Sea robbery on the Atjeh coast — the zeeroof, strandroof and menschenroof (sea-, strand- and man-robbery) denounced in the documents of the nineteenth century — was the chronic insecurity which Joh. Langhout presents as the hallmark of Atjeh’s last centuries of “zelfbestuur”, provoking the American and British naval chastisements of 1831 and 1844, the Dutch measures of 1840, the anti-robbery clauses of the treaty of 1857, and finally the treaty obligations on which the Dutch intervention of 1873 was grounded.
Growth
From the freeing of 1524, Langhout relates, Atjeh extended at the cost of the surrounding countries; “naast een naar alle windstreken zich voortplantende uitzetting der grenzen van Atjeh, viel in die landen een zich snel voltrekkende demoralisatie van het Atjehsche volk te constateeren” — and the number of sea-robbers and “waterschuimers” who made the coasts of Sumatra unsafe far around grew alarming, especially at the end of the sixteenth century. After the Company’s withdrawal into the Minangkabau coast (1664), Atjeh for a century and a half was tormented by internal feuds; sea-robbery and plundering again ran high. “Thanks to that self-government”, Langhout writes sarcastically, “the insecurity in the surroundings of Atjeh’s coasts increased more and more: sea-robbery, strand-robbery, plundering of merchant ships, whereby but too often the crews fell victim, increased hand over hand.”
The incidents of 1830–1852
- 1830–1831: an American merchant ship was cut off by the Atjehnese coastal population; in 1831 an American man-of-war appeared before Koeala Batië to show “hoe in het vervolg zeeroof zou worden gestraft” (see American chastisement of Kuala Batee (1831)).
- June 1836: the Dutch schooner Dolphiijn, with a money shipment of 30,000 guilders, was cut off between Natal and Padang by her own native crew, brought to Atjeh and burned; the Sultan kept the money and the guns (see Dolphiijn affair (1836)).
- 1840: the Atjehnese were driven from Baros and Singkel by the Netherlands Indian Government (see Expulsion of the Atjehnese from Baros and Singkel (1840)).
- 1844: English warships chastised Koeala Batië and Koeala Meureudoe anew for occurred plundering of merchant ships; “it availed little” (see British chastisement of Kuala Batee and Kuala Meureudoe (1844)).
- 1851: a Neapolitan schooner was robbed on the Atjehnese coasts; 1852: an English merchant ship.
The treaty answers
The treaty of 1857 explicitly contained “bepalingen om den zee-, strand- en menschenroof tegen te gaan” (“provisions to combat the sea-, strand- and man-robbery”), with the lapse of all claims on account of former facts. The earlier London treaty of 17 March 1824 had obliged the Netherlands to regulate their relations with Atjeh so that “this native state, without losing anything of its independence, would not disturb the safety of trade and shipping” — an obligation which Dr. E. B. Kielstra judged “absolutely in conflict” with the stipulated independence, since it permitted at most a “chastisement” and no prevention. The road from blockade to blockade thence runs to the blockade of 1873, the weapons-and-victuals closures of the Concentration, and the local actions against robber bands at Modjopahit (1882), Meulaboh (1883), Teunom (1883–84) and the boundary-raids of 1893 (see Pardon of Teukoe Oemar (30 September 1893)).
See Also
- Zelfbestuur and Wingewest
- Acheh War
- Blockade of the Atjeh coast (1873-1874)
- Treaty of 1857 with the Sultan of Atjeh
- Scheepvaartregeling in Atjeh
Source
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 9–10, 15–19, 25–27, 59–62.