G. Gonggrijp — Prof. G. Gonggrijp — was the author of Chapter IV of Nederlanders over de Zeeën (1955 second edition), titled Ned.-Indië onder de Staat en als deel van het Koninkrijk (Netherlands India under the State and as part of the Kingdom). His chapter is the principal source of the present Aceh Wiki History articles on the nineteenth-century colonial state — including the 1824 London Treaty, the 1857 contract, the 1871 Sumatra-tractaat, the Atjehoorlog of 1873-1904, and the post-1904 consolidation.
Authorship of Chapter IV
In the 1955 edition of Nederlanders over de Zeeën, Gonggrijp was responsible for Chapter IV — the chapter covering the Indies from the assumption of colonial authority by the Dutch State (after the dissolution of the VOC in 1799) through the incorporation of the Indies as part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the twentieth century. The chapter is, in Atjeh-related terms, the spine of the book’s colonial-period narrative.
The Atjehoorlog account
Gonggrijp’s account of the Atjehoorlog of 1873-1904 is the longest single Atjeh-related passage in the book. It covers the 1824 undertaking and its impossible double commitment; the 1857 contract and its non-observance; the 1871 Sumatra-tractaat and its narrow anti-piracy framing; the 1873 declaration of war; the two expeditions of 1873 (under Köhler and Van Swieten); the 1880 false dawn and the concentratie period; the 1892 blockade and the Snouck Hurgronje advice; the 1896 defection of Teungku Um and the Van Heutsz appointment; and the korte verklaring that concluded the consolidation.
The Snouck Hurgronje analysis
Gonggrijp’s chapter is the source of the Snouck Hurgronje analysis of Atjehnese social structure preserved in the present Aceh Wiki articles: the kampong/mukim/uléebalang/sagi/panglima sagi hierarchy, and the verdict that the sultan’s authority over the panglima’s sagi and the uléebalangs existed “alleen in naam” (in name only). The analysis is the intellectual basis of the post-1892 Dutch strategy of ignoring the sultan and striking the uléebalangs.
Other works
Gonggrijp is also the author of Schets eener economische geschiedenis van Ned.-Indië (Haarlem, 1949), cited in the bibliography of the 1955 edition of Nederlanders over de Zeeën.
Significance
Gonggrijp’s significance for the encyclopedia of Acheh history lies in his authorship of Chapter IV of Nederlanders over de Zeeën — the principal source of the present Aceh Wiki articles on the nineteenth-century colonial state and the Atjehoorlog. His narrative situates the war in the wider context of Dutch colonial state-formation in the nineteenth-century archipelago.
See Also
- Nederlanders over de Zeeën (De Graaf et al., 1955)
- H. J. de Graaf
- W. R. Menkman
- P. J. van Winter
- Atjehoorlog
- Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje
- J. B. van Heutsz
- Acheh
- 1955
Source
Nederlanders over de Zeeën: 350 Jaar geschiedenis van Nederland buitengaats, onder redactie van Dr. H. J. de Graaf, met medewerking van Prof. G. Gonggrijp, W. R. Menkman en Prof. Jhr Dr P. J. van Winter, 2e geheel herziene druk (Utrecht: W. de Haan N.V., MCMLV), title-page and table of contents; bibliography p. 306.
G. Gonggrijp, Schets eener economische geschiedenis van Ned.-Indië (Haarlem, 1949), cited in the bibliography of the 1955 edition.