The Tangsé and Geumpang Area Action was one of the great successes of the glorious period of Van Heutsz in the Aceh War, the sixth-named of the expeditions and excursions that Musket lists in Oost-Indisch Journael by Merac (1947). The Tangsé and Geumpang Area Action was the military action in the Tangsé and Geumpang area of central Aceh — the area of the Tangsé and Geumpang valleys — 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 Alas lands, 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 Tangsé and Geumpang Area Action is the sixth-named of the great successes — the action in the Tangsé and Geumpang area and on the North Coast of Atjeh.
The Tangsé and Geumpang
The Tangsé and Geumpang area is the area of central Atjeh where the colonne Schmidt would later (in 1910–1911) operate against the Tiriō Teungkoes. The Tangsé and Geumpang Area Action of the glorious period of Van Heutsz is therefore the earlier action in the same area — the action that opened the Tangsé and Geumpang area to the colonial army before the colonne Schmidt.
Significance
The Tangsé and Geumpang Area Action is significant in Oost-Indisch Journael as one of 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 Tangsé and Geumpang Area Action is therefore the book’s — and the colonial memory’s — marker of the all-out offensive in the Tangsé and Geumpang area of central Atjeh.
See Also
- Oost-Indisch Journael
- Musket
- Gouverneur-Generaal Van Heutsz
- Tangsé
- Geumpang
- Pidië-expeditie
- Pasé-expeditie
- Samalanga-expeditie
- Gajo- en Alaslanden tochten
- 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.