East Sumatra
| Negara Sumatera Timur Sumatra's Oostkust سومترا تيمور 蘇東 |
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| Capital | Medan | ||||
| President | |||||
| • | 1947–1950 | Tengku Mansur | |||
| Historical era | Indonesian National Revolution | ||||
| • | Established | 25 December 1947 | |||
| • | Dissolved | 15 August 1950 | |||
The State of East Sumatra (Negara Sumatera Timur) was established by the Netherlands after the re-invasion of North Sumatra in July, 1947, during the first of the Dutch "police actions" against the fledgling Republic of Indonesia. In 1949, as part of a peace deal that concluded the Indonesian National Revolution, it joined the United States of Indonesia, of which the Republic was also a component state. In August, 1950, it was finally absorbed into the Republic as part of the province of North Sumatra. Today, the part of East Sumatra are Langkat, Deli Serdang, and Serdang Bedagai.
The Dutch focused their campaign to re-establish colonial rule in Sumatra on Northeast Sumatra for economic and political reasons. Before the Japanese invasion of the Netherlands East Indies in 1942 the region had been home to highly productive plantations and oil fields. The prewar Dutch had worked closely with local Malay sultans to administer the region and make its natural resources available to Western capital. By the 1930s most of the plantation workforce and the urban middle class of Medan were immigrants from other parts of Sumatra and Java, while ethnic minorities like the autochthonous Malays and Simalunguns and immigrant Chinese enjoyed privileged positions within the colonial system.
In the aftermath of the Japanese surrender and proclamation of Indonesian independence by Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta in August, 1945, the newly established Republic of Indonesia began to set up offices in East Sumatra. However, Republican officials only had tenuous control over groups of radicalized, pro-independence youths (pemuda) who had received training and arms from the Japanese during the war. Frustrated with the moderation of Republican politicians, the pemuda initiated a "social revolution" in March, 1946, killing much of the Malay and Simalungun aristocracy, sweeping away the former sultanate governments, and raiding the shops and warehouses of wealthy (often Chinese) businessmen. A year later the invading Dutch felt that they could rely on the support of these groups in setting up a new government in East Sumatra that could compete for legitimacy with the Republic.
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Wikipedia