The Postenlinie (“line of forts”) was the celebrated defensive perimeter of fortified posts surrounding Kota Radja in Great Atjeh, built in the 1870s and 1880s as the defensive ring of the Dutch military position in Atjeh. In the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account, the postenlinie defined the geography of the Dutch presence in Atjeh from the 1873 outbreak of the Atjeh-war until the betrayal of Toekoe Oemar in 1896 rendered the defensive strategy obsolete. The 1885 ceintuur-trambaan (belt-tramway) was built along the postenlinie to allow rapid movement of troops between the forts; after the 1896 abandonment of the postenlinie, the belt-tramway was “gradually cleared” and the long-line strategy of 1897 onward replaced it.
Account from De Buitenbezittingen (1917) — Postenlinie
The Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account of the postenlinie appears in the chapter on the Atjeh-tramway. The Bureau’s narrative identifies the postenlinie as the strategic frame within which the 1885 ceintuur-trambaan was built: “in 1885 military necessity led to the construction of a ceintuur-trambaan along the famous postenlinie, which was connected by three radial lines (straalbanen) to Kota Radja, and thereby to the old tramway to the roadstead.”
The Bureau’s narrative of the 1896 abandonment of the postenlinie is explicit about its strategic consequences: “with the abandonment of the postenlinie after the betrayal of Toekoe Oemar in 1896, the utility of the ceintuurbaan lapsed, which was since gradually cleared. In its place came the long tramway, which since 1897 has followed step by step our extension of authority in Atjeh’s Onderhoorigheden.”
The Bureau’s framing of the postenlinie — together with the ceintuur-trambaan built along it in 1885 — places it as the principal material embodiment of the defensive phase of the Dutch presence in Atjeh: the phase that ran from the 1873 outbreak of the Atjeh-war to the 1896 strategic reorientation. The postenlinie was the physical expression of the doctrine that the Dutch position in Atjeh could be secured by a perimeter of fortified posts around Kota Radja connected by rail; its abandonment after 1896 marks the doctrinal shift to the offensive, long-line strategy of the 1897-onward phase.
Significance
The postenlinie is, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account, the principal material embodiment of the defensive phase of the Dutch presence in Atjeh — the phase of the 1873–1896 period in which the Dutch position was confined to a fortified perimeter around Kota Radja. Its abandonment after the betrayal of Toekoe Oemar in 1896 marks the strategic reorientation that opened the long Atjeh campaign of conquest and pacification — the campaign that the Atjeh-tramway’s long line of 1897 onward would serve as the principal logistical instrument.
Account from Verstege’s Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk (1886)
Verstege’s brochure inventories the finished line of 1885 (from the Koloniaal Verslag): 18 semi-permanent built posts — Kota Pohama, Pakan Kroeng Tjoet, Lamjong, Boekit Karang, Roempit, Tjot Iri, the Wachthuis aan de Lingkar, Lampermej, Siroen, Lambaroe, the watchhouse of Lamsajoen, Lamrong, Lampeneroet, the watchhouse of Lamara, Ketapang Doewa, Blang, Lamdjame and Lamtih — enclosing 6,700 hectares, requiring a garrison of about 4,500 men; the occupied strip had its fittings of telephone connection and belt tramway (completed as far as Roempit), and the Dutch had retreated thither from Kroeng Raba (southwest, to Lamdjame), Toengkoep (east, to Lamjong) and Djerir (south, to Lambaroe) — nearly thirteen kilometres towards Lambaroe. Tjot-Goe remained provisionally occupied till the tram from Ketapang Doewa to Lambaroe was ready. Against every figure of the pamphlet see Completion of the concentrated position (March 1885); and for the incidents behind the same posts in the first year Guerilla raids inside the concentration line (1885) with majoor Perelaer’s list.
