Alexander Willem Frederik Idenburg was a Dutch colonial administrator who served as Governor-General of the Netherlands East Indies during the 1904–1914 decade covered by the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s volume De Buitenbezittingen 1904 tot 1914. His portrait, alongside those of his predecessor Van Heutsz and Hendrikus Colijn, appears as one of the three frontispiece figures of the volume — the three men “whose names are so closely bound up with the preparation and execution of the measures that have led to the enormous progress of the Buitenbezittingen in the said period.”
Account from De Buitenbezittingen (1917) — Idenburg
In the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s framing, Idenburg — together with Van Heutsz and Colijn — is one of the three principal architects of the 1904–1914 “enormous progress” of the Buitenbezittingen, including the pacification of Atjeh and the wider post-1902 extension of Dutch effective authority across the outer possessions. The Bureau notes that all three “granted permission for the inclusion of their likenesses” in the volume — a courtesy that frames the volume itself as, in part, a tribute to their work.
The portrait caption identifies Idenburg as “Gouverneur-Generaal van Ned.-Indië; Oud-Minister van Koloniën; Oud-Gouverneur van Suriname” — that is, as a colonial-administrative figure whose career spanned the principal Dutch colonial postings of his generation. His tenure as Governor-General coincided with the consolidation phase of Dutch rule in Atjeh — the phase that saw the 1912 creation of fifteen new onderafdeelingskassen in Atjeh and Dependencies, the 1913 approval of the Atjeh-tramway extensions toward Arube Bay, and the 1914 promulgation of the Zelfbestuurs-ordonnantie.
Significance
Idenburg occupies a symbolic position in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account as the presiding Governor-General of the 1904–1914 “decade of progress.” His appearance alongside Van Heutsz (the military conqueror of Atjeh) and Colijn (the principal administrative architect of the post-pacification order) frames the volume as a tribute to the three men who, in the Bureau’s view, between them brought the pacification of Atjeh to its completion and translated it into a colonial-wide policy of effective authority.
Account from Schets eener parlementaire geschiedenis (1955)
The following account is drawn from the parliamentary history of the Dutch Second Chamber as narrated by Vermeulen in the colonial section of the 1955 fourth revised edition of Rengers’s *Schets*.
A. W. F. Idenburg — Alexander Willem Frederik Idenburg (1861-1935) — was a Dutch Anti-Revolutionary politician who served three terms as minister of Colonies (1902-1905; 1908-1909; 1909-1913) and one term as governor-general of the Nederlandsch-Indische archipelago (1909-1916). His first ministry covered the Gajoe-Alas-Batak expedition of Van Daalen; his subsequent career embodies the ethical-policy attempt to translate the conquest of Atjeh into a moralised colonial administration.
The 1904 defence of Van Daalen
In the 1904 Tweede Kamer debate on the Gajoe-Alas-Batak expedition, Idenburg — then in his first term as minister of Colonies — defended the government. Patience, he argued, had been tried in Atjeh during the Concentratie-stelsel ([[1884-1896)|concentratie]] period with the result that the resistance had only grown stronger; patience had been tried in Djambi until “absolute anarchie” had set in and a bloody expedition had become necessary; patience had been tried for years on Lombok, and the Netherlands had had to pay for it with hundreds of lives. Following the argument of Snouck Hurgronje, Idenburg maintained that Islam forbade the faithful to submit to any authority that had not proven its unshakeable superiority. The women and children who sacrificed themselves during the Van Daalen expedition had done so under the influence of religious fanaticism: Van Daalen, it was argued, had made the futility of the struggle clear in advance.
The “herwonnen zelfvertrouwen”
After the June 1908 report of Van Heutsz — by then governor-general — and the fall of Van Daalen, Idenburg (again minister of Colonies) pronounced it Van Heutsz’s greatest merit that he had put an end to the Dutch feeling of impotence with respect to the Buitenbezettingen: “Hij heeft ons doen zien, dat wij, wanneer wij maar willen en onze middelen systematisch gebruiken, inderdaad ook kunnen bereiken wat wij ons tot taak hadden gesteld. Dat herwonnen zelfvertrouwen leidde er ons vanzelf toe om het ernstig te nemen met de plicht, welke ons als westerse mogendheid tegenover de Buitenbezittingen is opgelegd, het brengen van recht en orde”.
On Van Daalen’s maxim
Idenburg conceded that Van Daalen’s maxim — “gij kunt die kerels niet vertrouwen, gij moet ze ook niet vertrouwen, gij moet ze slaan en drukken en dan zullen ze u gehoorzamen” — was “nog zo gek niet” — not so foolish — but held that it belonged to a time of conquest rather than to a period of pacificatie. The concession is the most explicit ministerial acknowledgment in the parliamentary record of the moral logic of the Van Daalen system.
Governor-general of the Indies
Idenburg’s tenure as governor-general (1909-1916) was, in the retrospective of Vermeulen, one of “gematigd ethisch te werk gaan” — moderately ethical operation — under both right-wing and left-wing ministers. The liberal minister Pleyte “kon het wel vinden met de gouverneur-generaal Idenburg”; Idenburg’s stance on the zending (missions) was, after the heat of the election campaign of 1913, far more accommodating than Kuyper had feared.
