On 27 December 1949, the formal transfer of sovereignty to the Republic of Indonesia was signed in the Royal Palace on Dam Square in Amsterdam. This photo shows the Indonesian flag being raised during the transfer of the command over Central Java in Semarang. The origins of the Indonesian flag are not entirely clear. The story told on the Dutch side was that the flag was created when Indonesians tore off the blue strip at the bottom of the Dutch tricolour. But this ignored the fact that the Republican nationalists saw themselves as the heirs of a united precolonial Indonesia (the Majapahit Empire). It was believed that this empire also used a red and white flag back in the thirteenth century. Sukarno and his associates explicitly identified with that glorious past.
Transfer of the command, Semarang. Central Java, 1949. Photographer unknown. D H 1297, KITLV 40558.