Dutch East Indies · 1825-1870

Java: Diponegoro and the Cultivation System

A Javanese prince leads a five-year war against Dutch rule. Then the Dutch force Javanese villages to grow coffee and sugar for export, and the profits flow to the Netherlands. Students explore the Java War, the Cultivation System and the novel that exposed it.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
13–16
On the map
3 steps, AD 1830 to AD 1883
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

A Javanese prince leads a five-year war against Dutch rule. Then the Dutch force Javanese villages to grow coffee and sugar for export, and the profits flow to the Netherlands. Students explore the Java War, the Cultivation System and the novel that exposed it.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain the causes and course of the Java War (1825-1830) led by Prince Diponegoro.
  • Describe how the Cultivation System worked and who profited from it.
  • Explain how Max Havelaar (1860) and Dutch politics led to changes after 1870.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1830

The Dutch East Indies

Open the map in 1830 and zoom out over the islands between Asia and Australia. Find Java, Sumatra and Batavia (Jakarta). How far is Java from the Netherlands?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1840

The coffee route

Open the map in 1840 and turn on Trade Routes. Follow the Cape Route to the Indies to its end at Batavia. What cargo do you think ships carried back to Europe?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1883

A volcano on the route

Turn on Weather of History and move to 1883. Find Krakatoa between Java and Sumatra. Why was this eruption felt around the world?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Diponegoro was a prince, but many farmers saw him as a just ruler sent to save them. Why might farmers follow a prince?
  2. Villages had to grow crops for the government instead of food for themselves. What could go wrong?
  3. In some years the profits paid about a third of the Dutch state's income. Did the Netherlands owe something to Java?
  4. Multatuli was a Dutch official who criticised the system from inside. Why can an insider's story be powerful?
  5. How might a Javanese village have remembered the 1840s differently from a Dutch merchant?
4

Game round

10 min

No Rule History ruler comes from Java. Play Tokugawa Ieyasu, who allowed Dutch traders into Japan from 1609 but kept them under tight control. Discuss: why could Japan keep the Dutch at a distance, while Java came under Dutch rule?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.