The Proclamation of Annexation of Aceh was an official decree issued on 31 January 1874 by Civil Government Commissioner Jan van Swieten following the Encirclement and Fall of the Kraton and the death of Sultan Alauddin Mahmud Syah IX.
Provisions and Impact
The proclamation formally declared that the Sultanate of Aceh was abolished by right of conquest and its territory incorporated into the Netherlands East Indies. The decree was approved by the Dutch Minister of Colonies on 2 February 1874. However, Acehnese leaders rejected the decree, continuing anti-colonial resistance for decades under Tuanku Hashim and Panglima Polim.
Verstege’s documentary analysis (1886)
Verstege gives the most exact printed collation of the annexation series of 28 January, 31 January, 2 and 8 February and 12 February 1874 racked item by item against the later theories, which he summarises: “dat wij sedert dien datum Souverein zijn geworden over het Atjehsche volk, met alle aan deze heerschappij verbonden verplichtingen en verantwoordelijkheden; dat wij door die annexatie, door die meest agressieve politieke daad, en evenzoo door andere proclamation en brieven van den Generaal van Swieten aan den Sultan, aan de hoofden en de bevolking van Atjeh, gedwongen zijn geworden tot de verovering van het land en het feitelijk onderwerpen van het volk” (“that since that date we have become Sovereign over the Atjehnese people, with all obligations and responsibilities attached to that rule; that by that annexation, by that most aggressive political deed, and also by the other proclamations and letters of general van Swieten to the Sultan, the heads and the population of Atjeh, we have been forced to the conquest of the land and the actual submission of the people”); see the parallel article Annexation proclamation of Atjeh (1874) for instances and quotations.
See Also
Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu
By right of conquest, the realm of Aceh declared property of the Dutch-Indian Government; Dutch government stepped into the Sultan’s place; for the time being only Groot-Atjeh to be directly managed.
Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 396.
Source
De expeditiën naar Atjeh 1873-1874, W.W.F. Herfkens, Koninklijke Militaire Academie, 1900, pp. 61, 69.
Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 396.
Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), pp. 34-36. OCR: DLP-158.