Handover of Command from Stemfoort to Van Vliet (17 November 1896)

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descriptionThe Handover of Command from Kolonel Stemfoort to Kolonel Van Vliet on 17 November 1896 — overgave en overname van het bestuur — was the formal transfer of the office of Civiel en Militair Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden from Kolonel J. W. Stemfoort to Kolonel C. P. J. van Vliet, on which occasion Stemfoort returned to Java. The handover closed Stemfoort's second tenure (11 July – 17 November 1896) and opened the Van Vliet governorship, which would last until 1898.
tagsevent, aceh-war, 1896, handover, governor, stemfoort, van-vliet, civiel-en-militair-gouverneur, groot-atjeh, kruisheer-vol3, hoofdstuk-iv, administration
aliasesovergave en overname van het bestuur, 17 November 1896, the handover of command of 17 November 1896, the Stemfoort-Van Vliet handover, Stemfoort's departure for Java

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The Handover of Command from Kolonel Stemfoort to Kolonel Van Vliet on 17 November 1896 — overgave en overname van het bestuur, Kolonel J. W. Stemfoort keert naar Java terug — was the formal transfer of the office of Civiel en Militair Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden from Kolonel J. W. Stemfoort to Kolonel C. P. J. van Vliet, on which occasion Stemfoort returned to Java. The handover — which took place nine days after the arrival of Van Vliet at Koeta-Radja on 8 November 1896 — closed Stemfoort’s second tenure (which had lasted four months and six days, from 11 July to 17 November 1896) and opened the Van Vliet governorship, which would last until 1898, when Van Vliet would be succeeded by Van Heutsz.

The Closure of Stemfoort’s Second Tenure

The handover of 17 November 1896 closed Stemfoort’s second tenure as wd. Civiel en Militair Gouverneur — a tenure which had begun on 11 July 1896, when Stemfoort had been recalled to Koeta-Radja after the death of Generaal-Majoor De Moulin by sunstroke. Stemfoort’s second tenure had been characterised by the slow, methodical extension of Dutch control from the geconcentreerde linie (concentrated line) into the XXVI Moekims, XXII Moekims, IV Moekims (Kroeng-Raba / Lok-Nga), and the Selimoen highlands — a pacificatie (pacification) which had included the occupation of Kroeng-Raba (Lok-Nga) on 15 July 1896, the construction of the Blang Bintang camp on 7 September 1896, the first Selimoen expedition of 6–11 September 1896, the introduction of the pasenstelsel in mid-September, the temporary occupation of Indrapoeri on 28 October 1896, and the capture of Kota Ba Teuē on the same day. The handover of 17 November 1896 thus marked the formal closure of the post-De Moulin transitional period and the opening of the Van Vliet governorship.

The Return of Stemfoort to Java

The handover of 17 November 1896 was accompanied by Stemfoort’s return to Java — Kolonel J. W. Stemfoort keert naar Java terug. Stemfoort — who had first come to Atjeh in April 1896 as the commander of the Dutch expeditionary reinforcements in response to the Umar defection, and who had served as wd. Civiel en Militair Gouverneur for two tenures (28 June – 5 July 1896 and 11 July – 17 November 1896) totalling nearly five months — departed for Java with the formal thanks of the Governor-General and the satisfaction of having overseen the slow forward movement of the second semester of 1896. His departure marked the end of his direct involvement in the Atjeh command, and the beginning of the Van Vliet governorship.

The Opening of the Van Vliet Governorship

The handover of 17 November 1896 opened the Van Vliet governorship — a period which would last until 1898, when Van Vliet would be succeeded by Van Heutsz. The Van Vliet governorship was characterised by the continuation of the pacificatie (pacification) policy of the second semester of 1896 — the slow, methodical extension of Dutch control beyond the geconcentreerde linie — but was increasingly constrained by the heerschende cholera (prevailing cholera) of December 1896, which prevented the colonne tegen Oemar (column against Umar) from taking the field. The Van Vliet governorship was thus a transitional period — between the pacificatie (pacification) of the second semester of 1896 and the decisive korte oorlog phase which would be launched by Van Heutsz in 1898.

Significance

The Handover of Command from Stemfoort to Van Vliet on 17 November 1896 is significant in the documentary record of ATJEH ‘96 — Tweede Deel as the formal closure of the post-De Moulin transitional period and the opening of the Van Vliet governorship. The handover — which took place nine days after the arrival of Van Vliet on 8 November 1896 — closed Stemfoort’s second tenure and opened the period which would last until 1898, when Van Vliet would be succeeded by Van Heutsz. The handover thus marks a critical transition in the documentary record of ATJEH ‘96 — Tweede Deel — from the Hoofdstuk III of the second semester under Stemfoort to the Hoofdstuk IV of November–December 1896 under Van Vliet — and prepares the ground for the Besluit (Conclusion) and the extensive Bijlagen (Annexes) which follow.

See Also

Source

ATJEH ‘96. Tweede Deel (2c Deel), door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L., met 3 kaarten en 6 portretten (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913). Instituut Kern, Leiden. OCR-filename: 20260715_163243_DLP-90-Atjeh_96_DLP-89-Atjeh_96_Met_3_kaarten_en_6_DOORA_KRUISHEER_Kapiteinder_Infanterie_nemoretriever-ocr-v1_OCR.txt., pp. 9, 145, 171.

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