History 1123

Reading Questions: Max Havelaar, 179-222.

1. Why was Max Havelaar mistreated by his superior while he was working in Natal?
   
   
2. What does the situation in Natal and Padang tell you about the relationships between the officers of the Dutch East India Company and the leaders of the indigenous population (in this case a group called the Battaks who were recent converts to Islam).
   
   
3. What does this section of the book have to say about coerced labor and its role in the Dutch East Indies? Is the coercion of people to work by those more powerful than they endemic to Indonesian society according to Multatuli or do Europeans have an independent part in its use and prevalence?
   
   
4. Why do the officials in the Dutch East India Company not report the abuses that are taking place in their regions of responsibility?
   
   
5. Does Multatuli to some extent seem to argue that the Indonesians are merely getting what they deserve in some passages in this section? If so why does he do so?