Commissioners-General of the Dutch East Indies

The Commissioners-General of the Dutch East Indies (in Dutch Commissarissen Generaal over Nederlandsch-Indië as they called themselves^[1]) was a commission instituted by the Dutch king William I of the Netherlands in 1815 to implement the provisions of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 and take over the government of the Dutch Indies from the British lieutenant-governor of Java, John Fendall. The commission consisted of the following three members: Godert van der Capellen, Arnold Adriaan Buyskes, and Cornelis Theodorus Elout. One of their tasks was to implement a new Regeringsreglement for the colony that they carried in draft-form with them. But instead they promulgated a much-amended version of that draft at the end of their mission in 1818. It embodied a transition from the "Trade Colonialism" of the VOC to an embryonic form of "Imperial Power Colonialism", which would come to full fruition during the 19th century (while retaining aspects of "trade colonialism"^[2]). The "constitution" they wrote would remain in force for the Dutch East Indies in the main, though with important amendments, like the institution of the Volksraad, until the end of Dutch colonial rule.