Kracht van wapenen (force of arms) is a colonial policy concept explicitly invoked by W. H. J. Keuchenius in his 1905 letter to describe the necessary and successful method for the submission of Aceh by J. B. van Heutsz in 1896. It represents the belief that decisive military force, rather than negotiation or half-measures, was the only effective strategy for establishing full colonial control in Aceh.
Keuchenius’s application
In reviewing Van Heutsz’s transfer to Aceh, Keuchenius states that after many failed experiments, “no other system remained than by kracht van wapenen to bring Aceh to submission, and no one else was more indicated for this than the man who had shown through word and deed that he knew and fathomed the situation in Aceh.”
Significance
The concept is used to valorize the Aceh campaign as a model of colonial governance. Keuchenius adapts this idea of decisive, forceful action into an epithet for his own proposals for economic reform, concluding that the problems he has identified require similar “decisive actions” to be solved. It connects the military success in Aceh to a broader philosophy of colonial problem-solving.
See Also
Source
Brief aan Zijne Excellentie den Heere J. B. VAN HEUTSZ, Gouverneur-Generaal van Nederlandsch-Indië, by W. H. J. Keuchenius (Batavia: Atelier A. M. Van Belkum & Co., 1905). BIBLIOTHEEK Dr ABRAHAM KUYPERSTICHTING, 3259 D 64 i 76, pp. 49-50.