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| 1890 |
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| Beginning of resistance movement in Blora District of Central Java, led by a villager named Surontiko Samin. Saminists especially resisted intrusive modern government through reorganizing their villages socially and politically and altering taxation structures. After 1905, Saminists withdrew from the existing social order, refusing to contribute to village rice banks and other communal institutions. They also rejected Islamic marriage forms and insisted that tax payments were “donations” to the Dutch government. Despite the banishment of Samin in 1907, his movement continued sporadically through the 1920s and beyond. | 1 |
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| 1891, June 20 |
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| The British and Dutch by treaty defined their respective domains in Borneo, the Dutch retaining by far the larger part. | 2 |
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| 1900s |
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| Islamic reformism, especially through education and self-reform, came to Indonesia via reformist movements in the Middle East. For example, a reform movement emerged in this decade in Sumatra in Minangkabau, focused on reforming matrilineal custom and traditional Islamic practices. The movement produced important cultural leaders such as the novelist Hamka and the political leader Haji Agus Salim. | 3 |
| In Java, a conflict arose between those who practiced “Javanese religion” (an amalgam of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and animism) and the santri, who distinguished themselves from the others by a more exacting observance of the five daily prayers and fasting during Ramadan. | 4 |
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| 1907, Dec |
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| The Dutch, after many years of warfare, finally subdued the Achinese in northern Sumatra (Atjeh), thus completing the pacification of Sumatra. | 5 |
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| 1908 |
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| Direct Dutch rule was established in Bali, after a series of native insurrections. | 6 |
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| 1907–14 |
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| Dutch-language Native System of education emerged, especially through the establishment of Dutch Native Schools (DNS). In 1915 some 20,000 students were enrolled, making this form of education (conducted entirely in Dutch) the most important early-20th-century educational institution in Southeast Asia and establishing the basis for Indonesian communication with the rest of the world, as well as the stimulus to a nationalist movement. These primary-level institutions were followed by advanced education, such as the Doktor Djawa School that trained medical practitioners. | 7 |
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| 1908 |
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| Within the Doktor Djawa School was founded the first organization to explore redefined ethnic identity, the Budi Utomo. This organization used Javanese culture to create a modern foundation for their own self-respect and to support their claims to participate in civil society. Its moderate stance was typical of organizations founded at this time, and it was peopled by those with traditional elite backgrounds. | 8 |
| More radical organizations, especially those founded by students, emerged in the next decade. A generational split with the older, more moderate party was revealed by these newer groups, all named using the word jong (Dutch for “young”) in their names—Jong Java, and so on. | 9 |
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| 1912 |
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| Sarekat Islam (Islamic Union) was founded to loosely unite many different kinds of Indonesian Muslims in one mass movement. Initially formed by those with economic interests influenced by changes in China, the group soon included disaffected intelligentsia, Dutch-educated reformist Muslims, and socialists. Relying on a symbolic appeal to a mass audience, these disparate groups all tried to work within Sarekat Islam's format; by 1919 more than 2 million people held formal membership, and the group influenced a great many more. (See Indonesia (Netherlands East Indies)) | 10 |
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