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East Indies is a term used by Europeans from the 16th century onwards to identify what is now known as the Indian subcontinent or South Asia, Southeastern Asia, and the islands of Oceania, including the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines. The term has traditionally excluded China, Japan, and other countries to the north of India and the Himalayas.<br/><br/> The names 'India' and 'the Indies', derived from the Indus River in modern-day Pakistan, were applied by the ancient Greeks to most of the regions of Asia that lay further to the east than Persia. This usage dates at least from the time of Herodotus, in the 5th century BCE.
This 1945 recruiting poster by the Dutch artist Nico Broekman shows a Japanese soldier being booted from the island of Java, and the caption, 'Get Out! The Indies Must Be Liberated.' During World War II, Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies in early 1942. After the surrender, a large number of Dutch submarines and some aircraft escaped to Australia and continued to fight as part of Australian units. In the course of the war, Indonesian nationalists supported by the Japanese took over parts of the country. Allied troops invaded Borneo in July 1945, bringing with them a restoration of Dutch colonial rule. The Dutch fought the Indonesian nationalists for the next four years, before finally granting independence in 1949.