Buitengewesten

Properties3
descriptionThe Buitengewesten (Outer Territories) were all parts of the Dutch East Indies outside Java and Madura. The pacification of these territories, including Atjeh, was completed under Governor-General Van Heutsz, and their infrastructure development was a major colonial priority by 1926.
tagsconcept, term, colonial, knil, administrative-division, dutch, geography, policy, achehnese-history, place, acheh, administrative, administration, indies
aliasesBuitengewesen, the Outer Territories, Buitenbezittingen

9 min read

Buitengewesten — literally “outer territories” — was the term used in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. for the K.N.I.L. territories outside Java — Aceh, Celebes, Borneo, Ceram, Soembawa, Flores, and the rest of the archipelago. The buitengewesten were where the Marechaussee patrouille operated, where the bivak was built, where the bekas was read. The buitengewesten were contrasted with Java — the densely populated, “practically safe” island where the bulk of training occurred.

More formally, the Buitengewesten (English: Outer Territories; also Buitenbezittingen) were all parts of the Dutch East Indies outside the islands of Java and Madura. They encompassed Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas, New Guinea, and the Lesser Sunda Islands. The Government of Atjeh and Dependencies was one of the principal administrative units within the Buitengewesten.

The contrast with Java

The buitengewesten were contrasted with Java. On Java each compagnie of the K.N.I.L. consisted of one bangsa (except the European officers); in the buitengewesten all landaarden were mixed in one brigade. The buitengewesten were therefore both geographically and organisationally distinct from Java: the outer territories where the brigade — not the compagnie — was the unit, and where the bangsa of the brigade were mixed.

The politionele taak

In the buitengewesten the politionele taak (police task) was “nummer één” — number one. The buitengewesten were where the colonial army’s counter-insurgency work was done: the colonne method, the bivak, the bekas, the dardanel. The Verzetgebied (resistance area) was gradually eliminated as the K.N.I.L. fulfilled its task.

The posting

“Overal in de Oost keek de bevolking wel hoog tegen de soldaten op, maar toch beschouwde men het meegaan met werfagenten meestal als een noodsprong.” A tour of duty in the buitengewesten was a buitenbeurt — an outer-territories tour. The first buitenbeurt came after ~4 years; the second of three years; sometimes a derde beurt was granted. The buitenbeurt was the colonial soldaat’s rite of passage: the tour in the buitengewesten that completed his training and made him a real soldier.

Account from Nederlandsch Indië Platen Atlas (1926) — The Buitengewesten

The atlas refers to the Buitengewesten in several contexts that illuminate both their administrative character and the transformation they had undergone by 1926:

Governance

The head of the government of “Sumatra’s Oostkust, Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden en Celebes en Onderhoorigheden” bore the title of Gouverneur (Governor), distinguishing these territories from the Residencies on Java, whose heads were called Residents. The Buitengewesten were described as having a non-uniform indigenous administration (Inlandsch bestuur), “vooral door de verschillende zelfbesturende landschappen, die men er aantreft, en de verschillende benamingen der diverse rangen en functies van de Inlandsche bestuursambtenaren en hoofden” (especially because of the various self-governing territories one encounters there, and the differing titles of the various ranks and functions of the indigenous administrative officials and chiefs).

The Policy Shift

The atlas provides a crucial account of the transformation of policy towards the Buitengewesten: “De Buitengewesten stonden hierin bij Java ten achter. Toen echter op het einde van de vorige eeuw de politiek van onthouding ten aanzien van deze gewesten werd verlaten en onder den Gouverneur-Generaal Van Heutsz werd vervangen door een krachtige en doelbewuste politiek van het onder ons gezag brengen er van, werd ook ingezien, dat daartoe een behoorlijk wegennet een eerste voorwaarde was.”

(The Outer Territories lag behind Java in this regard. When, however, at the end of the previous century the policy of abstention towards these territories was abandoned and, under the Governor-General Van Heutsz, was replaced by an energetic and purposeful policy of bringing them under our authority, it was also recognised that a proper road network was a first prerequisite for this.)

Transport and Waterways

The atlas notes that waterways remained of great importance in the Buitengewesten: “Op de uitgestrekte Buitengewesten, waar het net van landwegen nog niet zoo uitgebreid is als op Java, zijn de waterwegen nog van groot belang.” (In the extensive Outer Territories, where the network of land roads is not yet as extensive as on Java, the waterways are still of great importance.)

Pacification

Governor Van Heutsz’s period as Governor-General (1905–1909) “kenmerkte zich door de voltooiing der pacificatie van de Buitengewesten” (was characterised by the completion of the pacification of the Outer Territories).

