Indonesia Dutch Ethical Policy that was aimed at improving living conditions and welfare, expanding education to native peoples, and preparing the archipelago for self-government under Dutch control. The policy, however, inadvertently contributed to the Indonesian National Awakening, and subsequent rise of independence movements, which the Dutch actively suppressed. During World War II, the Empire of Japan invaded and occupied the archipelago, effectively ending Dutch rule. Famine and forced labour ("romusha") were common during the occupation, and war crimes were committed in areas that were deemed important for the Japanese war effort. A later United Nations report stated that the Japanese occupation
History of Germany during World War I Russia and Britain. The beginning of war was presented in Germany as the chance for the nation to secure "our place under the sun," as the Foreign Minister Bernhard von Bülow had put it, which was readily supported by prevalent nationalism among the public. The Kaiser and the German establishment hoped the war would unite the public behind the monarchy, and lessen the threat posed by the dramatic growth of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, which had been the most vocal critic of the Kaiser in the Reichstag before the war. Despite its membership in the Second International, the