1800 to 1830: Chaos and Resistance

1800

VOC formally dissolved on January 1; properties revert to Dutch government.

Sultan of the Kraton Kanoman in Cirebon is banished to Ambon by the Dutch. A low-level rebellion breaks out under Bagus Rangen.

During these times, the Netherlands was allied to or occupied by Napoleon's France. Until Daendels arrived, not all Dutch officials in the Indies approved of the government in Amsterdam.

Around this time, many ports and markets that had been monopolized by the VOC were opened to free trade. This turned out to be profitable for the local government, which then allowed the Netherlands Indies officials to be more independent of the Napoleonic government in Amsterdam (until events of war reduced trade around 1807-1808).

1801

British take control of the Minahasa region, remaining until 1816.

1802

Melaka and Maluku are returned from British to Dutch control by the Treaty of Amiens.

Dutch begin sending military reinforcements to Java.

1803

Dutch government (Batavian Republic) issues colonial charter making the Netherlands Indies government responsible to the Netherlands (unlike the VOC).

Three pilgrims from Minangkabau return home after travelling to Mecca for the hajj, and encountering advocates of the Wahhabi movement that was gaining strength in Arabia and had occupied Mecca itself. The three pilgrims are called "Padri" after the port of Pedir (or Pidie) in Aceh, where people from that area started their hajj journey. The Padri movement begins to grow in the Minangkabau area, promoting more orthodox Islam as opposed to traditional local practices.

British surrender Ambon to the Dutch.

Badruddin becomes Sultan of Palembang.

The "Padri" advocates on Sumatra were heavily influenced by the Wahhabiyah in Arabia, a fundamentalist movement founded by Ibnu Wahhab in the middle 1700s. The movement is still favored in Saudi Arabia today.

1805

1806

British Navy skirmishes with French and Dutch forces off Java.

British seize Bangka.

Ministry of Colonies is founded for the Netherlands.

The "Batavian Republic" of the Netherlands, under French control, is converted into the "Kingdom of Holland", with Louis, the brother of Napoleon, as king.

1807

Tondano leads a rebellion against the British in Minahasa.

British retake control of Melaka.

French-run government of the Netherlands appoints Daendels as Governor-General of the Indies.

1808

January 1 Daendels arrives.

Daendels moves his residence to Buitenzorg (now Bogor).

Daendels takes formal possession of Lampung for the Dutch.

Pakubuwono IV appeases Daendels; Hamengkubuwono II opposes him.

Mangkunegara II organizes "Mangkunegaran Legion" with Dutch financing.

Daendels reinstates the exiled Sultan of Cirebon, but the rebellion in the countryside around Cirebon continues.

August 18 Daendels reorganizes areas under Dutch control in Central and East Java. Bupatis and local rulers are made employees of the Dutch government.

Daendels orders a series of public works around Banten, including highways and a new harbor, to be carried out with local workers. The workers revolt under the burden; the Dutch Resident at Banten is killed. Daendels sends in a military force to put down the rebellion and replace the Sultan of Banten, who is sent to exile in Ambon.

British decide to abandon Melaka; Stamford Raffles, then a clerk, writes urgent letter to India urging a reversal of the decision. The decision is reversed, and the British stay in Melaka.

Sulaiman becomes Sultan of Banjar.

Herman Willem Daendels
Daendels was a product of revolutionary Europe and a supporter of Napoleon, but he was also a colonialist. Daendels did not like the Sultans and Princes of Java at all, but he himself was sent to rule in their place. He thought he was ending oppression, but he was really bring in a newer, heavier rule from Europe. In particular, he took advantage of Dutch treaty rights over native rulers that had never before been exercised. He reorganized the legal system, but he himself governed through arbitrary decrees.

He faced problems from every side, especially a British naval blockade that choked off much economic activity.

1809

Daendels builds mountain route from Batavia to Cirebon (Jalan Raya Pos/Groote Postweg), orders town of Bandung to be relocated to the road (its current site). Pangeran Kornel, local ruler of Sumedang, refuses to cooperate due to the mistreatment of locals.

Daendels abandons the Dutch presence at Banjarmasin in order to consolidate his hold on Java.

While in Batavia, Daendels started a campaign to clean up the city's canals. His project to build a great highway through the Parahiyangan took the lives of many laborers.

1810

Daendels abandons the Dutch presence at Banjarmasin.

May British retake Ambon, Ternate and Tidore.

Raden Rangga, brother-in-law of the Sultan, starts failed revolt against Dutch in Yogya; Daendels marches on Yogya, forces Hamengkubuwono II to abdicate in favor of young Hamengkubuwono III.

Napoleon annexes the Netherlands to France. Daendels flies the French flag over Batavia.

Raffles visits Lord Minto, British Governor-General in India, in Calcutta, urging him to drive the French and Dutch from Java. Minto is convinced.

1811

Hamengkubuwono III hands over Pangeran Natakusuma to the Dutch on suspicion of being involved in 1810 rebellion.

