The Capture of the Kraton on 24 January 1874 was the climactic military engagement of the Second Aceh Expedition, in which Dutch forces under Lieutenant-General Van Swieten stormed and seized the Kraton — the fortified palace-complex of the Sultan of Aceh at Kotta Radja — after a campaign of thirty-seven days since the landing at Kwala Loë on 9 December 1873. The fall of the Kraton was followed on 31 January by the proclamation of annexation, which declared Groot-Atjeh to belong to the Netherlands-Indian Government by right of conquest. Yet the victory did not bring the Aceh War to an end; the Sultan had fled into the interior, and organized resistance continued for decades.
The Approach to the Kraton
After the landing at Kwala Loë on 9 December 1873, the expeditionary force advanced along the east bank of the Atjeh river. On 13 December, Kota Moesapi was occupied. On 14 December, the long line of enemy fortifications south of Kota Moesapi was taken by General Verspyck’s bold storming of Tiban. On 15 December, the mouth of the Atjeh river was reached. On 18 December, a column under Lieutenant-Colonel Pel reached the river further south at Penajoeng after engagements including the fight at kampong Lamara.
The Dutch now held both banks of the river at its lower reaches, and the path to the Kraton lay open — but the Acehnese defenders had concentrated their remaining strength in the great fortified complex of the Kraton and its outworks, including the Missigit (great mosque) and the fortification of Kotta Goenoengan.
The Siege Operations
Throughout late December 1873 and early January 1874, the Dutch forces methodically tightened their grip on the Kraton. Artillery positions were established, trenches were dug, and the surrounding kampongs were secured one by one. The river was controlled, cutting off the Kraton from waterborne supply. The Acehnese defenders, though numerous and determined, found their lines of communication progressively severed.
The capture of the Missigit — the great mosque that formed a key strongpoint in the Kraton’s defensive perimeter — was a particularly fierce engagement. The mosque, a substantial stone structure, had been converted into a fortress by the Acehnese, its thick walls offering excellent cover for riflemen. Its reduction cost the Dutch heavily but removed a critical node of the defence.
The Storming of 24 January
On 24 January 1874, the final assault was launched. The Dutch forces advanced against the Kraton’s outer walls from multiple directions. The Acehnese defenders, including elements loyal to the Sultan and fighters drawn from the three sagie divisions — the XXV Moekims, the XXVI Moekims, and the XXII Moekims — fought with desperate courage. Panglima Polim, the formidable chief of the XXII Moekims, was among those directing the defence.
The Dutch infantry, armed with breech-loading rifles and supported by artillery fire, breached the outer defences and entered the Kraton compound. The fighting was fierce and close-quarters; the Acehnese contested every courtyard, every wall, every passage. But the superior firepower and organization of the Dutch forces prevailed.
By the end of the day, the Kraton was in Dutch hands. The Sultan had already withdrawn, fleeing with his remaining entourage into the interior — to a place, according to reports gathered at Pinang before the first expedition, three days’ journey from the Kraton in the mountain interior, where a fortified position had been prepared.
The Sultan’s Flight and the Vacant Throne
The Sultan’s departure from the Kraton before its fall meant that there was no sovereign to negotiate with and no authority capable of surrendering on formal terms. Van Swieten had hoped, up to the last moment, that the Sultan might be persuaded to accept Dutch terms — his letters of 1 December 1873 had offered generous conditions modelled on the Siak treaty — but the Sultan, influenced by the sagie chiefs and the religious leaders who opposed submission, had chosen flight over capitulation.
The flight of the Sultan raised immediately the question of what political arrangement the Dutch should impose. Van Swieten’s instructions contemplated two scenarios: either the Sultan submitted and a treaty was signed on the Siak model, or the Sultan refused and was declared deposed, with a successor appointed. With the Sultan gone and no treaty forthcoming, the second scenario was activated.
The Proclamation of Annexation
On 31 January 1874, Van Swieten issued the proclamation declaring that the land of Groot-Atjeh, having been conquered by the Dutch forces and the Sultan having fled, belonged by right of victory to the Netherlands-Indian Government. The proclamation invited all chiefs of the three sagies and the subordinate territories to submit in writing, promised that the blockade would be lifted for submitting states, guaranteed freedom of religion and the preservation of native institutions, and warned that those who failed to submit within a reasonable time would be regarded as enemies and their kampongs subject to destruction.
Van Swieten’s Reflections
In his account, Van Swieten described the capture of the Kraton as the fulfilment of the military objective with which the expedition had been dispatched — the conquest of the Sultan’s principal stronghold and the establishment of a permanent Dutch position from which to impose order. But he acknowledged that the military success had not produced the political result he had hoped for. The Sultan was at large, the sagie chiefs remained defiant, and the Acehnese people — far from submitting — showed every sign of continuing the struggle.
Van Swieten attributed this outcome not to any failure of arms but to the failure of the earlier negotiations in March 1873, when Nieuwenhuizen had, in his view, needlessly alienated the moderate elements at the Acehnese court. Had those negotiations been conducted with greater skill and through proper channels, Van Swieten argued, the war itself might have been avoided, and the Sultan might have accepted a treaty voluntarily.
The Human Cost
The thirty-seven days from landing to the fall of the Kraton had been marked not only by combat but by a terrible enemy more deadly than the Acehnese rifles: the cholera that had struck the transports even before departure from Java and had pursued the expedition throughout. The disease claimed victims daily, thinning the ranks and imposing terrible strain on the medical services. The combination of cholera, tropical heat, exhausting labour, and constant combat made the capture of the Kraton one of the most costly victories in Dutch colonial history.
See Also
- Second Aceh Expedition (1873-1874)
- Kraton of Aceh
- Jan van Swieten
- Van Swieten’s Proclamation of 31 January 1874
- Sultan Aladin Mahmoed Shah
- Panglima Polim
- G. M. Verspyck
- J. L. J. H. Pel
- Landing at Kwala Loë (9 December 1873)
- Groot-Atjeh
- Aceh War
- Capture of the Missigit
- Kotta Goenoengan
Source
De waarheid over onze vestiging in Atjeh, door den Luitenant-Generaal J. van Swieten, Zalt-Bommel, Joh. Noman en Zoon, [1879], pp. 211–271 (Hoofdstuk V); cf. also Het Koloniaal Verslag van 1874, pp. 42–43.