The Tikoe uprising of 1683 was the Atjehsch-gezinde (Acehnese-leaning) rising at Tikoe on the West Coast of Sumatra, the last major Acehnese-instigated revolt against the Compagnie on the Westkust before the Tikoe submission of 20–21 June 1684. Recorded in Dr. F. W. Stapel’s Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland as the closing episode of the Atjehsche campaign to recover the Westkust by intrigue.
Background
After the Padang Conference of 29 August 1680 and the subsequent submissions of Baros (January 1681), Singkel (12 February 1681), Bajang and Indrapoera (27 February 1681) and Painan (10 March 1681), a period of relative calm settled on the southern and central Westkust. The crisis of 1675–1679, in which Atjehsche agents had been active from Priaman to Baros, was over.
Only in the north did the Atjehsch-gezinde partij retain enough leverage to strike. “Only in the North the Atjehsch-gezinde party still intrigued, and in 1683 this led to a rising in Tikoe” (Alleen in het Noorden bleef de Atjehsch-gezinde partij nog intrigeeren, en in 1683 leidde dit tot een opstand in Tikoe).
The rising and its suppression
Stapel records the rising in a single compressed sentence: “The military force sent thither defeated however the rebels and on 20/21 June 1684 the chiefs offered their submission anew” (De daarheen gezonden troepenmacht versloeg echter de opstandelingen en 20/21 Juni 1684 boden de hoofden opnieuw hun onderwerping aan). The intervening months are unrecorded in his narrative; what is clear is that the rising was sufficient to require the dispatch of a Compagnie military force, and that the result was a Dutch victory followed by a formal Acehnese-style submission.
The 1684 submission
The submission of 20–21 June 1684 is the closing diplomatic act of the 1649–1684 cycle of Acehnese-Dutch conflict on the Westkust. The chiefs of Tikoe acknowledged “that their land had been conquered by the Compagnie with arms; that they ‘on their request were taken as allies for pardon, promising to acknowledge and obey the commandeur at Padang as their panglima.’ They granted the monopoly to the Compagnie and declared that their regents were to be appointed by the commandeur, ‘by force of the panglimaschap’” (dat hun land door de Compagnie met de wapenen was overwonnen; dat zij ‘op haer bede om pardon als bontgenoten wierden aengenomen, belovende de commandeur op Padang voor haer panglima te erkennen en gehoorsamen.’ Zij verleenden het monopolie aan de Compagnie en verklaarden, dat hun regenten door den commandeur moesten worden aangesteld, ‘kraghte van het panglimaschap’).
The Dutch now also began building a fort at Priaman, against the threat of English settlement there: “At the same time the treaty with those of Priaman was renewed, in view of the English, who intended to settle in the Priamansch. The Compagnie now resolved to build a fort at Priaman, and by the contract the inhabitants promised to deliver the materials necessary thereto” (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. De Compagnie besloot nu, te Priaman een fort te bouwen, en bij het contract beloofden de ingezetenen, de materialen, daartoe noodig, te leveren).
Significance
The 1683 rising and the 1684 submission close a chapter. After June 1684 the Atjehsch-gezinde partij ceases to be a factor in Westkust politics. The Compagnie now holds the entire coast from Singkel to Silebar (Sillabar) under direct treaty, fort or factory. Atjeh itself is reduced to its own territory, and the long contest opened by the sultane’s accession in 1641 is over.
The 1684 settlement is also the occasion at which the English first establish themselves on the Westkust proper. Under the 17 April 1684 treaty between sultan Hadji of Bantam and the Compagnie, the English were forced to leave Bantam; they relocated in 1685 to Benkoelen, Batang Kapas and Sillabar, “although these were considered to stand under the Dutch Compagnie” (hoewel die werden beschouwd als onder de Nederlandsche Compagnie te staan). There they would remain until 1824.
See Also
- Tikoe
- Priaman
- Tikoe submission (20-21 June 1684)
- Padang Conference (29 August 1680)
- Painansch Contract
- Sultana of Atjeh (Taj ul-Alam)
- Silebar
- Benkoelen
- Batang Kapas
- Sultan Hadji of Bantam
- Westkust van Sumatra
- Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie
- 1683
- 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).