In The Hague, Dutch and Indonesian delegates signed a protocol to end the political union. The Dutch took satisfaction in the fact that the economic links were left intact.

Of the empires that crumbled at the shock of nationalism after World War II, few fell apart so abruptly as The Netherlands’. Just three days after Japan’s surrender, Indonesia declared its independence and proclaimed the end of The Hague’s richest and biggest colony, The Netherlands East Indies. By late 1949,…