File talk:Evolution of the Dutch East Indies.png
I have concerns about the accuracy of, and the non-attribution of sources for, this image ("the Red4tribe version").
Its initial revision, dated 06 May 2008, appears to have been a direct copy of the image at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Evolution_of_the_Dutch_East_Indies.png, which was uploaded in situ by User:The_Red_Hat_of_Pat_Ferrick ("the Ferrick version") on 04 May 2008. There is no attribution of that source (or, indeed, any sources) for this image, in marked contrast with the Ferrick version itself which cites "SarDesai, D.R. (1997). Southeast Asia: Past and Present. Westview. pp. 88".
The Ferrick version accurately documents three distinct phases in the expansion of Dutch control over the East Indies:
1. possessions as at the nationalisation of the VOC in 1800 2. possessions added in the period 1801-1870 3. possessions added in the period 1871-1942 up to Japanese occupation
The Red4tribe version seeks, with some measure of success, to add a finer-grained representation of the Dutch colonial expansion but subverts this by keying the modified map to very specific (and, in some cases, historically inaccurate) dates rather than date-ranges as in the Ferrick version.
Specifically, the Red4tribe version suggests that control over the northern tip of Sumatra (Aceh), eastern Borneo, Sulawesi and West New Guinea was achieved simultaneously in 1920. In fact (with the exception of small areas around Gayo and Tanah Alas) substantive control had been asserted over all of Aceh by 1903, over non-British Borneo by 1857, all of Sulawesi by 1905 and West New Guinea by either 1848 (claim) or 1898 (treaty).
Absent significant revision of at least the map key the Red4tribe version is highly misleading and, in some respects, historically inaccurate. It should therefore, in the interests of both accuracy and of proper attribution of sources, be reverted to the original Ferrick version by the importation of that version into Commons.
