East Indies East Indies The East Indies or the Indies are the lands of South and Southeast Asia. In a more restricted sense, the Indies can be used to refer to the islands of Southeast Asia, especially the Indonesian Archipelago and the Philippine Archipelago. The name "Indies" is derived from the River Indus and is used to connote parts of Asia that came under Indian cultural influence. Dutch-occupied colonies in the area were known for about 300 years as the Dutch East Indies before Indonesian independence, while Spanish-occupied colonies were known as the Spanish East Indies before the American conquest and later
Dutch East Indies Residentie Ternate to Residentie Amboina, Residentie Amboina was renamed to Residentie Molukken. In 1935 the Residentie was renamed to Gouvernement Molukken until the creation of Gouvernement Groote Oost in 1938, in which Gouvernement Molukken became residencie again. The Royal Dutch East Indies Army (KNIL) and the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force (ML-KNIL) were established in 1830 and 1915 respectively. Naval forces of the Royal Netherlands Navy were based in Surabaya, but were never part of the KNIL. The KNIL was a separate branch of the Royal Netherlands Army, commanded by the Governor-General and funded by the colonial budget.