Geschiedenis van den Atjeh-oorlog 1873–1886 (Brooshooft, 1886)

Geschiedenis van den Atjeh-oorlog 1873–1886 was a Dutch popular-historical book written by the schoolmaster Mr. P. Brooshooft and published at Utrecht in 1886 by F. B. van Ditmar. Subtitled “In populairen vorm verteld” (Told in popular form) and advertised as suitable for onderwijzers en onderwijzeressen (schoolteachers), it was one of the earliest single-volume narrative histories covering the first thirteen years of the Aceh War from the Dutch declaration of war in March 1873 to the end of 1886.

Publication and Physical Description

The book was printed in Utrecht by F. B. van Ditmar and issued as a cheap popular volume, in conscious contrast to the large, expensive official history by Kielstra. It included six folded maps (kaartjes) keyed to successive chapters:

1. Map 1A. The position of Atjeh relative to the other Dutch and British-Indian possessions around the Straits Settlements.
2. Map 1B. The kingdom of Atjeh with the coastal states.
3. Map 2. Groot-Atjeh as divided before the war, showing the sagies and moekims.
4. Map 3. The theatre of war of the first and second expeditions.
5. Map 4. The theatre of war and the Dutch line of posts under Generals Pel, Wiggers van Kerchem and Diemont.
6. Map 5. The theatre of war and post line under General van der Heyden.
7. Map 6. The Dutch concentratie position in 1886.

Contents

The work opened with a foreword (dated 14 December 1886) in which Brooshooft thanked his sources and explained his purpose. The ten chapters that followed were:

1. De twee groote mededingers in het Oosten — the Dutch and British in the East Indies, the decline of the Oost-Indische Compagnie, the restoration of Dutch authority after 1814, and the resulting position of Atjeh as the last independent kingdom on Sumatra.
2. Oorzaken van- en aanleiding tot den oorlog — diplomatic history from the 1816 British treaty with Atjeh through the Treaty of London (1824), the piracy problem, the Atjeh Tractaat of 1857, the Siak Tractaat of 1858, the Sumatra Tractaat of 2 November 1871, the Acehnese mission to Singapore, and the dispatch of Nieuwenhuyzen as Government Commissioner, culminating in the declaration of war of 21 March 1873.
3. Land en volk van Atjeh — geography, administration, society, religion, economy, arms, costume, food, currency, names and titles of pre-war Atjeh, together with a strongly negative Dutch-colonial character sketch of the Acehnese.
4. De eerste expeditie (Köhler, van Daalen) — assembly, composition, voyage, landing of 8 April 1873, the two storms of the Missigit, the death of General Köhler on 14 April 1873, the failed reconnaissances on the Kraton, and the withdrawal.
5. Onze vestiging in Atjeh (van Swieten, Verspijck) — the inter-expedition blockade, assembly of the second expedition, landing at Kwala Loe on 9 December 1873, the advance to Penajoeng, the battles around Lemboe and Pantei Perak, the encirclement of the Kraton, the unopposed entry on 24 January 1874, the hoisting of the Dutch flag on 25 January 1874, and the death of Sultan Aladin Mahmoed Shah.
6. De bevestiging onzer stelling (van Swieten, Pel) — the proclamation of 31 January 1874 annexing Atjeh, the failed fight at Lampoe-Oek, the construction of the Kota Radja fortified zone, the renaming of the Kraton as Kota Radja, the establishment of Oleh-leh as the new port, the building of the railway, and the departure of General van Swieten on 26 April 1874 leaving Colonel Pel in command.
7. De uitbreiding onzer stelling (Pel, Wiggers van Kerchem, Diemont) — the piece-by-piece expansion of the fortified line during 1874–1877, Pel’s 70-day campaign, the death of Pel on 23 February 1876, the September expedition of Wiggers van Kerchem, the completion of Pel’s programme by Diemont, the first attacks on Lampagger, and the appearance of Habib Abdurrachman and Toekoe Oemar.
8. De aanvallende oorlog (Van der Heyden), Juni 1877–April 1881 — the offensive campaigns of Lieutenant-General van der Heyden in the XXII Moekims, XXVI Moekims and eastern Groot-Atjeh, the submission of Habib and of Toekoe Moeda Baid, the expeditions to Samalanga, the West Coast, and the East Coast, the creation of the civil administration, and Van der Heyden’s recall.
9. Het tijdperk van civiel bestuur (Pruys van der Hoeven, Laging Tobias), April 1881–August 1884 — the civilian governorships of Pruys van der Hoeven and Laging Tobias, the breakdown of the forward policy, the Nisero incident, and the decision to adopt the concentrated position.
10. De concentratie onzer stelling. Tegenwoordige toestand — the withdrawal to the concentrated line under Demmeni, the steam tram, the telephone network, continued attacks inside and outside the line, the spread of hostilities to Tamiang and Deli, the Hoe Canton affair of June 1886, the beri-beri epidemic, the death of Demmeni on 13 December 1886, and Brooshooft’s own concluding argument against both abandonment and renewed offensive war.

