When we look at a map or a globe, we see countries that are (if only by name) familiar to us. France, USA, Italy, Great Britain, Russia, Japan, Egypt, Nigeria, India, Brazil…

It is tempting to think these countries always existed in this form. As if the world never changes. This is however seldom the case. We only have to remember the implosion of the Soviet-Union, or the reunification of East and West-Germany, two events that had a huge geopolitical impact.

This shows that each and every country has its own history, its own reason for existence. In many cases, nations exist mostly because of military, geographic and nationalistic reasons. But that is not always the case.

Sometimes the reason a country exists is because of spice. As it happens, that is why there is today a country called Indonesia.

Throughout human history, there was a problem with food. More specifically, how to preserve it, and make it tastier. Because, as we all know, most veggies aren’t that great to the tastebuds; turnips have this nasty tendency to be quite bland- certainly if you have to eat them all year round. And meat is hard to keep fresh without additives.

So, housewives looked for ways to procure and preserve food for upcoming hard times, which of course occurred every year, in winter. Salt was since ancient times the obvious choice- since there was no known alternative.

But after trade routes (often called “silk route”, although there were several routes, and not exclusively for silk either) with China opened up, new culinary possibilities became available. Europeans learned this way there were other tastes, other spices, tastes that were as new as exciting to them as a new smartphone is to us. And they were literally willing to die for these new tastes- and (of course) the profit that lay ahead. How’s that for a commitment? Although, to be honest, without television, movies, and Olympics, they hadn’t much to live for anyway…

Anyway- As always, after a while tradesmen and merchants looked for ways to cut out the middleman. This brings us to the time of the explorers. Powerful kings and rich investors financed courageous, fearless men like Columbus and Magellan, who were a bit like the astronauts of their day; they boldly went where no men from their continent went before. Many failed, even more, died. But in the end, they found what they were looking for-a a seafaring route to the East. A passage to India, and Indonesia…

As soon as they arrived, the European powers began to divide the market. The British got India (which included nowadays Pakistan), the Spanish the Philippines, Portugal for a while held some minor possessions, like Macao, and the tiny Netherlands, or- more accurately- the VOC (United East Indian Company) ended up with a vast archipelago of islands, rich in spices and cheap labor; Indonesia.

Pepper, ginger, and nutmeg became popular, and (more important) widely available now, but they were still quite expensive. Risks remained, after all, very high. One trip to the East took, if everything went well, several months. Ships were unsafe, fairly small wooden vessels, that sank easily after hitting a cliff. Sailing was done without radar OR other safety measures. And let’s not forget those pesky pirates, that were always on the lookout for easy gain…

All of these things combined resulted in the fact that one in three ships never even returned home, due to storms and other mishaps, and half of the crew died anyway at sea since drowning and scurvy were quite usual. Being a millennial in 2021 maybe isn’t that easy, but back in the day, those sailors didn’t have a walk through the park either.

But everybody did their bit, in order to make a buck or two. Which they did, because spices (peppers) were expensive. Very expensive…

Traces of how expensive spices actually were, can still be found in Dutch words and sayings, like for instance “peperduur”- which roughly translates as “that costs as much as pepper.”, and investing is called “speculeren” (speculate, derived from the Dutch term for spice trade).

Spices were used in speculaas, pepernoten, and gingerbread men. Prices were high, as were the profits, so merchants were happy. Proudly, the Dutch renamed their jewel in the crown Gordel van Smaragd- The Emerald Belt. Rightfully so, because it was their biggest moneymaker. Another Dutch saying illustrates clearly how important Indonesia, or (as it was called then), Indië economically was to the Netherlands; “Inje verloren, rampspoed geboren”, without Indië, we are lost.

Fun fact; Being Indonesia’s colonial administrator, meant that The Netherlands, despite being widely known as a protestant, Calvinistic puritanical nation, in fact, was the biggest Muslim country in the world, until their departure in 1949. But originally, Indonesia was never a united country at all, it became one nation because of its resources, e.i. spices.

The country we now know as Indonesia, was before the Dutch unified it by brutal military force as their biggest colony, a region that was divided into several local principalities, kingdoms, and tribal communities. A collection of “countries’ that sometimes lived together in peace, sometimes they waged war on each other. A bit like Europe at the time- divided into little administrative entities. The arrival of a foreign colonizing power united the Indonesians overtime against this common enemy.

From time to time there were clashes, uprisings, and even wars, between the Dutch on the one hand, and Javan, Bornean, Malakkan, and Sumatran rebels on the other. But thanks to internal division among local leaders, bribery, and their technological superior weapons, the Dutch (then a nation with merely three million inhabitants) managed to hold on to their huge, really enormous colony (with a population of at least 90 million people)- until, during World war II, Japan occupied the territory.

After this particular gruesome episode, Dutch rule was effectively over. Reluctantly (well, I say reluctantly, but I mean kicking and screening) the Dutch handed power to the Indonesians (forced by America, who needed the newly discovered Indonesian oilwells for their cold war).

Indonesia, the country that was ultimately the result of the European taste for spicy meals and gingerbread cookies, had to find its own way in the world from then on.