Linggadjati Agreement of 1947

an agreement between the governments of the Republic of Indonesia and the Netherlands signed in Jakarta on Mar. 25, 1947, after negotiations in the settlement of Linggajati (Linggadjati), near Cirebon (Tjirebon) on the island of Java.

According to the Linggadjati Agreement, the government of the Netherlands recognized the Republic of Indonesia, which had been proclaimed on Aug. 17, 1945, as the de facto government authority on Java, Madura, and Sumatra. Areas of the islands occupied by Dutch troops after the proclamation of the republic were to be “gradually included” in the republic. The agreement provided for the creation of the United States of Indonesia (USI), uniting the territory of the whole Indonesian archipelago. The USI was to become part of a joint Netherlands-Indonesian Union headed by the Dutch queen. Questions of foreign relations and defense and, “insofar as necessary,” finances, economics, and culture would be turned over to administrative bodies of the union. The USI was to be created, and the Netherlands-Indonesian Union ratified by the parliaments of both, by Jan. 1, 1949. After that, the government of the Netherlands was supposed to assist the USI in becoming a member of the United Nations.

The agreement, a compromise between the Republic of Indonesia and the Netherlands, was on the whole favorable to the former. It gave the Republic of Indonesia a respite and much more: official recognition by the Netherlands and a definite international status. Thus it created significantly better conditions for the struggle for full independence. The ruling circles of the Netherlands looked upon the agreement as a forced and temporary concession. As soon as the agreement was concluded, they began to violate it, and in July 1947 they started a large-scale colonial war against the Republic of Indonesia.