The Indisch Genootschap — the Indies Society — was a Dutch scholarly society, meeting at ‘s-Gravenhage (The Hague), devoted to the discussion of the affairs of the Nederlandsch-Indië. The society was the principal Dutch metropolitan forum for the discussion of colonial policy, and its meetings — at which papers were read and discussed by the colonial-policy community of The Hague — were the principal venue for the public articulation of Dutch strategic analysis of the Atjeh-oorlog.
Scherer’s Lecture of 20 January 1891
The Indisch Genootschap’s principal role in the history of the Atjeh-oorlog was the lecture of 20 January 20 January 1891 by the Assistent-Resident Scherer on the subject “Hoe moet Atjeh gepacificeerd worden” (How Atjeh must be pacified). The lecture was the principal public articulation of Scherer’s doctrine — that the resistance came not from Groot-Atjeh but from the onderhoorigheden (dependencies) on the coasts, that there the money was earned with which the costs of the war were met, that there the young fanatical people were gathered to make incursions into Groot-Atjeh, and that there the resistance retired in perfect safety when the Dutch put the fire too close to the shins of the guerrillas in Groot-Atjeh. The doctrine of “de meester van de kust is meester van het land” (the master of the coast is the master of the land) was, in Scherer’s lecture, given its fullest public articulation.
Significance
The Indisch Genootschap was the principal Dutch metropolitan forum for the discussion of colonial policy, and its meetings were the principal venue for the public articulation of Dutch strategic analysis of the Atjeh-oorlog. Scherer’s lecture of 20 January 20 January 1891 is one of the most important strategic documents of the war, and its delivery before the Indisch Genootschap gave Scherer’s doctrine the metropolitan audience that the colonial administration in Batavia and the governor in Atjeh could not reach. The Indisch Genootschap’s role as a venue for the public articulation of strategic analysis made it the principal Dutch institution for the formation of colonial-policy opinion outside the formal structures of the government and the parliament.
See Also
- Scherer
- Scheepvaartregeling
- Onderhoorigheden
- De onderwerping van Atjeh (Van Heutsz)
- s-Gravenhage
- Groot-Atjeh
- Aceh War
- Atjeh-oorlog
- 20 January
- 1891
Source
De Atjeh-Oorlog: Kort Overzicht van Oorsprong, Verloop en Gevolg, door J. A. Kruijt. ‘s-Gravenhage: Loman & Funke, 1896. Chapter VII (Scherer’s lecture). OCR-filename: 20260716_140310_DLP-101-De_Atjeh_oorlog_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, p. 36.