The Tikoe submission of 20–21 June 1684 was the formal act by which the chiefs of Tikoe, having been militarily defeated in the 1683 rising, acknowledged the Compagnie’s conquest of their land, accepted the commandeur at Padang as their panglima (military governor), and granted the Compagnie its commercial monopoly. Recorded in Dr. F. W. Stapel’s Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland as the closing instrument of the Painansch Contract system and the formal end of Atjeh’s last lever of influence on the West Coast of Sumatra.
The text of the submission
Stapel quotes the key passages of the submission directly. The chiefs acknowledged “that their land had been conquered by the Compagnie with arms; that they ‘on their request were taken as allies for pardon’” (dat hun land door de Compagnie met de wapenen was overwonnen; dat zij ‘op haer bede om pardon als bontgenoten wierden aengenomen). They promised “to acknowledge and obey the commandeur at Padang as their panglima” (belovende de commandeur op Padang voor haer panglima te erkennen en gehoorsamen). They granted “the monopoly to the Compagnie” (Zij verleenden het monopolie aan de Compagnie). And they declared “that their regents were to be appointed by the commandeur, ‘by force of the panglimaschap’” (dat hun regenten door den commandeur moesten worden aangesteld, ‘kraghte van het panglimaschap’).
The phrase kraghte van het panglimaschap — “by force of the panglima-office” — is the critical constitutional claim. The Compagnie is not merely exercising a commercial monopoly; it is asserting the right to appoint the regents of Tikoe, in the name of the panglima-office that the commandeur of Padang now holds. This is sovereign authority, exercised in the form of an Acehnese-Malay political institution.
The parallel Priaman treaty
The Tikoe submission was paired with a parallel Priaman renewal. “At the same time the treaty with those of Priaman was renewed, in view of the English, who intended to settle in the Priamansch” (Tegelijkertijd werd het verdrag met die van Priaman hernieuwd, zulks met het oog op de Engelschen, die van plan waren, zich in het Priamansche neer te zetten). The Compagnie now resolved to build a fort at Priaman, “and by the contract the inhabitants promised to deliver the materials necessary thereto” (en bij het contract beloofden de ingezetenen, de materialen, daartoe noodig, te leveren).
The Priaman fort was the physical counterpart to the Tikoe submission. Together they close the Westkust against both the Atjehsch-gezinde party and the new English threat.
Significance
The Tikoe submission closes the cycle of Dutch-Acehnese conflict on the Westkust that had opened with the sultane’s accession in 1641. After June 1684 the Atjehsch-gezinde partij ceases to be a factor in Westkust politics, and Atjeh’s authority contracts to its own territory. The Compagnie’s sovereignty on the Westkust is now asserted in two complementary forms: through the panglimaschap at Tikoe, which assimilates the Dutch commandeur to an Acehnese-Malay office; and through the Priaman fort, which projects Dutch military power directly.
The June 1684 settlement is also the bookend to the 17 April 1684 treaty between sultan Hadji of Bantam and the Compagnie, by which the Compagnie obtained the pepper monopoly of Bantam and the English were forced to leave. The English relocation to Benkoelen, Batang Kapas and Sillabar in 1685 — “although these were considered to stand under the Dutch Compagnie” (hoewel die werden beschouwd als onder de Nederlandsche Compagnie te staan) — opened the long English presence on the Westkust that would last until 1824. But it opened that presence on territory the Compagnie had just formally secured against Atjeh.
See Also
- Tikoe
- Tikoe uprising (1683)
- Priaman
- Padang Conference (29 August 1680)
- Painansch Contract
- Sultana of Atjeh (Taj ul-Alam)
- Silebar
- Benkoelen
- Batang Kapas
- Sultan Hadji of Bantam
- panglima-radja
- Westkust van Sumatra
- Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie
- 20 June
- 21 June
- 1684
Source
De Koloniën, by Dr. F. W. Stapel, in Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1931), kaart 19, blz. 22–23 (tekst bij blad 4: Atjeh en de Westkust van Sumatra in 1684).