The 1892 Snouck Hurgronje advice on Atjeh was the advisory of Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje that, in the source’s narrative, “de methode aangaf tot onderwerping en pacificatie” (indicated the method for subjugation and pacification) of Atjeh. The 1892 advice is the intellectual basis of the post-1896 Dutch conquest of Atjeh and the principal didactic episode of the source’s Atjehoorlog narrative.
The three components
The Snouck Hurgronje advice of 1892 had three components:
- Ignore the sultan’s party: “het hof van de ‘sultanspartij’ te negeren, als van geen betekenis” (to ignore the court of the ‘sultan’s party’, as of no significance).
- Strike, do not negotiate: “met de vijand niet te onderhandelen maar hem gevoelig te slaan, daar de Atjeher zijn overwinnaarswijsheid niet zou afleggen zonder gevoelig geslagen te zijn” (not to negotiate with the enemy but to strike him sensibly, since the Atjehnese would not lay down his pride of victory without being sensibly struck).
- Win the population: “daarna te trachten, het vertrouwen van de bevolking te winnen door een goede welvaartspolitiek” (thereafter to seek to win the confidence of the population by a good welfare policy).
The basis in Atjehnese social structure
The 1892 advice was based on Snouck’s “in zeer korte tijd volbrachte studie van land en volk van Atjeh” (study of the land and people of Atjeh completed in a very short time). The source preserves the Snouck analysis of Atjehnese social structure: the kampong/mukim/uléebalang/sagi/panglima sagi hierarchy, and the verdict that the sultan’s authority over the panglima’s sagi and the uléebalangs existed “alleen in naam” (in name only). The analysis supplied the empirical basis for the first component of the advice: the sultan’s party was to be ignored because the sultan’s authority was nominal.
The Dutch misreading
The source’s verdict on Dutch policy before 1892 is direct: “Onze politiek werd veel te veel beheerst door de geheel verkeerde voorstelling, die wij ons van de betekenis en de macht van de Sultan maakten” (Our policy was far too much dominated by the wholly wrong conception we had of the significance and power of the Sultan). The Snouck Hurgronje advice of 1892 supplied the corrective.
The rejection and the reversal
The 1892 advice was rejected by the governor of Atjeh Deykerhoff and the governor-general Pijnacker Hordijk, who instead armed and subsidised Teungku Um — the warlord who would defect in 1896 and turn his modern-Dutch arms against his former patrons. The 1896 defection produced the Van der Wijck reversal: “De G.-G. Van der Wijck (1893-99) begreep, dat Snouck Hurgronje’s adviezen gevolgd moesten worden. Ook de overste Joannes Benedictus van Heutsz had dit begrepen. In 1896 werd hij belast met de leiding der militaire operaties in Groot-Atjeh”.
Significance
The 1892 Snouck Hurgronje advice is, in the source’s narrative, the intellectual basis of the post-1896 Dutch conquest of Atjeh. The advice’s three components — ignore the sultan’s party, strike the enemy sensibly, win the population by welfare policy — are the method of the pacificatie that Van Heutsz would implement after 1896.
See Also
- Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje
- Atjehoorlog
- Deykerhoff
- Pijnacker Hordijk
- Van der Wijck (governor-general)
- J. B. van Heutsz
- Teungku Um
- Pacificatie van Atjeh
- Sultan of Acheh
- Uleebalang
- Sagi (Atjehnese federation)
- 1892
- 1896
Source
Nederlanders over de Zeeën: 350 Jaar geschiedenis van Nederland buitengaats, onder redactie van Dr. H. J. de Graaf, met medewerking van Prof. G. Gonggrijp, W. R. Menkman en Prof. Jhr Dr P. J. van Winter, 2e geheel herziene druk (Utrecht: W. de Haan N.V., MCMLV), pp. 217-218.