Roads, railway lines and bridges, harbours and cities, irrigation and drinking water supplies: evidence of the presence of Dutch engineers in the former Dutch East Indies may be found everywhere in Indonesia. For Profit and Prosperity places this legacy from the colonial past in its true perspective. This publication provides a detailed description of some of the most important civil public works projects of the Dutch East Indian era while simultaneously outlining the contribution made by the Netherlands to the restoration, modernisation and development of such works in the Republic of Indonesia.

The public works once constructed by Dutch engineers have greatly influenced the way in which Indonesia has become what it is today. For Profit and Prosperity reveals just how all of that happened and it does not merely confine itself to the technological aspect. The relevant social, economic and cultural developments are also subjected to careful scrutiny. This book therefore describes in a unique way just how technology and society can influence each other.

For Profit and Prosperity does not so much set out to provide a comprehensive catalogue-style overview of all the public works structures created in the archipelago but rather to provide an insight into the way in which civil engineering evolved in the former colony. At the same time an impression is inevitably given of the effect which all of that had upon Dutch civil engineering in general.