The history of the Netherlands in the 19th
Century is a closed book for most non-Dutch, not least because of the incorrect
perception that “little happened” and as the country was at peace in Europe from
1831 to 1940. The Netherlands were however involved in a series of colonial
campaigns in the vast territory of the Dutch East Indies, which constituted
most of what is the present-day nation of Indonesia.
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Dutch power in the East Indies - end of "The Java War" in 1830
Painting by Nicolaas Pieneman shows submission of a local prince |
There had been a Dutch presence on the island of Java since
the early seventeenth century and the island had become the focus of intense British
and French rivalry during the Napoleonic Wars. Dutch power was spread more
thinly elsewhere and the nineteenth century saw a succession of campaigns to
bring the entire archipelago under control. The instrument for this was the
KNIL – the Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch
Leger, the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. Established in 1830, this
force was not part of the Dutch Army (which only served at home) and was not
entitles to make use of Dutch conscripts. Funded by the colonial budget, it
fell under the command of the Governor-General of the East Indies. It accepted volunteers of other European
nationalities in addition to many from the Netherlands itself – one unlikely
example being the French poet Arthur Rimbaud (1854 –1891) who joined in 1876,
served for four months and then deserted. The officers and non-commissioned
officers were mainly European (typically Dutch, German, Belgian and Swiss) but
the majority of the troops were indigenous Indonesians, mainly from Java. In
the KNIL’s earlier years several thousand African soldiers were recruited from
the small Dutch holdings on the Gold Coast (Modern Ghana).
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| Location of Aceh - with thanks to Google Earth |
The greatest – and most sustained – challenge faced by the
KNIL was the series of difficult campaigns from 1873 to 1914 which became known
as the Aceh War. Though not a single continuous conflict, it never achieved
outright resolution – traces of resistance persisted until the Japanese
invasion in 1942 – and it represented a steady drain on Dutch resources. Aceh
represented the northern tip of Sumatra and as a sultanate had its independence
guaranteed by an Anglo-Dutch Treaty in 1824. In the following decades it became
a rich regional power, its wealth based on production of half the world’s pepper.
Smaller local rulers were brought under control by the reigning sultan and Aceh
power extended steadily southwards, coming into collision with the Dutch, who
by this stage were extending their influence northwards. Piracy represented a
profitable sideline for some of the coastal communities, leading to punitive
expeditions by the US Navy in 1832 and 1838. (These expeditions were described in the Blog of 26th
January 2016 – see link at end of article). The situation was complicated
by the fact that there were still British claims to Sumatra, though these were
not pressed.
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| A KNIL General inspecting local troops in 1870s |
The situation changed in 1871 when a treaty was signed
between Britain and the Netherlands which gave the Dutch a free hand in
Sumatra, as well as the obligation to supress piracy, in return for the Dutch giving
up its holdings on the Gold Coast. While the Ache Sultanate remained
independent it represented a major obstacle to Dutch control of the enormous 182,800
square mile island – the sixth largest in the world. Concern was raised in the
Dutch colonial government in 1873 when the Sultanate initiated negotiation with
the American government about a bi-lateral treaty – potentially introducing another
major player – and the decision was taken to annex Aceh militarily. The campaign
for doing so was to prove hastily and inadequately planned and resourced. The over-optimistic
objective was to bombard the Sultan’s capital at Bandar Aceh, at the island’s
northern tip and to seize the town as a base for further efforts to occupy the coastal
areas. It was anticipated that seizure of the sultan and his palace would
trigger a collapse in resistance.
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| The death of General Johan Köhler 14th April 1873 |
The sultanate’s ability to resist was badly underestimated
as significant numbers of modern weapons had been imported to Aceh. In April
1873 the Dutch force’s attempt to storm the palace was bloodily repulsed and the
commander, General Johan Köhler (1818 - 1873) was killed, together with some
80of his troops. Recognising that the situation was impossible, Köhler’s deputy,
now in command, ordered retreat and the expeditionary force returned to Java. A
Dutch naval blockade was now imposed and efforts by the sultanate to get
support from the United States and from the Ottoman Empire proved fruitless.
Aceh was on its own.
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| KNIL officers at Banda Aceh, January 1874 |
The defeat
had been humiliating for Dutch prestige and a second, and larger, expedition
was mounted later the same year. Commanded by General Jan van Swieten (1807 –1888)
this was a much better resourced effort. It was the largest offensive that the Dutch
had yet mounted in the East Indies – 8,500 troops, 4,500 porters and labourers,
with a further 1,500 troops being deployed after the initial landings. The
timing proved disastrous as it coincided with a cholera outbreak that respected
neither side. Recognising that direct confrontation was futile, the Sultan abandoned
Bandar Aceh to the Dutch forces in early 1874 – relinquishing the symbolically
important palace – and took to the hills and forests to the south to conduct a guerrilla
campaign. In the six months from November 1873 to April 1874 the Dutch force
lost 1,400 men – and this was only the beginning.
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| KNIL officers - possibly with captured Sultanate artillery - Banda Aceh, 1874 |
A vicious
six-year guerrilla conflict followed, with both sides suffering heavy casualties,
and with tropical diseases continuing to represent as significant a hazard as enemy
action. In 1880 the Dutch realised – that for now at least – outright conquest would
prove impossible. The war was proclaimed to be at and end and Dutch forces
settled down to defending the areas they controlled, primarily that around
Banda Aceh. While using their naval forces to patrol the coastline they initiated
an effort to draw up treaties with local leaders.
A two-year
period of civilian rule followed – during which increasing violence showed that
resistance to Dutch rule was not at an end. In late 1883 military rule was again
imposed and, in a steadily worsening situation, it was recognised that the war
had reignited and a new, and even deadlier, phase was beginning. But that’s another
story!
Britannia’s Reach by Antoine Vanner
"Britannia’s reach is not just political or military alone. What
higher interest can there be than consolidation of Britain’s commercial
interests?” So says one of the key figures in this novel, which centres on the
efforts of a British-owned company to reassert control of its
cattle-raising investment in Paraguay, following a revolt by its workers.
This story of desperate riverine combat brings historic naval fiction
into the age of Fighting Steam.
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