The First Dutch Attack on Acheh in 1873 — the first armed expedition sent by the Netherlands India Government against the sultanate of Acheh — opened the Achehnese-Dutch war that was to last, with interruptions, for more than three decades. C. Snouck Hurgronje treats the expedition in the introduction to The Achehnese as the inevitable consequence of the failure of the Dutch guarantee of Achehnese independence, and of the long-prevailing illusion that a treaty with the sultan could be made the basis of a settlement.
Background
The treaty of [[1824]] between Holland and Great Britain had placed the Dutch in the position of guarantors of the security of trade and shipping in Acheh, while at the same time binding them to respect the independence of the country — a stipulation which rendered the undertaking impossible to carry out. As the British had already discovered through the Hastings letter incident of 1786 and the Fullerton memorandum of 1825, the security of trade in Acheh was “utterly impracticable without employing a large military force to overawe the inhabitants.” Half a century of chronic complaints of robbery and murder committed by Achehnese on European and American traders culminated in the new Anglo-Dutch treaty of [[1871]], under which Holland was left with more freedom of action in the control of Acheh.
The Attack
The first Dutch attack of 1873 ended in failure and the death of General Köhler. The Dutch had flattered themselves “quite seriously with the hope that a treaty with the Sultan of Acheh — forced out of him, if need be, by menaces and by the despatch of a small force — would succeed in doing all that was wanted.” They did not, Snouck Hurgronje observes, “trouble their minds in the least degree with the internal condition of the country.” Even after the war had actually begun in 1873, they continued to entertain the vain hope that a treaty of this sort might be the basis of a solution of their Achehnese difficulties.
Consequences
The repulse of the first expedition was followed in the same year by a second Dutch expedition, which succeeded in taking the kraton but did not subdue the country. After the abolition of the royal authority and the death of the last Sultan, the Netherlands India Government came forward as his successor and claimed the allegiance of the chiefs of the dependent kingdoms. Many chiefs of Achehnese coast-dependencies formally gave in their submission in order to protect their commerce from injury, but the number who withheld their allegiance was greater; and many chiefs in the interior did not consider themselves bound by the promises of the raja of the coast. Furthermore, the state of war added to the many chiefs who already disputed authority in Acheh a countless number of others: adventurers, religious leaders, military chiefs of every type. From this confusion sprang the long resistance described in the main article on the Acheh War.
See Also
- Acheh War
- First and Second Dutch Expeditions to Acheh
- Governorship of General van der Heyden
- Establishment of the Dutch ‘linie’ (pale)
- Treaty of 1824
- Fullerton memorandum
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.