May Daendels is replaced by Jan Willem Janssens. (Daendels soon served under Napoleon on his failed Moscow campaign.)

August 3 British forces land on Java.

Local princes at Banten, which was still an area of unrest due to the burden of public works ordered by Daendels, take the Sultan of Banten prisoner and cooperate with the British.

August 26 British under Lord Minto take Batavia. The Dutch, having suffered heavy losses, retreat to Semarang.

September 18 Dutch surrender to British at Salatiga.

Thomas Stamford Raffles appointed Lt-Governor of Java.

Bagus Rangen is captured by the British; the rebellion around Cirebon subsides.

Dutch resident at Palembang and company are killed, probably on orders of Sultan Badruddin; the British have Badruddin dethroned and replaced by his brother.

Hamengkubuwono II retakes title in Yogya.

December Raffles visits Yogya Kraton, generates much hostility.

Pakubuwono IV sends secret letters to Yogya offering assistance against the British, but hoping to make Yogya overextend themselves; British begin secret negotiations with Hamengkubuwono III; Natakusuma offers help to British.

Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
Raffles was known for his scientific interests as well as the work he did for the British East India Company: governing Java, governing the output at Bengkulu, Sumatra which was British at the time, and of course, for founding Singapore.

1812

January 12 Raffles issues a proclamation to reorganize and modernize the court system.

June British shell, take, and loot Yogya. Pakubuwono IV of Surakarta offers little help. Hamengkubuwono II is removed by the British, sent to exile in Padang, and replaced again by Hamengkubuwono III.

Natakusuma becomes Pangeran Pakualam I, founding the house of Pakualam.

October British sign treaty with Sultan of Banjar.

British take Timor.

British seize Belitung as reparation for the "massacre" at Palembang the previous year.

Raffles had the same delusion as Daendels, that he was ending oppression, when in fact he was bringing in a tighter colonial rule. The nobility in Yogya considered the British to be horribly impolite.

In Raffles favor, it could be said that he liberalized the economy of Java with free-market reforms that helped farmers. He abolished forced labor and the compulsory cultivation of crops. He also tried to end the slave trade between Indonesians and foreigners.

On the other hand, while farmers under Raffles were free to grow whatever they wanted, they still had to pay up to 40% of their crops to the government.

1813

Bahauddin becomes Sultan of Palembang.

Raffles abolishes the Sultanate of Banten; the Sultan to receive a pension from the British government.

November Revolt in the Netherlands against Napoleon.

1814

June Lord Minto, British Governor of India and Raffles' patron and promoter, dies. Charges of corruption are brought against Raffles, who is eventually found innocent.

June 21 Agreement between the nations that fought Napoleon to found a new "Kingdom of the Netherlands".

August 13 British agree on eventual return of possessions in the Indies to the Dutch.

British war with Balinese in Buleleng and Karangasem over the slave trade.

Bone attacks the British.

British residents are stationed in Banjarmasin and Pontianak.

Hamengkubuwono IV takes rule in Yogya. Diponegoro (his older brother, who had declined the succession) is appointed as guardian for the 13-year-old Sultan.

British expedition reports on Borobudur and Prambanan to Europe for the first time.

Javanese palace guard with keris, early 1800s.

1815

Much of Minangkabau nobility killed by Padri supporters; Padri begin to expand promotion of Islam into Batak areas.

April-July Mount Tambora on Sumbawa erupts: 12,000 are dead from the eruption itself, later 50,000 die from related famine.

May Raffles visits Borobudur.

Raffles establishes direct rule over Cirebon, removing power from its Sultans.

Netherlands government establishes regulations for governing the Netherlands Indies. (These would serve as a sort of constitution for the Netherlands Indies, in one form or another, until 1942.)

The eruption of Tambora changed climate worldwide; in the northern United States, 1815 was called "the year without a summer", and snow fell in July.

1816

Bone attacks British again.

August 19 Dutch return to Batavia. Cornelis Elout continues Raffles' reform policies.

Dutch unsuccessfully try to get rajas of Bali to accept Dutch authority.

1817

Madura consolidated into single kabupaten.

Pattimura leads revolt against returning Dutch in Ambon; hanged in December.

Botanical Gardens founded at Bogor.

Gunung Ijen erupts in eastern Java.

Thomas Matulessy, or Pattimura, led a rebellion against the Dutch in Ambon in 1817.

1818

March Raffles is sent to govern British fort at Bengkulu.

Raffles sends a small force into Lampung to establish a British presence there; British East India Company officials in Calcutta tell him to turn back.

Raffles sends troops to Palembang to intervene in negotiations between the Sultan and the Dutch. They are arrested and sent to Batavia. British officials again tell Raffles to withdraw.

Dutch under Cornelis Elout end the slave trade on Java.

Dutch return to Melaka.

Dutch return to Pontianak.

1819

January 19 Raffles founds Singapore, having purchased the island from the Sultan of Johore.

Dutch return to Padang. Raffles tries to incite anti-Dutch actions in the Minangkabau countryside.

Najamuddin Pangeran Ratu becomes Sultan of Palembang.

