The Dutch subjugation of the Karo-Batak lands (1904-1906) was the military and political operation by which the Nederlandsch-Indisch Gouvernement brought the independent Karo-Batak landschapjes of the Karo hoogvlakte under Dutch sovereignty, completing the colonial consolidation of the Gouvernement Oostkust van Sumatra begun in the 1860s. Recorded by the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s survey of the Outer Possessions as the closing act of the long Dutch advance into the independent Batak interior, the 1904–1906 subjugation prepared the ground for the Dutch revival of the radja berempat institution — and hence for the institutional echo of the Atjehsche viervorsten-systeem in the colonial Karo landschappen.
Background: the long Dutch advance into the Batak interior
The 1904–1906 subjugation of the Karo lands was the closing act of a long Dutch advance into the independent Batak interior that had begun in the 1860s. The Bureau records that the 1865 subjugation of Asahan had given the Dutch authority over the Batak vasallen of the Asahan sultanate, and that the 1887 tuchtiging der Raja’s had ended the worst of the Raja freebooting from the independent Simeloengoensche rijkjes. The independent Karo hoogvlakte, however, had remained outside Dutch authority throughout the late nineteenth century. The Bureau records that “Jarenlang bleef deze toestand bestaan en was onze politiek ten opzichte dezer landschapjes er eene van onthouding” — “For years this condition persisted and our policy toward these landschapjes was one of abstention” — though “soms op vreedzame wijze getracht werd er eenigen invloed uit te oefenen” — “sometimes, in a peaceful manner, an attempt was made to exercise some influence.”
The Westenberg influence and the 1902 missionary concession
The Dutch advance into the Karo hoogvlakte was, the Bureau records, prepared by the peaceful influence of the late-nineteenth-century Dutch controleur C. J. Westenberg. “Vooral de toenmalige controleur C. J. Westenberg wist in de laatste jaren der vorige eeuw het vertrouwen van verschillende invloedrijke Karo-hoofden te verkrijgen, zoodat deze er in 1902 o.a. in toestemden, dat een zendeling zich te Kaban Djahé, in het centrum der Karo-Bataks, kwam vestigen” — “Especially the then-controleur C. J. Westenberg managed, in the last years of the previous century, to gain the confidence of various influential Karo chiefs, so that, in 1902, they consented, among other things, that a missionary should establish himself at Kaban Djahé, in the centre of the Karo-Bataks.”
The 1902 missionary concession was, however, a source of division among the Karo chiefs. The Bureau records: “Deze toenemende invloed der Kompenie was echter een doorn in het oog van andere hoofden, vooral van de in het Westelijk gedeelte der hoogvlakte gevestigden, wat aanleiding gaf tot felle onderlinge twisten, welke wij ten slotte, door het afsluiten der toegangswegen tot de hoogvlakte, ten gunste der ons goedgezinde hoofden wisten te doen eindigen” — “This increasing influence of the Kompenie was, however, a thorn in the eye of other chiefs, especially of those established in the western part of the hoogvlakte, which gave rise to fierce internal disputes, which we finally, by the closing of the access roads to the hoogvlakte, managed to bring to an end in favour of the chiefs well-disposed to us.”
The 1904 submissions
The Dutch advance into the Karo hoogvlakte was, the Bureau records, also stimulated by the parallel advance into the Gajo and Alas highlands. The Bureau records the “tocht van den Overste Gotfried Coenraad Ernst van Daalen door het Westelijk deel der hoogvlakte, als voortzetting van de Gajo- en Alastocht, welke indirect de toename van onzen invloed op de Karo-landschappen zeer bespoedigde” — “the journey of Colonel Van Daalen through the western part of the hoogvlakte, as continuation of the Gajo- and Alas journey, which indirectly very much accelerated the increase of our influence on the Karo-landschappen.” A detachment of troops returning from the Gajo and Alas campaign crossed the hoogvlakte to Medan and, en route, became involved in a conflict between two Karo sibajaks — a conflict that, the Bureau records, accelerated the Dutch advance.
The result was a series of submissions in 1904. “In 1904 reeds een tweetal landschapshoofden van de Karo-hoogvlakte hunne onderwerping aanboden. Ook de landschapshoofden van de rijkjes op de Timoer-hoogvlakte, Dolok en Poerba, boden hun onderwerping aan in het begin van 1904” — “Already in 1904 a couple of landschapshoofden of the Karo-hoogvlakte offered their submission. Also the landschapshoofden of the rijkjes on the Timoer-hoogvlakte, Dolok and Poerba, offered their submission at the beginning of 1904.”
The 1905-1906 completion
The submissions of 1904 were followed, in 1905–1906, by the completion of the subjugation. The Bureau records that the final Korte Verklaring — the Korte Verklaring by which a native chief was recognised as a zelfbestuurder of his landschap — was, in the Karo lands, “door de vertegenwoordigers van het gansche Karo-volk aangewezen hoofden” — “by the chiefs designated as representatives of the whole Karo people” — “kon worden afgelegd en bekrachtigd, waardoor dus ten slotte het geheele, vroeger onafhankelijke Batakgebied onder onze souvereiniteit was gebracht” — “could be declared and ratified, whereby thus finally the whole, formerly independent Batak territory was brought under our sovereignty.” The 1904–1906 subjugation thus completes the colonial consolidation of the Gouvernement Oostkust van Sumatra.
The revival of the radja berempat
The 1904–1906 subjugation was immediately followed by the Dutch revival of the radja berempat institution — the institutional echo of the Atjehsche viervorsten-systeem in the Karo lands. The Bureau records that the Dutch “de vergeten positie dier radja-berempat opgerakeld en hun in het Karoland zelf een macht toegekend, welke zij daar nimmer bezeten zullen hebben” — “resurrected the forgotten position of those radja-berempat and granted them, in the Karoland itself, a power which they will never have possessed there.” To the four Atjehnese-era sibajaks of Lingga, Sarinembah, Baroes Djahé and Soeka the Dutch added a fifth — the Sibajak of Koeta Boeloeh — producing the five-sibajak arrangement of Karo landschapshoofden that would govern the Karo hoogvlakte throughout the colonial period.
Significance
The 1904–1906 subjugation of the Karo-Batak lands is, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s survey, the closing act of the long Dutch advance into the independent Batak interior. It completes the colonial consolidation of the Gouvernement Oostkust van Sumatra begun in the 1860s, and it prepares the ground for the Dutch revival of the radja berempat institution — the institutional echo of the Atjehsche viervorsten-systeem in the colonial Karo landschappen. The subjugation thus closes the long process by which the East Coast statelets — first Atjehnese tributaries, then Siak dependencies, then Dutch-protected polities — were absorbed into the colonial state.
See Also
- Batak-Karo
- C. J. Westenberg
- Van Daalen
- Kaban Djahé
- Lingga
- Sarinembah
- Baroes Djahé
- Soeka
- Koeta Boeloeh
- radja berempat
- sibajak
- Korte Verklaring
- atjehsche-viervorsten-systeem
- atjehsche-oppermacht-in-de-gajo-en-alaslanden
- atjehsche-invloed-op-het-karoland
- Dutch subjugation of Asahan (1865)
- Colonne van Daalen naar de Gajolanden en Alaslanden (1904)
- Gouvernement Oostkust van Sumatra
- 1887
- 1902
- 1904
- 1905
- 1906
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), pp. 119–120, 174. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, shelfmark LS.08781.