Jean Chrétien Baud (1789–1859) was a Dutch colonial administrator, sometime Governor-General of the Netherlands East Indies (1833–1836), and the author of a remarkable private letter to Minister Falck of 28 November 1822 in which he advocated a vigorous Dutch colonisation of the East Indian archipelago as a counterweight to foreign — and especially North American — encroachment. The letter, preserved in P. Meyer’s biography of Baud (1878), is cited by Van der Kemp in his discussion of the treaty negotiations of 1824 as a prescient warning of the very danger that the British plenipotentiaries would, a few months later, raise at the London conference table.
The Letter to Falck of 28 November 1822
Writing from The Hague, Baud urged the Minister of Colonies to pursue “a vigorous Netherlands colonisation in the Archipelago, in order thereby to obtain a counterweight for our possessions in case Java should at any time be threatened by foreign powers.” The letter ran to some twelve printed pages in Meyer’s biography (pp. 180–191), and included, Van der Kemp notes, a striking prophecy that “the North Americans would seize the Philippines.” That prophecy was, for 1822, remarkably early; the United States did not in fact acquire the Philippines until the Spanish–American War of 1898, more than seventy-five years later. The colonel W. C. Nieuwenhuyzen earned Van der Kemp’s praise for having drawn attention, in De Nederlandsche Spectator of 10 December 1898, to Baud’s early-warning letter.
Baud and the Acheh Negotiations of 1824
The bearing of Baud’s letter upon the Acheh question is indirect but, in Van der Kemp’s reading, significant. When, on 23 February 1824, the British plenipotentiaries at London raised the spectre of an American establishment at Acheh, the Dutch negotiators (Fagel, Falck, and Captain Elout) capitulated, offering to ensure that the sultans of Acheh would never admit a foreign establishment. Van der Kemp observes that this was no idle speculation on the British side: Baud’s letter shows that the danger had, only fifteen months earlier, been the subject of serious Dutch reflection, and that American pressure upon the East Indian archipelago “could indeed not be called a trifle” (mocht inderdaad geen praatje heeten).
Later Career
Baud’s later eminence — he served as Governor-General ad interim in 1833–1836 under the Du Bus succession and again as Minister of Colonies from 1840 to 1848 — places his 1822 memorandum within a long colonial career. His biographer P. Meyer emphasised the consistency of Baud’s strategic vision: the archipelago was to be developed as a fortified Netherlands preserve, in which Java would be supported by colonised outposts capable of resisting any future European rival. Whether or not this strategy was actually pursued consistently after 1830, the 1822 letter to Falck stands as one of its clearest early formulations.
See Also
- Anton Reinhard Falck
- W. C. Nieuwenhuyzen
- P. Meyer
- Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London (1824)
- Raising of the Acheh treaty in London negotiations
- P. H. van der Kemp
Source
Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159-239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.
Jean Chrétien Baud (1789–1859) was a Dutch colonial administrator, sometime Governor-General of the Netherlands East Indies (1833–1836), and the author of a remarkable private letter to Minister Falck of 28 November 1822 in which he advocated a vigorous Dutch colonisation of the East Indian archipelago as a counterweight to foreign — and especially North American — encroachment. The letter, preserved in P. Meyer’s biography of Baud (1878), is cited by Van der Kemp in his discussion of the treaty negotiations of 1824 as a prescient warning of the very danger that the British plenipotentiaries would, a few months later, raise at the London conference table.
The Letter to Falck of 28 November 1822
Writing from The Hague, Baud urged the Minister of Colonies to pursue “a vigorous Netherlands colonisation in the Archipelago, in order thereby to obtain a counterweight for our possessions in case Java should at any time be threatened by foreign powers.” The letter ran to some twelve printed pages in Meyer’s biography (pp. 180–191), and included, Van der Kemp notes, a striking prophecy that “the North Americans would seize the Philippines.” That prophecy was, for 1822, remarkably early; the United States did not in fact acquire the Philippines until the Spanish–American War of 1898, more than seventy-five years later. The colonel W. C. Nieuwenhuyzen earned Van der Kemp’s praise for having drawn attention, in De Nederlandsche Spectator of 10 December 1898, to Baud’s early-warning letter.
Baud and the Acheh Negotiations of 1824
The bearing of Baud’s letter upon the Acheh question is indirect but, in Van der Kemp’s reading, significant. When, on 23 February 1824, the British plenipotentiaries at London raised the spectre of an American establishment at Acheh, the Dutch negotiators (Fagel, Falck, and Captain Elout) capitulated, offering to ensure that the sultans of Acheh would never admit a foreign establishment. Van der Kemp observes that this was no idle speculation on the British side: Baud’s letter shows that the danger had, only fifteen months earlier, been the subject of serious Dutch reflection, and that American pressure upon the East Indian archipelago “could indeed not be called a trifle” (mocht inderdaad geen praatje heeten).
Later Career
Baud’s later eminence — he served as Governor-General ad interim in 1833–1836 under the Du Bus succession and again as Minister of Colonies from 1840 to 1848 — places his 1822 memorandum within a long colonial career. His biographer P. Meyer emphasised the consistency of Baud’s strategic vision: the archipelago was to be developed as a fortified Netherlands preserve, in which Java would be supported by colonised outposts capable of resisting any future European rival. Whether or not this strategy was actually pursued consistently after 1830, the 1822 letter to Falck stands as one of its clearest early formulations.
See Also
- Anton Reinhard Falck
- W. C. Nieuwenhuyzen
- P. Meyer
- Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London (1824)
- Raising of the Acheh treaty in London negotiations
- P. H. van der Kemp
Source
Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159-239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.