JAKARTA: Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said on Wednesday that the Netherlands extracted as much as $31 trillion in wealth from Indonesia during more than 300 years of its colonial rule over the region.
Indonesia declared independence in 1945, following centuries of Dutch colonial exploitation that began at the end of the 16th century.
With the archipelago being its primary source of spices, the Dutch East India Co. established a virtual monopoly on the global spice trade, when nutmeg, cloves and pepper were considered the most expensive and luxurious spices in Europe.
Its profits were so vast that they made the Netherlands one of the wealthiest European powers in the 17th century.
Prabowo highlighted the impacts of the colonization of Indonesia in a speech at the opening of a defense exhibition in Jakarta.
