Buitenbezittingen

Properties3
descriptionThe Outer Possessions of the Netherlands East Indies — all Dutch colonial possessions outside Java and Madura, including Atjeh, the rest of Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas, Bali, Lombok, Timor, and New Guinea.
tagsconcept, colonial, dutch, administrative, buitenbezittingen, aceh, sumatra, borneo, celebes, moluccas, acheh
aliasesBuitenbezittingen, Buitengewesten, the Outer Territories, the Outer Islands

6 min read

The Buitenbezittingen (“Outer Possessions”) was the collective Dutch colonial designation for all the possessions of the Netherlands East Indies outside Java and Madura — that is, for Sumatra (including Atjeh), Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas, Bali and Lombok, Timor and the lesser Sunda islands, and the western part of New Guinea. In the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s volume De Buitenbezittingen 1904 tot 1914 — the principal published Dutch survey of the outer possessions in the 1904–1914 decade — the Buitenbezittingen are presented as a coherent administrative and economic whole, brought under Dutch “effective authority” in the post-1896 strategic reorientation whose originating event was the verraad of Toekoe Oemar.

Account from De Buitenbezittingen (1917) — Buitenbezittingen

The Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s volume is, in its own framing, a “sketch of the development of the Buitenbezittingen during the period 1904–1914, so important for those territories.” The Bureau identifies the verraad of Toekoe Oemar in 1896 as the originating event of the “ommekeer in de politiek ten aanzien van de Buitenbezittingen” (about-turn in policy toward the Buitenbezittingen) — an about-turn that, after the 1902 extension to Djambi/Koerintji, would lead to the post-1902 project of “complete subjection to our effective authority” across the outer possessions.

The Bureau’s statistical tables of the Buitenbezittingen as a whole enumerate the following gewesten (regions) in 1912: Sumatra’s West Coast, Tapanuli, Bencoolen, Lampong Districts, Palembang, Djambi, East Coast of Sumatra, Atjeh and Dependencies, Riouw and Dependencies, Banka and Dependencies, Billiton, Western Division of Borneo, Southern and Eastern Division of Borneo, Celebes and Dependencies, Menado, Amboina and Dependencies, Ternate and Dependencies, Timor and Dependencies, and Bali and Lombok. The Bureau’s population table records a total Buitenbezittingen population of approximately 11.4 million inlanders (natives), 81,000 Europeans, 611,000 Chinese, and 9,000 Arabs in 1912.

The Bureau’s narrative of the 1904–1914 decade presents the Buitenbezittingen as the principal theatre of the Dutch colonial project in the early twentieth century — the theatre in which the pacification of Atjeh, the 1910 centralisation of the landschapskassen, the 1913 Aroe-baai-plannen, the 1913–1914 administrative reorganization consultations, and the 1914 Zelfbestuurs-ordonnantie all took place. The Bureau’s framing makes the Buitenbezittingen — and especially Atjeh — the principal locus of the Dutch colonial “modernisation” project of the early twentieth century.

Significance

The Buitenbezittingen are, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account, the principal theatre of the Dutch colonial project in the 1904–1914 decade. The post-1896 pacification of Atjeh is the originating event of the wider Buitenbezittingen turn; the post-1902 extension of the Atjeh model to Djambi/Koerintji and other parts of the outer possessions is the colonial-wide translation of that model. The Bureau’s volume is, in its own framing, the principal published Dutch survey of the Buitenbezittingen in this decisive decade.

Account from Schets eener parlementaire geschiedenis (1955)

The following account is drawn from the parliamentary history of the Dutch Second Chamber as narrated by Vermeulen in the colonial section of the 1955 fourth revised edition of Rengers’s *Schets*.

The Buitenbezittingen — the “Outer Possessions” or “Outer Territories” — is the collective Dutch colonial term for the islands and regions of the Nederlandsch-Indische archipelago outside Java and Madoera: principally Sumatra (including Atjeh), Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas, the Lesser Sunda Islands (including Bali and Lombok), and the western half of Nieuw Guinea. The Buitenbezittingen are, in the Vermeulen retrospective, the principal theatre of the post-1901 extension of Dutch effective authority — the pacificatie of Atjeh in 1904, the expeditions to Djambi and Korintji in 1901, to Borneo in 1904, to Celebes in 1905, to Bali in 1906.

The post-1901 consolidation

In the wake of the pacificatie of Atjeh, Dutch authority was consolidated elsewhere in the Buitenbezittingen: Djambi and Korintji in 1901, Borneo in 1904, Celebes in 1905, Bali in 1906. The post-Van Heutsz consolidation was thus synchronous with the ethical-policy proclamation of 1901. The 35-year Atjeh-oorlog ([[1873-1904)|Atjeh-oorlog]] had demonstrated what was, in peacetime, not always grasped: that Dutch sovereignty over the Buitenbezittingen was, until the late nineteenth-twentieth centuries, more nominal than effective.

The Idenburg formulation

Idenburg (a.r.), minister of Colonies, pronounced it Van Heutsz’s greatest merit that he had put an end to the Dutch feeling of impotence with respect to the Buitenbezittingen: “Hij heeft ons doen zien, dat wij, wanneer wij maar willen en onze middelen systematisch gebruiken, inderdaad ook kunnen bereiken wat wij ons tot taak hadden gesteld. Dat herwonnen zelfvertrouwen leidde er ons vanzelf toe om het ernstig te nemen met de plicht, welke ons als westerse mogendheid tegenover de Buitenbezittingen is opgelegd, het brengen van recht en orde”.

The zending context

The Buitenbezittingen were, in the 1911 begrotingsdebat, cited by De Waal Malefijt as the region where Kuyper’s rule for bizonder onderwijs (confessional schools) was possible — “in enkele streken in de Buitenbezittingen, waar de zending vaste voet gekregen had” — in a few regions of the Buitenbezittingen, where the missions had gained a firm foothold. On Java, by contrast, the Muslim majority lacked the organisation to act on its own initiative, and the rule was inapplicable.

Significance

The Buitenbezittingen are, in the Vermeulen retrospective, the principal theatre of the post-1901 extension of Dutch effective authority. The pacificatie of Atjeh is the central episode of this extension; the subsequent expeditions to Djambi-Korintji (1901), Borneo (1904), Celebes (1905) and Bali (1906) are its continuation.

See Also

Sources

De Buitenbezittingen 1904 tot 1914, Deel I, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen, Aflevering X (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), Voorwoord and pp. 1–8 (Bestuurs-organisatie).

Schets eener parlementaire geschiedenis van Nederland van 1849 tot 1901, by Mr W. J. van Welderen baron Rengers, 4th rev. ed., Vol. IV: Oost-Indië 1891-1918 by Dr W. H. Vermeulen (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1955), pp. 271-272, 275, 320.

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