The Singkel post reaching Atjeh border (1840) was the establishment, in 1840, of a Dutch military post at Singkel on Sumatra’s West Coast, by which — the Encyclopaedisch Bureau records — “the border with Atjeh” was reached. The Singkel post was, in the Bureau’s survey of the Outer Possessions, one of the chain of Dutch outposts by which the colonial state, in the years 1836–1840, consolidated its effective authority over the interior of Sumatra at the close of the Padri War on Sumatra’s West Coast. The post was the geographical anchor of the Dutch claim to the southern boundary of Atjeh’s sphere — a claim that would, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, be redemarcated and revised as the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden took its final shape.
Background: the Sumatra policy of van den Bosch
The 1840 establishment of the Singkel post must be understood against the background of the Sumatra policy of Luitenant-Generaal van den Bosch, who, as Minister of Colonies in the years 1836–1840, had laid out a programme for the “onderwerping van geheel Sumatra (buiten Atjeh)” — “the subjection of the whole of Sumatra (outside Atjeh)” — within a 25-year period. The Bureau records that, by the close of the Padri war with the fall of Bondjol in 1837, the long war on Sumatra’s West Coast could be considered ended, and Dutch authority — “ook in het binnenland, op afdoende wijs gevestigd” — “established also in the interior, in adequate fashion” — could be projected outward. On the East Coast, the Bureau notes, “waren reeds eerder vele teekenen waargenomen, welke op een gunstige stemming jegens ons gezag wezen” — “many signs had already been observed, earlier, which pointed to a favourable disposition toward our authority”; in Palembang the princely dignity had been abolished in 1825; in Djambi the Dutch had been established since 1838; the heads of the Koeantan districts had voluntarily offered their submission; a tractate had been concluded with Indragiri; the southern Batak lands (Mandailing and Padang Lawas) were in Dutch possession; and the basin of the Panai and Bila rivers was controlled by a garrison at their confluence.
The 1840 establishment
It was in this context that the Singkel post was established. The Bureau records: “aan de Westkust werd door de bezetting van Singkel in 1840 de grens met Atjeh bereikt” — “on the West Coast the border with Atjeh was reached, in 1840, by the garrisoning of Singkel.” The Singkel post was thus both a military and a geographical act: the imposition of a Dutch garrison on the West Coast, and the formal demarcation of the southern boundary of Atjeh’s sphere.
The Baud reversal (1841–1843)
The 1840 Singkel post was, however, almost immediately caught up in the Reversement of 1841 — the policy of “onthouding” (abstention) imposed by Minister J. C. Baud in 1841, by which the East Coast posts were evacuated and the project of Sumatra-wide expansion was abandoned. The Bureau records that the Baud letter of 1841 “gelastte intrekking van de reeds ter Oostkust opgerichte posten” — “ordered the withdrawal of the posts already established on the East Coast” — and that, in the years 1842–1843, “de nederzettingen in Panai-Bila en Indragiri opgeheven, en de afdeeling Pertibi (tegenwoordig Padang Lawas) ontruimd” — “the settlements in Panai-Bila and Indragiri were abolished, and the division of Pertibi (present-day Padang Lawas) was evacuated.” The Singkel post, however — together with the West Coast posts — survived the Baud reversal, and remained the geographical anchor of the Dutch claim to the southern Atjeh boundary throughout the colonial period.
Significance
The 1840 Singkel post is, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s survey, the first formal demarcation of the southern boundary of Atjeh’s sphere. It is the geographical prelude to the later, more elaborate boundary settlements — the 1878 Tamiang transfer, the 1908 Oostkust-Atjeh boundary — by which the colonial state would, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, fix the limits of the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden. The post is also, in the Bureau’s framing, the geographical complement of the long Atjehnese overlordship of the East Coast: where the latter extended Atjehnese power southward along the Strait of Malakka, the former extended Dutch power northward along the West Coast.
Account from Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh (1923)
The expulsion of the Atjehnese from Baros and Singkel in 1840 was the Netherlands Indian Government’s answer to Atjehnese pressure upon the West Coast settlements of Sumatra — following the sufferings of Baros under Atjehnese raids and the Dolphiijn affair — and came between the American (1831) and British (1844) naval chastisements of the Atjehnese coast.
The action
In 1831 the Americans had punished Koeala Batië for the cutting-off of their merchantman; “also for our flag the Atjehnese had not much awe, and had o.a. Baros much to suffer from them”, and in June 1836 the schooner Dolphiijn was cut off and burned, the Sultan keeping her money and guns. “Dan volgde in 1840 het verdrijven door de Nederlandsch Indische Regeering van de Atjehers uit Baros en uit Singkel” — “then followed in 1840 the driving-out by the Netherlands Indian Government of the Atjehnese from Baros and from Singkel”. The action nevertheless failed to secure the coastlastingly: in 1844 English warships chastised Koeala Batië and Koeala Meureudoe anew for the plundering of merchant ships (see British chastisement of Kuala Batee and Kuala Meureudoe (1844), Sea robbery on the Atjeh coast).
See Also
- Acheh
- Singkel
- Sumatra’s West Coast
- Padri War on Sumatra’s East Coast
- Johannes van den Bosch
- J. C. Baud
- Bonjol
- Mandailing
- Padang Lawas
- Panai
- Bila
- Indragiri
- Palembang
- Jambi
- Kuantan
- Boundary between Oostkust van Sumatra and Atjeh
- Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- 1836
- 1837
- 1840
- 1841
- 1842
- 1843
- Sea robbery on the Atjeh coast
- Dolphiijn affair (1836)
- American chastisement of Kuala Batee (1831)
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), p. 105. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, shelfmark LS.08781.
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 15–16.