The Governor of the Dutch East Indies was Earl Alexander William Frederick Attenborough, who was also Commander-in-Chief of the Dutch East Indies.

Although it seems that the military and government are in control, in fact, only Governor Alexander himself knows, and his life is not really easy.

Although the Dutch were still superior in the Dutch East Indies, it was equivalent to the fact that Governor Alexander had nearly 40 million oppressive slaves under his command.

The Dutch hardly cared about the life and death of the natives of the colony, and they could usurp the property, wives and daughters of the natives at will. Trample on their dignity and deprive them of their lives.

But the land is not as calm as it seems. The Anglo-French guarantees did not seem to be too effective, and Australasia was obsessed with the land.

Within the Dutch East Indies, the more than 40 million indigenous people are home to hundreds of ethnic groups, and the relationship between these ethnic groups is very complex, as are the relationship between the indigenous forces composed of these ethnic groups.

The orders of the colonial government of the Dutch East Indies did not work so well in some indigenous countries, and the only areas that the Dutch East Indies were able to control were most of the island of Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan and part of Sulawesi.

There were more than 10,000 islands in the Dutch East Indies, but with the exception of some larger islands, the rest of the islands were not under the control of the Dutch East Indies.

Although this may seem strange, after all, the Dutch are more developed and powerful European countries than the local natives.

Moreover, the Dutch had ruled the land for hundreds of years, and it stands to reason that even if they did not assimilate all of these populations, they should have controlled most of the area and managed it properly.

But in fact, if we compare the Dutch mainland with the Dutch East Indies, we can find that the biggest problem for the Dutch is the phenomenon of snakes swallowing elephants.

The population of the Netherlands is still just over 6 million, but the population of the Dutch East Indies has reached more than 40 million, nearly seven times the total population of the Netherlands.

It is impossible to assimilate more than 40 million indigenous people with a population of more than 6 million.

Even now, the Dutch East Indies had a large number of sultanates, which had considerable autonomy, and some did not obey the rule of the Dutch East Indies at all.

To rule over a land of more than 40 million people, the Dutch had more than 100,000 combat troops in the Dutch East Indies, including more than 30,000 regular troops and more than 100,000 indigenous troops.

But it is clear that in order to properly govern a population of 40 million, this army is completely insufficient.

In addition, the navy controlled by the Dutch East Indies colonial government was very small, even smaller than the navy of the previous six colonies of Australia combined.

Under such circumstances, the Dutch East Indies government could not properly control the more than 10,000 islands in the territory, and the Dutch East Indies had frequent rebellions, and the frequent rebellions gave the Dutch a headache, but they were helpless.

According to the Royal Security Intelligence Service, there were as many as 17 indigenous sultanates in the Dutch East Indies, with the larger sultanates having a population of more than a million and the smallest sultanate having hundreds of thousands of natives.

Sulawesi, in particular, is home to five indigenous powers. These indigenous states controlled most of Sulawesi, greatly weakening the Dutch rule over Sulawesi.

As a result, although the Dutch owned tens of millions of indigenous property, these indigenous people simply did not make good use of it.

Whenever the Netherlands is a country with a population of tens of millions, or the Netherlands is closer to the Dutch East Indies, the Netherlands can make better use of the Dutch East Indies.

Of course, even so, the Dutch still received a large amount of benefits from the Dutch East Indies every year, including rubber, grain, and other economic products.

The Netherlands was able to be slightly stronger than Belgium precisely because of its control of the Dutch East Indies, which generated nearly 10 million pounds of revenue for the Dutch government every year.

After the Australasian government announced the purge operation, Governor Alexander was already closely planning the deployment of the Dutch East Indies, and temporarily strengthened the defense of the whole of Batavia.

As the core of the Dutch East Indies, Java has a Dutch division and more than 60,000 indigenous troops, and the defense force is about 80,000.

If you look at the number of soldiers alone, the defenders of Batavia are about twice as large as the Australasian army, and they have an absolute advantage in numbers.

But the war is not just based on the numerical advantage, but the military equipment or artillery, the number of aircraft, the Dutch defenders are far behind the Australasian army, not to mention that Australasia itself also has a continuous supply of supplies, and the Dutch mainland is 108,000 miles away from here, and the fastest transportation time also takes more than a month.

Another point is that the size of the Dutch army lagged far behind that of Australasia. Moreover, after the official declaration of war in Australasia, Arthur sent a telegram to George V, requesting that a defensive line be set up in the Suez Canal area to prevent the Dutch convoy from moving south.