Significance

The buitengewesten are significant in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. as the K.N.I.L. territories outside Java — the place where the colonial army’s counter-insurgency work was done. The book’s argument is that the buitengewesten — geographically and organisationally distinct from Java — were where the colonne method was developed, where the bivak was built, where the bekas was read. The buitengewesten are therefore the book’s marker of the colonial army’s actual workplace: the outer territories where the Aceh War and the other colonial pacifications were fought.

The Nederlandsch Indië Platen Atlas (1926) further underscores the importance of the Buitengewesten in the official colonial reckoning. By that year, the transformation of the Outer Territories was sufficiently advanced that the atlas could boast of automobile travel from Kota Radja in Atjeh to Padang, and the expansion of the Atjeh and Deli railway networks. The shift from the onthoudingspolitiek to an active policy of pacification — completed under Governor Van Heutsz — was presented as the defining achievement of the latest phase of Dutch colonial history.

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*.

Buitengewesten — the Outer Territories — was the Dutch colonial-administrative term for the islands and regions of the Nederlandsch-Indië outside Java and Madoera. In the source’s narrative, the buitengewesten are the principal theatre of the post-1890s extension of Dutch effective authority — the Atjehoorlog of 1873-1904 on Sumatra, the 1894 Lombok expedition, and the subsequent consolidation under Van Heutsz and his successors.

The post-Atjeh consolidation

The source’s verdict on the post-1904 period is direct: “Na beëindiging van de Atjeh-oorlog werd het daadwerkelijk gezag in de gehele archipel zonder veel moeite gevestigd en gehandhaafd” (After the end of the Atjeh war, effective authority in the entire archipelago was established and maintained without much difficulty). The archipelago — with the exception of “de nog ondoorzochte wildernissen van Nieuw Guinea” (the still-unsurveyed wildernesses of New Guinea) — could now be traversed safely without special protection. The post-1904 period thus opened with a security situation fundamentally different from that of the preceding half-century.

The korte verklaring

Van Heutsz had, “in samenwerking met Snouck Hurgronje” (in cooperation with Snouck Hurgronje), drawn up the so-called korte verklaring — the short declaration required of submitted chiefs in the buitengewesten. The declaration, whose three points bound the signatory to recognise his territory as part of Nederlandsch-Indië, to be loyal to the Queen and the governor-general, and to comply with all regulations and orders, was eventually signed by 261 chiefs of self-governing territories in the buitengewesten.

The 1822 Bali and Lombok residency

The source records that “In 1822 was een residentie Bali en Lombok ingesteld” (In 1822 a residency Bali and Lombok was established). The 1822 establishment of the Bali-Lombok residency is, in the source’s narrative, the institutional precursor of the post-1904 consolidation: a buitengewesten residency established half a century before the Atjeh war began, but not converted into effective authority until the post-1894 Lombok expedition.

Significance

Buitengewesten is, in the source’s narrative, the principal theatre of the post-1890s extension of Dutch effective authority. The Atjehoorlog of 1873-1904 is the central episode of this extension; the korte verklaring is its principal administrative instrument.

Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)

Before 1900 they “remained distant unknowns, where our authority reached no further than the shadow of a flagstaff — with, in that narrow shadow, an administrative official without means of power and therefore without authority.” “Verboden Toegang” was the imperative sign that closed the road to them, because “remember Atjeh — let Atjeh be a warning!” H. N. A. Swart’s whole career after 1905 belonged to their opening: Borneo, Celebes, Soembawa and finally Atjeh. Du Croo named van Heutsz, Colijn and Swart as “de derde groote en beteekenisvolle Bouwheer der Buitengewesten (“Outer Provinces”).” As Vice-President of the Raad van Nederlandsch-Indië from 1918, Swart was chosen as adviser precisely because he had been an administrator “in het nauwelijks geopende, onontgonnen gebied der buitengewesten.”

See Also

Source

Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954), chapter “Van recruut tot pensioen” and chapter “De buitenpost.”

Nederlandsch Indië Platen Atlas met korte beschrijvingen, uitgegeven door Volkslectuur, Weltevreden, Java. Weltevreden: G. Kolff & Co., January 1926. Chapter III (Gezagvoering), pp. 54, 56; Chapter IX (Verkeer), pp. 160, 165, 168.

Nederlanders over de Zeeën: 350 Jaar geschiedenis van Nederland buitengaats, onder redactie van Dr. H. J. de Graaf, met medewerking van Prof. G. Gonggrijp, W. R. Menkman en Prof. Jhr Dr P. J. van Winter, 2e geheel herziene druk (Utrecht: W. de Haan N.V., MCMLV), pp. 217-219, 238.

Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), Chapter I, V, XVII.

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