This book describes and analyses Minahasan regional nationalism in the period up to 1942. Attention is given to precolonial antecedents, to the transformations brought about by compulsory coffee cultivation, Christian mission activity and Western education, to the role of local representative councils, to the privileged position which Minahasans came to occupy relative to other Indonesians within the colonial state, and to the ambiguous relationship between Minahasa and the Indonesian nationalist movement.