Iskandar Muda’s expulsion of the Dutch in 1627 closed the first period of Dutch-Atjehnese friendship: the privileged position won in 1601–1602 had lasted only fifteen years when the Sultan — known after his death as Marhoem Makota Alam — compelled the Hollanders to break up the factory and to evacuate the West Coast of Sumatra.
The turn of fortune
The Spaniards and Portuguese, who during those fifteen years had unceasingly used all efforts to regain the friendship of the Atjehnese princes, finally succeeded; and once again it was the Hollanders who were the dupes of the regained friendship. In 1627 they were compelled by the then Sultan of Atjeh, Iskandar Muda, to break up the factory founded under his predecessor, while being equally forced to evacuate the West Coast of Sumatra.
Restoration, 1640
Only in 1640 were the bonds of friendship restored, when during the administration of Governor-General Van Diemen the successor of Iskandar Muda came to power — a young prince’s son, without experience, but also without plans to break the bonds with the Hollanders. The fact that the new Sultan had scarcely outgrown children’s shoes gave the sjahbandars of Atjeh the welcome occasion to drive the harbour dues as high as possible: in name the young Sultan wielded the sceptre, but in fact it was the sjahbandars, whose greed kept the confirmation of existing relations and the making of new ones behind — the state of affairs that ended in the murder of the Hollanders of 1651 and the blockade.
See Also
- Sultan Iskandar Muda
- Dutch-Atjehnese alliance and embassy to Prince Maurice (1601-1602)
- Murder of the Hollanders and blockade of Atjeh (1651)
- Acheh
Source
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 13–14.