In the Dutch East Indies the developments were less impressive. The first
telegraph line was built in 1856 between Weltevreden in Batavia and
Buitenzorg.19 In 1857 the colonial government started the construction of a
telegraph cable between Buitenzorg and Surabaya and there has been a sea
cable between Batavia and Singapore since 1859. In the early years of these new
techniques of communication, animals, thunderstorms and earthquakes often
damaged these vulnerable telegraph lines.20
It indeed is tempting to connect the birth of globalisation to these technological
accomplishments that accelerated the transport of goods, people and ideas.
This emphasis on the technical developments, however, has the disadvantage
that the accent is laid on the technical instruments instead of the underlying
developments and their effects. If we only focus on the question of with what
kind of technical means the flow of objects was accomplished, we will not
discover the essence of globalisation. In the end, globalisation concerns mutual
COLONIAL LEGACY IN SOUTH EAST ASIA -
THE DUTCH ARCHIVES
Draft version of a telegram, Archives of the General Secretary, 1891
(Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia)
19 Mrazek, Engineers of happy land161.
2° Wieringa, Kort overzicht, 13-15.
21 Bayly, 'Archaic' and 'Modern' Globalization', 50.
22 Kaukiainen, 'Shrinking the World', 17-18.
23 Kaukiainen, 'Shrinking the World', 20.
48
