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Four Corners: Sukarno's rise to power, 1966

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Sukarno waves to crowd from car
Four Corners: Sukarno's rise to power, 1966

SUBJECTS:  Civics and Citizenship, History

YEARS:  9–10


What happens to the fate of individual countries following a world war?

After the end of World War II, the Dutch abandoned Indonesia, their former colony. This left room for a home-grown hero named Sukarno to return from exile and take the reins.

The clip shows the swearing in of Sukarno and the flying of the flag of the United States of Indonesia for the first time.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Between 1500 and 1900, European nations established colonies throughout the Americas, Africa, Australia and Asia. Why might they have wanted to control these distant parts of the world? What positive and negative effects might colonial expansion have had on the traditional inhabitants?
  2. 2.What was the Dutch rulers' name for Indonesia? What sort of reception did Sukarno and the other Nationalist leaders receive when they returned to Indonesia in 1949? What action, taken by the Dutch, swung International opinion in favour of the Indonesian nationalists, including Sukarno? 'Coolie' was a derogatory term used in many colonial nations to refer to Asian labourers, who were treated like slaves. In what ways might the Indonesian people have viewed Sukarno's rise to power as a signal that the days of the Indonesian 'Coolie' were over?' What do you think the reporter means when he says that Indonesia 'would never again be … a Coolie among nations'?
  3. 3.Which nations, if any, would you consider to be an 'empire' today? How can wealthy, powerful nations assist poorer nations, and do they need to colonise these nations to assist them in these ways?
  4. 4.

    Investigate the history of colonialism for either the Dutch or another empire in the years before 1939. Find specific examples of the positive and negative effects felt by the members of the nations they ruled over.



Date of broadcast: 7 Sep 1966


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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