Jakarta during the 15th-17th century.

May-June 2009. Scarsdale High School, 9th grade classrooms. Collaborating teachers: Kami Wright, Kendra Claussen.

Students in Kami's 10th grade class started a research project on what world's big cities looked like during the 15th-17th centuries. Four of her students chose Jakarta as their research topic. Jakarta used to be called Batavia, and it was the capital of the Dutch East Indies. It was the keystone of Dutch imperialism. They were able to control the spice islands, thus for a long period of time held a monopoly of world spices, and emerged as the world's major economy. I served as the resource person for this project. The students interviewed me on what Jakarta was like as a city at those periods of time. They focused on the social, political, economic, and cultural aspects of it. I also helped them find documents that would support their presentations.