: Academic Press, 1974); I. 15. D. Tate, The Making of Modern South East 42. R. Liddle, “The Relative Autonomy of the Wallerstein, The Capitalist World-Economy Asia (volume one): The European Conquest. Third World Politician: Soeharto and Indone- (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971). sian Economic Development in Comparative 1979); and I. Wallerstein, Historical Capital- 16. A. Kumar, “Developments in Four Societies Perspective.” International Studies Quarterly ism (London: Verso, 1983). over the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries” 35:403–27, 1991. 2. C. Chase-Dunn, Global Formation: Struc- in H. Aveling, ed., The Development of 43. B. Dahm, History of Indonesia in the Twenti- tures in the World-Economy (Oxford: Basil Indonesian Society: From the Coming of eth Century (New York: Praeger, 1971); and Blackwell, 1989); A. So, Social Change and Islam to the Present Day (New York: St. R. Liddle, 1991. op cit. Development: Modernization, Dependency, Martin’s Press, 1980). 44. D. Emmerson, “Invisible Indonesia,” Foreign and World-System Theories (Newbury Park: 17. C. Dixon, 1991. op cit.; and D. Chandler, W. Affairs 66:368–87, 1987/88. Sage, 1990); and C. Chase-Dunn and T. Hall, Roff, J. Smail, D. Steinberg, R. Taylor, A. 45. R. Liddle, 1991. op cit.; and J. Winters, Rise and Demise: Comparing World-Systems Woodside, and D. 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