The volume closed with:

• A Korte Inhoud (summary table of contents) keyed to page numbers.
• A Plaatsing der kaartjes (index to maps).
• An Opgave der gedurende den Atjeh-oorlog gesneuvelde, of aan voor den vijand bekomen wonden overleden, officieren, listing officers killed in action or died of wounds from 14 April 1873 (General Köhler) through 18 May 1886 (1st Lieutenant D. J. Schiper).

Sources Acknowledged

Brooshooft explicitly named the following as his principal sources:

• Kielstra, Beschrijving van den Atjeh-oorlog met gebruikmaking der officieele bronnen, 3 vols. (The Hague: Gebr. van Cleef) — “our principal guide.”
• H. F. Meljer, Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs).
• A. W. K. Ter Beek, De vier eerste jaren van den Atjeh-oorlog (The Hague: Gebroeders van Cleef).
• E. B. Kielstra, Onder de Atjehers (Haarlem: Erven F. Bohn).
• De Waal, Onze Indische finantiën (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff).
• J. J. de Rochemont, Onze oorlog met Atjin (The Hague: Joh. Ykema).
• A series of pamphlets by van Swieten, Verspick, Verstege, de Rochemont, Kielstra, Pruys van der Hoeven, Laging Tobias, “Misopseudes”, and W. Cool.
• Countless journal and newspaper articles, the Koloniale Verslagen for 1873–1886, and recent mail reports.

Authorial Position

Brooshooft used the book to make two political arguments:

1. Defence of Fransen van de Putte. In Chapter II he printed the full February–March 1873 telegram exchange between Minister Fransen van de Putte and Governor-General Loudon to demonstrate that the Minister had not sought war but had tried to avoid an immediate sovereignty demand, and that the war was forced by the Acehnese court’s duplicity and the risk of foreign intervention.
2. Against both retreat and renewed offensive. In the concluding pages he rejected S. C. H. Nederburgh’s proposal to abandon the conquered territory and retire to a single coastal point as a “colonial suicide” fatal to Dutch prestige, while also rejecting a renewed major offensive in the style of van der Heyden as financially and militarily impossible given the exhausted Indies army and treasury. He advocated patient maintenance of the existing concentrated position.

Significance

Although popular in tone and marred by the strongly anti-Acehnese prejudices of its author, Brooshooft’s book remains useful to historians of the Aceh War because:

• It provides the earliest single-volume narrative covering 1873–1886 in connected form.
• It reproduces the 1873 Loudon–Fransen van de Putte telegrams in full.
• Its officer-casualty list preserves an easily consulted contemporary necrology for the first thirteen years of the war.
• Its chapter titles and periodisation (first expedition, second expedition, consolidation, expansion, offensive war, civil government, concentration) influenced later Dutch popular writing on the war.
• Its six folded maps offer a compact contemporary cartographic overview of each phase.

See Also

• Brooshooft
• Atjeh War
• First Aceh Expedition
• Second Aceh Expedition (1873-1874)
• Kielstra
• Köhler
• Van Swieten
• Pel
• Van der Heyden
• Pruys van der Hoeven
• Laging Tobias
• Demmeni
• Sumatra Treaty of 1871
• Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824
• War Manifest of 21 March 1873
• Annexation Proclamation of Atjeh (1874)
• Concentratie-stelsel (1884-1896)
• Nisero affair
• Hoc Canton affair
• 1873
• 1886

Source

Brooshooft, Mr. P. Geschiedenis van den Atjeh-oorlog 1873–1886. Rijksschool voor Onderwijzers en Onderwijzeressen 36 te Oostburg. In populairen vorm verteld. Utrecht: F. B. van Ditmar, 1886. OCR text from Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen (KIT) shelf mark P 80-664, pp. 1–299 (pp. 7–316 of the OCR file).