When the Dutch Indies government began the process of decentralization in 1903, there were only three provinces in Indonesia, with each one divided into eight gewesten, or regions. Autonomy was granted to West Java, Central Java, and East Java. The rest of the country, including the kingdoms of Yogyakarta and Surakarta, Sumatra, Kalimantan, and de Grote Oost—Sulawesi, the Lesser Sunda islands, the Moluccas (Maluku) and New Guinea (Iria