The Gayo and Alas Lands Expeditions were among the great successes of the glorious period of Van Heutsz in the Aceh War, the fifth-named of the expeditions and excursions that Musket lists in Oost-Indisch Journael by Merac (1947). The Gayo and Alas Lands Expeditions were the expeditions to the Gajoland and the Alaslands — the highlands of central Aceh — conducted under Van Heutsz as part of the all-out offensive.
The great successes of the glorious period
“the time also of our great successes! The Pidië expedition, the expeditions in Idi and Peusangan, the Pasé expedition, the Samalanga expedition, the expeditions to the Gayo and Alaslands, the action in the Tangsé and Geumpang area and on the North Coast of Atjeh, the patrol actions on the always restless West Coast, and finally the battle of Batèë-Ilië, by which the organised, general resistance in Atjeh was broken for good.” The Gayo and Alas Lands Expeditions are the fifth-named of the great successes.
The Gajolanden and the Gajoweg
The Gayo and Alas Lands Expeditions — the expeditions to Gajoland and the Alaslands — are the book’s — and the colonial memory’s — marker of the colonial army’s all-out offensive in the highlands of central Atjeh. The Gajoweg — the military road from Bireuën to Takengeun — was the infrastructure that the expeditions had established: the road built by Heinzenknecht under Van Heutsz to open Gajoland to the colonial army.
Significance
The Gayo and Alas Lands Expeditions are significant in Oost-Indisch Journael as among the great successes of the glorious period of Van Heutsz. The book’s argument — that the great successes of the glorious period were the expeditions and excursions by which the organised, general resistance in Atjeh was broken for good — is the book’s frame for the offensive phase of the Aceh War. The Gayo and Alas Lands Expeditions are therefore the book’s — and the colonial memory’s — marker of the all-out offensive in the highlands of central Atjeh.
See Also
- Oost-Indisch Journael
- Musket
- Gouverneur-Generaal Van Heutsz
- Gajolanden
- Gajoweg
- Bireuën
- Takengeun
- Heinzenknecht
- Pidië-expeditie
- Pasé-expeditie
- Samalanga-expeditie
- Tangsé- en Geumpanggebied actie
- Slag bij Batèë-Ilië
- Atjeh-oorlog
Source
Oost-Indisch Journael: Palaver om de tafel met het gat, by Merac, Toekan-Serie no. 2, ed. G. L. Tichelman (Haarlem: De Gulden Pers, 1947), the chapter on den zieleherder (the soul-shepherd).