Housing Policy for the Colonial City: The British and Dutch Experience Compared, 1901-19491

A comparison of the British and Dutch experience in the 20th century makes it possible to deepen our understanding of colonial urban housing policy, and hence of the colonial city in general. Both colonial powers expressed new concern about urban living conditions at the time when they began to promote colonial development. In the British case this began in the 1930s, largely in response to local unrest and partly because of international pressure. By the 1950s, British colonial governments used housing programs to placate nationalists and to help prepare colonial societies for self-rule. The Dutch undertook similar initiatives earlier, after 1901, by forming municipal governments, improving services in autonomous native settlements, and by bringing these kampongs under municipal control. Their initiatives were more a response to domestic considerations than to colonial unrest. The Dutch incurred expenditures beyond what Indonesians could afford, but were less active than the British in house-building. Their efforts flagged as nationalist sentiment grew. Neither colonial power responded directly to poor urban conditions. Although the colonial city might have existed, it did not shape colonial urban policy in a predictable way.