This also led to the fact that if the Dutch fleet wanted to support the Dutch East Indies, it would have to go around the whole of Africa, which greatly increased the time for support.

Under such a premise, it was impossible for the Dutch fleet to reach the Dutch East Indies without two months.

Two months later, the war in the Dutch East Indies was over, and the Dutch came in time to sign a contract.

In the city of Batavia, the face of the governor of Alexandria was not very good at this time.

Governor Alexander looked at Reynolds, a diplomat who had just returned from Australasia, and asked, "Ambassador Reynolds, how many troops can Australasia send?" ”

As the former Dutch diplomatic ambassador to Australasia, Ambassador Reynaud must have a higher understanding of Australasia than Governor Alexander and others, which is why Governor Alexander asked Ambassador Renault.

"It's not a good prediction, Mr. Governor. But Australasia has recruited at least 700,000 Aboriginal troops since the war. At present, there are only about 500,000 in the European theater. This also meant that Australasia could send at least 200,000 Aboriginal troops at any time if they wanted to. Ambassador Renault shook his head, sighed slightly, and said to Governor Alexander.

Ambassador Reynold's tenure began in 1908 and has now been nearly seven years.

In the past seven years, Ambassador Reynolds has witnessed the development of Australasia, and he naturally knows that the current Australasia is definitely not something that a small Netherlands can resist.

Watching Australasia evolve from a weak colony more than ten years ago to one of the most important powers, a major member of the Entente, and the hegemon of Oceania, Ambassador Renault couldn't help but feel a little envious and red-eyed.

The process of Australasia's rise all the way can be said to be very smooth, with the help of Germany, Britain and Russia, the biggest enemy before the European war was only the Netherlands, or Australasia took the initiative to provoke the war.

If you look at the Netherlands in Europe, the rise must be approved by Britain, France and Germany.

But it is clear that none of the three countries wants another power in the Low Countries, not even a second power.

The Lowlands threaten the English Channel and the British coast, northeastern France, western Germany and the Ruhr area, and any movement here will attract the attention of the three great powers, and it is also an area where the three powers are vying to win over.

It is no exaggeration to say that any choice of the three of them is likely to offend one of the British, French and German powers.

This was a fatal blow to the Netherlands, and in the midst of the encirclement of these three powers, the Dutch mainland had no hope of expansion, and the colony was still coveted by Australasia, and there was no hope of turning the tables around.

Look at Belgium, which claims to be a neutral country, Germany is not just fighting if it wants to. Thinking of this, Ambassador Renault couldn't help but sigh again, and his eyes were envious of the process of Australasia's rise and superior geographical location.

"Damn, immediately send a telegram to the country, asking the country to send at least 100,000 troops to support. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for the Dutch East Indies to withstand the attack of the Australasian army. Governor Alexander did not pay attention to Ambassador Reynold's sigh, his attention was now completely drawn to Ambassador Renault's statement that Astralsia had at least 200,000 combatable colonial troops.

Although it was only a colonial army, the natives were armed with hot weapons, which were enough to inflict fatal injuries on the body.

What's more, Australasia also has a large number of artillery and aircraft, and Batavia is also able to be bombed by fleets on the sea, which is a fatal blow to the defending side.

You must know that naval guns are generally equipped with guns of caliber of more than 300 mm, which can cause great damage to any fortification.

Coupled with the bombardment from the ground forces and from the sky, every day of delay caused a large number of casualties to the Dutch army.

"Yes!" Governor Alexander's men did not dare to hesitate and hurriedly tried to send a telegram to the Netherlands for help.

In fact, the Dutch government at this time also had a bitter heart. They had already received an unequivocal answer from the British that they would not allow any fleet flying the Dutch flag to pass through the Suez Canal.

This also meant that the Dutch journey to the Dutch East Indies had increased by more than half, and even if the Dutch had to transport aid immediately, it would have to wait at least two months to arrive.

However, the Dutch government did not disclose to the Dutch East Indies the fact that the Suez Canal could no longer be passed, which expressed the government's order to hold Batavia and the entire island of Java at all costs.

The Dutch government also pretended that it had expedited the shipment of a large number of supplies, and it would take less than a month to reach Batavia at the earliest.

However, the Dutch government did not say a word about the navigation of the Suez Canal and whether the Dutch transport fleet would be encircled by the Australasian fleet in the Indian Ocean.

3000 words for the second update, ask for a monthly pass, ask for support!

(End of chapter)