The pacification of Atjeh (Dutch pacificatie van Atjeh — “pacification of Atjeh and Dependencies”) was the declared aim of Dutch policy in Atjeh from 1873 to 1923 — first the military subjection of the sultanate’s resistance, then the winning of the population’s “bevrediging” (satisfaction) through works of peace — which author Joh. Langhout makes the organizing principle of his Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh: divided into “de pacificatie van Regeeringswege” (“the pacification from the side of the Government”) and “de pacificatie en het particulier initiatief” (“the pacification and private initiative”).
As a governing programme
General Van der Heijden first voiced the programme in 1879: after the successful operations of the two preceding years, “van dat oogenblik af de tijd van pacificatie en restauratie was aangebroken, waarin het burgerlijk bestuur met andere middelen dan het zwaard naar onderwerping zou moeten streven en trachten te herstellen wat door de rampen van den oorlog was vernield” — the armed conquest should be followed by pacification and restoration with other means than the sword. The premature civil government of 1881–1884 however lost nearly all that had been gained; the Concentration (1884–1898) abandoned the offensive for containment and failed equally; the decisive turn came with the tandem of Governor Van Heutsz and Adviser Snouck Hurgronje (1898–1903), the Korte verklaring, the pursuit of Teukoe Oemar (1899), the expeditions into Pidië and the Gajo lands, and the administrative consolidation of Governors Van Daalen (1905–1908) and Swart (1908–1918), under whom “the swords were forged into ploughshares” (J. Kreemer) and all effective resistance ended by 1913.
As an economic doctrine
For Langhout, the pacification was indissolubly economic. “Alles wat door de Regeering aan het gewest wordt gedaan, moet worden beschouwd uit het oogpunt van pacificatie” (“Everything the Government does for the province must be viewed from the angle of pacification”) — Governor A. G. H. van Sluys’s rule, quoted approvingly: roads, tramways, schools, credit banks, waterworks, exhibitions, museums, the bank and the press were “pacificatiemiddelen” (“means of pacification”), as were, on the side of private initiative, the harbour of Sabang, the shipping lines, the petroleum enterprises (whose administrator Allein soon worked with 60% Atjehnese labour and whose rice-barns even raiders spared), the Simaloer timber works and the East Coast estates. The steunpilaren der pacificatie (“pillars of the pacification”) were the press (Nieuwsblad voor Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden), the banks and trading houses (NHM, Javabank, AHM, Deli-Atjeh) and the Economische Vereeniging — with foreign capital a remarkable, “op gevaar af van het nationale karakter van dit werkje geweld aan te doen” acknowledged, auxiliary.
The verdict of 1923
“The pacification of Atjeh can be regarded as finished; one is no less safe there than everywhere else in the Indies” — such the verdict of K.P.M. director N. van Zalinge (late 1922), echoed by Frijling’s report and by General Swart’s foreword of 31 March 1923: “sedert ongeveer een tiental jaren” a state of rest and order had obtained which for the future promised the best, requiring only time fully to consolidate itself. Generals Swart and Van Sluys insisted equally on the bevrediging: the population must be reconciled with “a certain bitter past” by deeds of welfare — cheap taxes, quick justice, schools, doctors — “dat het onze dure plicht is” (“that it is our dear duty”).
See Also
- Acheh War
- Johannes van Heutsz
- H. N. A. Swart
- A. G. H. van Sluys
- Zelfbestuur and Wingewest
- Government of Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
Source
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), Voorwoord, “Gouverneur Van Sluijs over Atjeh”, pp. 25–130, 141–190.