Great East

The Great East region of the Dutch East Indies

The Great East (Dutch: Groote Oost) was a subdivision (gouvernement) of the Dutch East Indies between 1938 and 1946. It comprised all the islands to the east of Borneo (Celebes, the Moluccas, and West New Guinea, with their offshore islands) and of Java (Bali and the Lesser Sunda Islands). Its capital was Macassar on Celebes.

The Great East was created with the merger of its constituent residencies on 25 May 1938 and was ruled by a governor. The first governor was G. A. W. Ch. de Haze Winkelman. Following World War II, the gouvernement (except for Netherlands New Guinea) became the State of the Great East (later the State of East Indonesia) on 24 December 1946. This state became a constituent of the federal United States of Indonesia in 1949 and was integrated into a unitary Indonesia in 1950 (western New Guinea in 1969). Today, the area is divided into the eastern 13 of Indonesia's 34 provinces.

Administrative divisions

The Great East gouvernement consisted of the following residencies:^[1]

• Bali and Lombok (Singaradja)
• Celebes en Onderhoorigheden (Macassar), including southern Celebes and neighbouring islands
• Menado (Menado), including all of northern Celebes
• Moluccas (Amboina), including the Moluccas, West New Guinea, and other outlying islands such as Wetar and Aru
• Timor en Onderhoorigheden (Kupang), including western Timor and the other Lesser Sunda Islands (except for Bali and Lombok)

See also

• State of East Indonesia

References

Bibliography

• Elout, Cornelis Karel (1930), De Groote Oost, The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W.P. Van Stockum & Zoon.