Pacification of the Dutch East Indies refers to the series of military campaigns undertaken by the Kingdom of the Netherlands between the mid‑nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to suppress resistance in its colonial territories, most prominently the Aceh War (1873‑1904) and subsequent operations in Bali, Celebes, and the surrounding islands.
The Dutch employed the Dutch Marine Corps as a key expeditionary force, deploying it to Atjeh (1873‑1876), to the east coast of Sumatra, and later to the southern Celebes (1905) and Bali (1908). The pacification campaigns reshaped the political geography of the archipelago and laid the groundwork for the modern Indonesian state.