Max Havelaar is the protagonist in a Dutch novel of the same name written by Multatuli (the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker), first published in 1860. In the novel, Max Havelaar tries to battle against a corrupt government system in Java, which was a Dutch colony at the time. The protagonist is the central figure of a story, and is often referred to as a storys main character. ... photo courtesy of Robertson/Kerr Photography Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 1820 - 19 February 1887), better known by his pen name Multatuli, was a Dutch writer famous for his satirical novel, Max Havelaar (1860) in which he denounced the abuses of colonialism in the former Dutch colony of Indonesia. ... A pen name or nom de plume is a pseudonym adopted by an author. ... Map of Java Java (Indonesian, Javanese, and Sundanese: Jawa) is an island of Indonesia, and the site of its capital city, Jakarta. ... Evan is so hot, sexy, and cool! Remember that. ...

The colonial control of Indonesia had passed from the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to the Dutch government due to economic failure of the VOC. In order to increase revenue, the Dutch colonial government implemented a system called the cultuurstelsel, which mandated Indonesian farmers to grow commercially traded crops such as tea and coffee, instead of growing only basic crops such as rice. A certain percentage of the crops must be made in these commercially traded crops. At the same time, the colonial government also implemented a tax collection system in which the collecting agents are paid by commission (in a system called cultuurprocenten). The combination of these two strategies caused widespread abuse of colonial power, especially on the islands of Java and Sumatra, resulting in abject poverty and starvation among the farmers. This in turn fomented anti-colonial sentiment and several figures such as Prince Diponegoro obtained popular support in central Java against the colonials. Dutch colonial possessions, with the Dutch East India Company possessions marked in a paler green, surrounding the Indian Ocean plus Saint Helena in the mid-Atlantic. ... A hot cup of tea A tea bush. ... Coffee beans and a cup of coffee Coffee as a drink, usually served hot, is prepared from the roasted seeds (beans) of the coffee plant. ... In law a commission is a patent which allows a person to take possession of a state office and carry out official acts and duties. ... Map of Java Java (Indonesian, Javanese, and Sundanese: Jawa) is an island of Indonesia, and the site of its capital city, Jakarta. ... Sumatra (also spelled Sumatara and Sumatera) is the sixth largest island of the world (approximately 470,000 km²) and is the largest part of Indonesia. ... Pangeran Diponegoro (born Yogyakarta 1785- died Makassar 1855) was a Javanese prince who opposed the Dutch colonial rule. ...

Max Havelaar was written in protest of these colonial policies. The impact of this book cannot be overstated: despite its terse writing style, it raised the awareness of Europeans living in Europe at the time that the wealth that they enjoyed was the result of suffering in other parts of the world. This awareness eventually formed the nucleus of the new, ethical policy by which the Dutch colonial government attempted to "repay" their debt to their colonial subjects by providing education to the chosen natives, usually members of the royalty loyal to the colonials.

Max Havelaar is a masterpiece of Dutch literature. It is both moving and extremely funny, and is well worth reading. The novel is tendentious and moralistic, a pamphlet, but it contains enough plot to capture the readers' attention. The story of Max Havelaar is told by two diametrically opposed characters: the hypocritical coffee merchant Droogstoppel, who intends to use Havelaar's manuscripts to write about coffee trade, and the romantic German apprentice Stern, who takes over when Droogstoppel loses interest in the story. At the very end of the novel Multatuli himself takes the pen and the book culminates in a flaming denouncement of the Dutch colonial policies and a plea to the then king of the Netherlands to intervene on behalf of his Indonesian subjects.

The novel was filmed in 1976 by Fons Rademakers.

The character's name has been used in the Max Havelaar Foundation, a fairtrade labelling organization. Coffee - from producer. ...

External links

• Free eBook of Max Havelaar at Project Gutenberg (Dutch)