Photo: Carl Josef Kleingrothe/National Gallery of Australia
When Dutch private capital began to enter the Dutch East Indies after the transportation and telecommunications revolution, many mining and plantations were opened. Tobacco is one of the commodities that the European market is interested in besides sugar.
The photo above shows the clearing of forest for tobacco plantations in the interior of North Sumatra. Apart from clearing the forest, they also have to build roads and irrigation canals. The remaining trees are cut down and then burned to make the soil more fertile before planting.