The outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 and the collapse of French resistance to the German onslaught a year later were momentous events which had far-reaching implications for France, Britain, and their colonies. In West Africa, the war affected existing patterns of inter-state relations within and across the French/British imperial divides, which were further complicated for the British by the emergence of two blocs in the French colonial empire – Vichy and Free French. It was in this context that the West African Governors' Conference was created in 1940 to coordinate the war effort and to manage relations with the French colonies.

The project about the maritime history of the Java Sea, in which various scholars from Indonesia and the Netherlands have been participating since about 1996, bears the title ‘The Java Sea Region in an Age of Transition, 1870–1970’. From the beginning of the project there has been discussion about the time-span to be covered by the project, especially about the terminal year. Some people feared that the availability of sources would limit the prospects of fruitful research. On the basis of this, it was even proposed to stop at 1945, the date of Indonesia's independence. However, in the end most of the scholars involved agreed that it would be worthwhile to continue to roughly 1970, because then it would be possible to include the first years of the Orde Baru regime and pinpoint its effects on the rehabilitation of ports. Moreover, 1970 was also convenient for the simple reason that it was one hundred years after the year, taken as the starting point, namely 1870. The year 1870 as a point of departure was never the subject of any discussion. Because of the liberalization of the economy, namely the general shift from exploitation by the colonial state to exploitation by private enterprise and the alleged beginning of the so-called Age of Modern Imperialism, which tied the corners of the Archipelago closer together, it was simply accepted. Within the confines of the maritime sector, 1870 was assumed to symbolize the change from wind energy to steam power and a beginning of the improvement of ports. Confidently, the opening up of the Suez Canal in 1869 heralded an intensification of contacts between the Netherlands and the Netherlands Indies.

Nothing less than a revolution! The Dutch prince Hendrik had no doubts about the impact of the Suez Canal, cutting through the isthmus between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. At the end of 1869, having witnessed the opening of this new waterway, the prince remained in Egypt for six weeks to study the possible benefits for Dutch trade and shipping. As one of the driving spirits behind the modernization of the Dutch maritime industry he earned himself the epithet ‘the seafarer’. In the following year he played an active role in the founding of the Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland (SMN), the first Dutch steam shipping line to the Netherlands Indies.