Letters to De Waal Malefijt and Kuyper
Idenburg’s letters to De Waal Malefijt and Kuyper, cited by Koch, are the principal evidence of his ethische outlook: “It is the end of the taillable et corvéable à merci. We must rejoice at that, even if it gives us some trouble; we willed it so… at least we said so… and promoted it through our education. And there would be nothing but cause for rejoicing if at the same time Christianity could work more freely and more deeply”. The remark captures the Protestant-ethical wish that the political emancipation of the inlanders would be accompanied by, and completed in, their Christian evangelisation.
The problem of 1908
“The disappointing Van Daalen period and the heavy setback which our administration in Atjeh had consequently suffered confronted Minister Idenburg with difficult decisions. Not only Van Daalen, not only Van Heutsz, but the minister too was held responsible for that latest disappointment. Time and again a short period of apparent improvement in Atjeh had been followed by a revival of the resistance; repeatedly it had been emphatically asserted that ‘now the end is in sight!’ and just as repeatedly that end had proved to be infinitely far off.”
Idenburg wrote to van Heutsz on 23 June 1908: “I must, for my own sake — and also towards others who ask me to account for the situation — be able to say with an easy mind: what happened will happen no more. The Governor-General is kept regularly informed: the Governor of Atjeh has, if he wishes, the source of counsel that anyone would wish to possess in circumstances as difficult as pacification in a country where war was waged for thirty-five years.”
The minister therefore sought the solution in such a vraagbaak — and one wholly civil and above all non-military. Such a prop and support had, after all, been given to van Heutsz in the person of Snouck Hurgronje; why should Snouck not be placed beside a military Governor once more?
On Swart
Of Swart Idenburg wrote with candour: “I do not know Swart — I accept on your authority that he is excellent; but he is no more cut out for the work of pacification than Van Daalen, even if his character is perhaps somewhat gentler.”
The compromise
Van Heutsz rejected Snouck Hurgronje for the supervisory role but conceded the principle, writing on 30/31 July 1908: “that You as minister, in view of what happened with Van Daalen, wish to see a repetition of anything of the kind made impossible, I find so natural that I have thought I ought not to raise objections to Your wish that Atjeh should henceforth be regularly visited by someone who could examine the civil conduct of the military Governor on the spot from time to time.”
Idenburg accordingly chose “the golden and safe middle way” and charged a member of the Raad van Nederlandsch-Indië with the supervision: “the side of force is represented by the Governor, the side of deliberation by Mr Liefrinck.” Unrest had been aroused, as the minister put it, “because the carriage ran off the rails.”
On private correspondence
Idenburg wrote to van Heutsz on 15 September 1908 the sentence du Croo quoted in Swart’s defence against criticism of his private letters to subordinates: “the advantage of private correspondence is that it is personal and that one can say exactly what one thinks about a matter.”
As Governor-General
Idenburg later became Governor-General. On 14 December 1909 Swart went to Sabang to pay his respects to the new landvoogd and had a long interview with him alone: “His Excellency declared that he could entirely associate himself with the political policy I had followed and was accordingly very pleased with the course of affairs, while he finally promised me every possible support. Furthermore His Excellency expressly requested me to pay no attention whatever to the press campaign directed against me.” Assured of the support of the new Indies Government, Swart wrote to H. J. Schmidt, he would of course not ask for release.
As minister of Colonies, Idenburg had also supported van Heutsz’s acceleration of the opening of the Buitengewesten from 1904.
See Also
- Zelfbestuurs-ordonnantie
- 1914
- J. B. van Heutsz
- Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- H. Colijn
- 1904
- 1908
- Buitenbezittingen
- Gouverneur-Generaal van Nederlandsch-Indië
- Pacificatie van Atjeh
- 1902
- Van Daalen’s Gajo-Alas-Batak expedition (1904)
- Concentratie-stelsel (1884-1896)
- Djambi
- Ethische Politiek
- Lombok
- Th. B. Pleyte
- J. H. de Waal Malefijt
- G. C. E. van Daalen
- 1909
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- 1913
- D. M. G. Koch
- J. B. van Heutsz
- Abraham Kuyper
- Van Heutsz’s report on Atjeh (June 1908)
- H. N. A. Swart
- Joannes Benedictus van Heutsz
- Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje
- Gotfried Coenraad Ernst van Daalen
- Liefrinck
- Raad van Nederlandsch-Indië
- Opening der Buitengewesten
Source
De Buitenbezittingen 1904 tot 1914, Deel I, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen, Aflevering X (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), Voorwoord and frontispiece portraits.
Alexander Willem Frederik Idenburg was a Dutch colonial administrator who served as Governor-General of the Netherlands East Indies during the 1904–1914 decade covered by the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s volume De Buitenbezittingen 1904 tot 1914. His portrait, alongside those of his predecessor Van Heutsz and Hendrikus Colijn, appears as one of the three frontispiece figures of the volume — the three men “whose names are so closely bound up with the preparation and execution of the measures that have led to the enormous progress of the Buitenbezittingen in the said period.”
Schets eener parlementaire geschiedenis van Nederland van 1849 tot 1901, by Mr W. J. van Welderen baron Rengers, 4th rev. ed., Vol. IV: Oost-Indië 1891-1918 by Dr W. H. Vermeulen (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1955), pp. 271-272, 274-275, 353.
D. M. G. Koch, Om de vrijheid, p. 25 (cited by Vermeulen for Idenburg’s letter).
Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), Chapter V, p. 35; Chapter IX, pp. 88–90; Chapter XIV, pp. 140–141.