In the summer of 1950, southern parts of the Maluku Islands, with majority Christian populations, were rebel territory with the proclamation of the so-called Republic of South Maluku (RMS), and its army was mainly composed of demobilized ex-Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) soldiers and other South Moluccan men who remained loyal to the Dutch crown, even during the days of the United States of Indonesia wherein Maluku was one of its constituent states.