Indonesia Raya?: Building a United Archipelago, 1950 INDONESIA

Victory! After over four years of costly war and months of tense negotiation, the Netherlands has finally conceded and granted independence to the lands once called the Dutch East Indies. The year is 1950; it is the first year where Indonesia will have full sovereignty to establish and develop a new state in the Malay Archipelago. But winning the war was one thing; now, the leaders of the fledgling republic must fight to preserve and strengthen their new nation in the face of internal divisions and external pressure. With hundreds of ethnicities and languages and thousands of islands under the new government’s control, things will not be easy. President Sukarno and his closest advisors will have to make tough choices, and their actions will determine the future and viability of a rapidly growing new state.

You, one of Sukarno’s most trusted confidants, know just how many issues the nation will have to solve. In the first two sessions of committee, you will have the once-in-a-generation opportunity to write a new constitution from scratch. There are many questions you must answer: How much power should the national government have, given both the importance of a united nation and the incredible diversity of the Indonesian people? How should Indonesia conduct its foreign relations in a world increasingly divided between two global superpowers? How can the government promote cultural unity and economic prosperity in the wake of colonialism? For the remaining three sessions of the committee, you will have to work with the constitution you created. As internal and external actors threaten to destabilize the nation, you will have to stay within the limits you set for yourselves in order to manage all the crises that will emerge. Will Indonesia become a new regional superpower, or will it crumble into a constellation of fragile breakaway states? The future of the archipelago is in your hands!

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