As we know, the East Indies played an enormous role in human history. Columbus tried to find a western route to it and stumbled upon the New World. Control over the East Indies along with the Americas allowed the Europeans to surpass the Ottomans in wealth, which allowed it to produce manufactured goods on a larger scale and eventually dominate the world. Also coffee... Coffee from the East Indies may have inadvertently triggered the enlightenment.
Now the two most valuable colonies in this region, India and Indonesia, were controlled by the British East India and the Dutch East India companies respectively, but which one was more valuable in terms of resources and impact on the globe, in general?
I'm Indonesian so my choice is biased, but I pick Indonesia because that's where most of the spices, coffee, and other raw materials came from. I'm of the knowledge that India was valuable because of the cotton and textiles it produced.
What do you guys think and why? And why did British power increase while Dutch power declined, although it was arguably the most technologically and economically developed state in the world during the 16th century?