See Also
- Ceintuur-trambaan
- Atjeh-tram
- Kota Radja
- Groot-Atjeh
- Toekoe Oemar’s verraad (1896)
- Pacificatie van Atjeh
- Aceh War
- Departement van Oorlog
- 1873
- 1885
- 1896
- 1897
- Geconcenteerde Linie
- Blokhuis
- Koeta
- Mitrailleur
- Biloel
- Lamkoenjit
- Ana’ Galong
- Lambarih
- Lamsoet
- Senelop
- Kroeng Gloempang
- Tjot Rang
- Toengkoeb
- Evacuation of Biloel and Lamkoenjit (12 April 1896)
- Evacuation of Kroeng-Gloempang, Tjot-Rang, Toengkoeb (20 April 1896)
- Battle of Senelop (17 April 1896)
Account from De Atjeh-Oorlog by J.A. Kruijt (1896)
In Kruijt’s analysis, the Postenlinie — the Dutch system of fortifications and posts around Kota Radja in Groot-Atjeh — was progressively expanded from the stelling bequeathed by Van Swieten’s second expedition of 1873–1874 to an elaborate ring of thirty-eight fortifications by 1875, and contracted by the concentration system of 1884 to a smaller perimeter that persisted through the end of the war.
The Postenlinie was expanded by Pel (1874–1876), Wiggers van Kerchem and Diemont (1876–1877), and Van der Heijden (1877–1881). Under Van der Heijden the stelling was further extended to cover the 22 and 26 Moekims after their conquest in 1879; by 1881 it demanded a garrison of approximately 10,000 men. Kruijt’s judgement was severe: “dat zich steeds uitbreiden onzer stelling na Van Swieten, door Pel en Van der Heijden, dat verbrokkelen onzer macht in Atjeh, dat verslinden van alle middelen op dat ééne punt” (that continuous expansion of our stelling after Van Swieten, by Pel and Van der Heijden, that fragmentation of our power in Atjeh, that devouring of all means on that one point) — he had always condemned.
The concentration system of Demmeni (1884–1886) contracted the Postenlinie to a smaller perimeter around Kota Radja — approximately the same as that taken by Pel in 1876. It was a continuous line forming a kind of isosceles triangle, with the post Lambaroe as the apex and the sea coast from Oleh-leh to Kota Pohama as the base. A 1,000-metre wide, felled, open strip surrounded it; a ceintuursporbaan (belt railway) and telephone connected the posts. The concentrated Postenlinie was completed by July 1886.
In the period of the concentration, the Postenlinie was the principal site of the daily guerrilla warfare between Dutch patrols and Atjehese Muslemin. The 1,000-metre open strip was soon largely overgrown; the Muslemin made the line unsafe, damaged the railway and bridges, destroyed the telephone line, fired on the trains, and made raids inward. Under Deijkerhoff’s governorship (1892–1896), the arming of Toekoe Oemar as Panglima Prang Besar created what was in effect a “second line” of temporary posts outside the original Postenlinie, occupied by Toekoe Oemar’s auxiliaries. Its dissolution at the defection of 29 March 1896 was the immediate cause of the crisis that brought Vetter as Regeeringscommissaris.
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), p. 68 (section “De Atjeh-tram”).
De Atjeh-Oorlog: Kort Overzicht van Oorsprong, Verloop en Gevolg, door J. A. Kruijt. ‘s-Gravenhage: Loman & Funke, 1896. Chapters IV, VI, IX, XII, pp. 18–20, 27–31, 49, 69–70.
ATJEH ‘96, door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L., met 2 kaarten en 4 portretten (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913). Instituut Kern, Leiden. OCR-filename: 20260715_163243_DLP-89-Atjeh_96_Met_2_kaarten_en4_DOORA_KRUISHEER_Kapiteinder_Infanterie_nemoretriever-ocr-v1_OCR.txt, pp. 21, 76, 93, 119, 213, 218.
Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), pp. 80-84, 108-110. OCR: DLP-158.