1820

Pakubuwono V becomes Susuhunan of Solo.

Dutch send expedition to the Aru Islands.

Umbrella commission is organized to oversee Protestant churches in the Netherlands Indies.

1821

Remaining Minangkabau nobles sign treaty giving Minangkabau to Dutch in exchange for protection against the Padri. "Padri War" begins.

Cholera appears in Java for the first time; rice harvest fails.

Najamuddin Prabu Anom becomes Sultan of Palembang.

1822

Hamengkubuwono IV dies amid rumors of poisoning. Hamengkubuwono V is new Sultan. Diponegoro is upset by the handling of the situation by Dutch officials.

Mount Merapi erupts near Yogya.

Gov.-Gen. van der Capellen

1823

Dutch forces are defeated by the Padri at Lintau.

Gov.-Gen. van der Capellen abolishes land leases in Central Java.

Pakubuwono VI ascends in Solo.

Kramo Jayo becomes Sultan of Palembang.

Raffles, in poor health, returns to England.

The nobility of the Yogya kraton in these days served without collecting a salary. Instead, courtiers were given the right to collect rent on land within the Sultanate. Such rentable lands had been greatly reduced due to colonial expansion, first by the VOC, then the British. The situation for them improved a little after the Dutch returned in 1816, as European planters began to rent lands (and the use of the peasants living on them) for plantations.

Van der Capellen, however, was of the same liberal mindset as Daendels and Raffles before him, and was disgusted by the feudal lifestyle these planters had started to enjoy. But when he abolished this system of land leasing, he also stopped the main source of income for the nobility, turning them against the Dutch.

1824

March 17 British and Dutch sign Treaty of London and divide the Indies between themselves. The Dutch claim Sumatra, Java, Maluku, Irian Jaya, and so on. The British claim Malaya and Singapore, and retain an interest in North Borneo. Aceh is supposed to remain independent.

Bone takes Dutch areas in south Sulawesi.

Netherlands Indies faces a financial crunch--Gov. Gen. van der Capellen offers the colony to a private British firm, Palmer and Co., as collateral on a loan to bail out the colonial government. (The Netherlands government, embarassed by these events, made large loans to the Netherlands Indies in 1826 and 1828.)

Dutch institute direct rule in Riau.

The Treaty of London in 1824 was intended to divide the Indies between British and Dutch control. Many of the boundaries defined in this treaty would later become boundaries of the Republic of Indonesia.

1825

March 29 Nederlandsche Handel Maatschappij is founded.

Dutch defeat Bone before Java War; sporadic fighting continues for years.

Padri fighters take southern Tapanuli area. King Sisingamangaraja X of the Bataks is killed fighting against the Padri.

Dutch require Muslim pilgrims who wish to make the hajj to get a passport and pay a 110 gulden tax.

May Diponegoro and court retainers clash in dispute over new road.

July Dutch send troops to arrest Diponegoro, who declares rebellion. This was the beginning of the "Java War", which lasted until 1830.

Adam al-Wasi' Billah becomes Sultan of Banjar.

Line of succession in Palembang ends. Dutch institute direct rule.

Dutch issue orders to arrest Raden Intan in Lampung. Raden Intan dies and is succeeded by Raden Imba Kusuma.

Diponegoro had support of many princes and bupati, rural farmers, and religious leaders, including Kyai Maja. The Yogya Kraton did not side with him. Pakubuwono VI of Surakarta supported him quietly. The "Java War" began with a dispute over a new road that would have disrupted an orchard that Diponegoro had planted, but this was only the last in a long series of insults and conflicts.

1826

Guerilla warfare widespread throughout central and east Java.

The Dutch begin organizing special troops for fighting in the Indies.

Van der Capellen is replaced by Du Bus as Governor-General.

August Dutch return Hamengkubuwono II from exile in Ambon, and reinstall him as Sultan of Yogya.

October Diponegoro is defeated at Gowok, near Surakarta. His forces are pushed back.

Prince Diponegoro
Pangeran or Prince Diponegoro is remembered as a great hero today. He had the mystic vision of a religious leader, the pedigree of the House of Yogya, and an affinity for the common people. Many streets and public institutions have been named for him.

1827

Dutch reorganize forces in the Java War, change to more flexible tactics, take offensive against guerilla bands.

1828

April Javanese successes against the Dutch.

Madura consolidated with Surabaya.

Smallpox epidemic in Bali.

Fort Du Bus founded by Dutch in Irian Jaya.

November Kyai Maja, spiritual advisor to Diponegoro, is taken prisoner by the Dutch after hand-to-hand combat.

1829

September Pangeran Mangkubumi (uncle of Diponegoro) surrenders. He is allowed to return to his palace.

October Sentot surrenders. The Dutch make him a Lieutenant-Colonel.

Sentot
Sentot fought against the Dutch during the Java War, but later switched allegiances.

1830

Pakubuwono VI, suspected by the Dutch, is exiled to Ambon (until 1849). Pakubuwono VII becomes Susuhunan of Solo.