The Great East ( nl, Groote Oost) was a

governorate A governorate is an administrative division of a state. It is headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either states or provinces, the term ''governorate'' is often used in translation from ...

(''gouvernement'') of the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, whic ...

between 1938 and 1946. It comprised all the islands to the east of Borneo (

Celebes Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sul ...

, the

Moluccas The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located ...

, and

West New Guinea Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, or Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the Melanesian island of New Guinea which is administered by Indonesia. Since the island is alternatively named as Papua, the region ...

, with their offshore islands) and of Java (

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and ...

and the

Lesser Sunda Islands The Lesser Sunda Islands or nowadays known as Nusa Tenggara Islands ( id, Kepulauan Nusa Tenggara, formerly ) are an archipelago in Maritime Southeast Asia, north of Australia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west they make up ...

). 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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the governorate (except for Netherlands New Guinea) became the State of the Great East (later the

State of East Indonesia The State of East Indonesia ( id, Negara Indonesia Timur, old spelling: ''Negara Indonesia Timoer'', nl, Oost-Indonesië) was a post– World War II state formed in the eastern half of Dutch East Indies. Established in December 1946, it becam ...

) on 24 December 1946. This state became a constituent of the federal

United States of Indonesia The United States of Indonesia ( nl, Verenigde Staten van Indonesië, id, Republik Indonesia Serikat, abbreviated as RIS), was a short-lived federal state to which the Netherlands formally transferred sovereignty of the Dutch East Indies (exce ...

in 1949 and was integrated into a unitary Indonesia in 1950 (except West New Guinea, which was only integrated in 1963). As of March 2020, the area is divided into the eastern 13 of Indonesia's 34 provinces.

Administrative divisions

The Great East ''gouvernement'' consisted of the following residencies: * Bali and Lombok ( Singaradja) * Celebes en Onderhoorigheden ( Macassar), including southern Celebes and neighbouring islands * Menado (Menado), including all of northern Celebes *

( Amboina), including the Moluccas, West New Guinea, and other outlying islands such as

Wetar Wetar is a tropical island which belongs to the Indonesian province of Maluku and is the largest island of the Maluku Barat Daya Islands (literally ''Southwest Islands'') of the Maluku Islands. It lies east of the Lesser Sunda Islands, which i ...

and Aru * Timor en Onderhoorigheden (

Kupang Kupang ( id, Kota Kupang, ), formerly known as Koepang, is the capital of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. At the 2020 C ensus, it had a population of 442,758; the official estimate as at mid 2021 was 455,850. It is the largest ci ...

), including western

Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western part. The Indonesian part, ...

and the other

(except for Bali and Lombok)

Notes

References

* *\* *{{cite thesis , last1=Harvey , first1=Barbara Sillars , type=PhD , year=1974, title=Tradition, Islam, and Rebellion: South Sulawesi 1950-1965 , url=https://www.oxis.org/theses/harvey-1974.pdf , publisher=Cornell University Indonesia in World War II History of New Guinea History of Timor West Timor Western New Guinea 1938 establishments in the Dutch East Indies 1946 disestablishments in the Dutch East Indies Defunct organizations based in the Dutch East Indies

Administrative divisions

See also

Notes

References