The Dutch subjugation of Asahan (1865) was the armed operation by which the Nederlandsch-Indisch Gouvernement broke the resistance of the Sultan of Asahan to the recognition of Siak’s (and hence the Dutch) overlordship, completing the political consolidation of the East Coast statelets begun by the Netscher mission of 1862. Recorded by the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s survey of the Outer Possessions as the only military operation required to enforce the recognition of the Siak overlordship, the 1865 subjugation of Asahan prepared the ground for the 1866 expulsion of the Atjehers from Langkat and the end of Atjehnese overlordship over the East Coast.
Background: the Netscher mission and Asahan’s refusal
The 1865 subjugation was the direct sequel to the Netscher mission of 1862. The Bureau records that, after the 1862 Langkat appeal to Siak, the Government dispatched Resident Netscher of Riouw on a tour of the East Coast statelets named in the Siak tractate of 1858 as dependencies of Siak. The statelets of Deli, Serdang, Langkat and several smaller coastal polities signed acts of recognition of the Siak overlordship. Asahan — the most southerly of the East Coast sultanates, and the one whose power had been built up over the first half of the nineteenth century through marriage, subjection, and successful war — refused. The Bureau records: “Asahan en zijne vasallen weigerden dit evenwel hardnekkig, en namen zelfs tegenover de Commissie onder resident Netscher, welke een reis langs die kuststaatjes maakte, eene dreigende houding aan” — “Asahan and its vassals, however, refused this obstinately, and even adopted a threatening attitude toward the Commission under Resident Netscher, which made a journey along those coastal statelets.”
The 1865 subjugation
The Bureau records the subjugation in a single, dense sentence: “Het duurde echter nog tot 1865, voordat het Gouvernement ertoe overging dit verzet door gewapend optreden te breken, wat zeer spoedig gelukte” — “It lasted, however, until 1865, before the Government proceeded to break this resistance by armed action, which succeeded very speedily.” The Bureau does not enumerate the units involved, but its characterisation of the operation as “zeer spoedig” — “very speedily” — succeeded — signals the overwhelming disparity of forces. The subjugation of Asahan was the only military operation required to enforce the recognition of the Siak overlordship; the other statelets had acquiesced voluntarily in 1862.
Significance
The 1865 subjugation of Asahan is, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s survey, the military complement of the Netscher mission of 1862. It completes the political consolidation of the East Coast statelets under the Siak-Dutch overlordship, and it prepares the ground for the 1866 expulsion of the Atjehers from Langkat that would extinguish Atjehnese overlordship over the East Coast. The subjugation is also, in the longer perspective, a prelude to the Atjeh-oorlog of 1873: the loss of its East Coast tributaries — sealed by the 1865 subjugation — was one of the principal grievances of the Sultan of Atjeh in the breakdown of Dutch-Atjehnese relations.
See Also
- Asahan
- Netscher
- Siak
- Tongkoe Ismail
- Deli
- Serdang
- Langkat
- Siak tractate of 1 February 1858
- langkat-appeal-to-siak-against-atjeh-(1862)
- dutch-marine-expulsion-of-atjehers-from-langkat-(1866)
- atjeh-as-opperheer-in-langkat-deli-serdang-(1854)
- atjehsche-overheersing-der-noordelijke-kuststaatjes
- Aceh War
- 1862
- 1865
- 1866
Source
De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Afl. 3: Oostkust van Sumatra. Eerste Stuk, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1918), p. 114. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, shelfmark LS.08781.