P. Brooshooft

P. Brooshooft was a Dutch schoolmaster (onderwijzer) and popular historian who in 1886 published the popular narrative history Geschiedenis van den Atjeh-oorlog 1873–1886, printed at Utrecht by F. B. van Ditmar. Writing explicitly for Dutch onderwijzers en onderwijzeressen (schoolteachers) and a general reading public, Brooshooft condensed the existing official and semi-official literature on the first thirteen years of the Aceh War into a single affordable volume dedicated to defending the conduct of Fransen van de Putte and arguing against those who blamed the 1873 ministry for rushing into war.

Authorship and Sources

Brooshooft stated in his foreword (dated 14 December 1886) that he had drawn his material from several earlier works. His principal guide was the three-volume official history by retired engineering major E. B. Kielstra, Beschrijving van den Atjeh-oorlog met gebruikmaking der officieele bronnen, published by Gebr. van Cleef at The Hague. He also used personal notes gathered during his own stay in the Indies, information kindly supplied by several officers, and the following published works:

H. F. Meijer, Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876 (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs).
A. W. K. ter Beek, De vier eerste jaren van den Atjeh-oorlog (‘s-Gravenhage: Gebroeders van Cleef).
E. B. Kielstra, Onder de Atjehers (Haarlem: Erven F. Bohn).
E. de Waal, Onze Indische finantiën (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff).
J. J. de Rochemont, Onze oorlog met Atjin (only one volume, covering the first expedition; ‘s-Gravenhage: Joh. Ykema).
A variety of pamphlets, including J. van Swieten’s De waarheid over onze vestiging in Atjeh, G. M. Verspick’s Generaal van Swieten en de waarheid, J. J. W. E. Verstege’s Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, Kielstra’s articles on the governorship of Pruys van der Hoeven in the Indisch Militair Tijdschrift (1886, nos. 3 and 4), Pruys van der Hoeven’s own Mijne ervaring van Atjeh, P. F. Laging Tobias’s Phrasen en Feiten, and Cool’s Het Atjeh-vraagstuk.
Countless newspaper and journal articles, the colonial reports (Koloniale Verslagen) for 1873–1886, and the latest mail reports from the Indies covering the last half of 1886.

Purpose of the Book

Brooshooft presented his work as a compact, entertaining, and cheap popular history. He argued that Kielstra’s roughly 1,700 quarto-page work, which only ran to 1880, could not serve that purpose, while other books and pamphlets treated only short periods or fragments of the war. His title promised coverage from 1873 to 1886, but he noted that his narrative actually ran to the end of 1886, “and so into 1887.”

He explicitly refrained as far as possible from personal judgements on individuals, except where these were indispensable for a correct understanding of the history, and he asked his readers to consult the accompanying maps. He had intended to append both a list of officers killed or died of wounds and a list of all those decorated for acts of exceptional bravery (Military William Order, honorary sabre, or honourable mention), but the size agreed with the publisher forced him to omit the latter list. He promised instead to highlight brave deeds in the course of the narrative, while apologising that the difficulty of obtaining details meant many deserving men would not be named individually.

Structure

The book is organised into ten chapters plus a foreword and a concluding list of fallen officers:

De twee groote mededingers in het Oosten — the Dutch and the British in the Indies archipelago.
Oorzaken van- en aanleiding tot den oorlog — the diplomatic background, including the Treaty of London (1824), the Sumatra Tractaat of 2 November 1871, the Acehnese mission to Singapore, and the exchange of telegrams between Governor-General Loudon and Minister Fransen van de Putte.
Land en volk van Atjeh — geography, administration, religion, customs, weapons, and a highly negative character sketch of the Acehnese.
De eerste expeditie (Köhler, van Daalen) — the first expedition under Köhler and van Daalen.
Onze vestiging in Atjeh (van Swieten, Verspijck) — the second expedition, the capture of the Kraton, and the proclamation of Dutch sovereignty.
De bevestiging onzer stelling (van Swieten, Pel) — the consolidation at Kota Radja under van Swieten and Pel.
De uitbreiding onzer stelling (Pel, Wiggers van Kerchem, Diemont) — the expansion of the fortified line around Kota Radja.
De aanvallende oorlog (Van der Heyden), Juni 1877–April 1881 — the offensive campaigns of van der Heyden.
Het tijdperk van civiel bestuur (Pruys van der Hoeven, Laging Tobias), April 1881–August 1884 — the civil-governor period.
De concentratie onzer stelling. Tegenwoordige toestand — the concentration of the Dutch position under Demmeni, including the Nisero and Hoe Canton incidents, Demmeni’s death, and Brooshooft’s own political conclusions.

An appended Opgave der gedurende den Atjeh-oorlog gesneuvelde, of aan voor den vijand bekomen wonden overleden, officieren lists every officer killed in action or died of wounds from April 1873 to May 1886. A Korte Inhoud (table of contents) and a Plaatsing der kaartjes (list of six inserted maps) close the volume.

Tone and Argument

Brooshooft wrote as an unabashed partisan of the Dutch cause. His characterisation of the Acehnese was harsh: after surveying what he considered their vices — cruelty, treachery, greed, opium addiction, lack of cleanliness, lack of chivalry — he summarised them as “a specimen of the human race inspired by every inclination towards the low and base, and hardly any towards the beautiful and noble.” His chapter on the causes of the war was a sustained defence of Minister Fransen van de Putte against party-political accusations that he had rushed recklessly into war, quoting at length the February–March 1873 telegram exchange between The Hague and Batavia to show that the Minister had urged caution in demanding sovereignty and had sought to avoid unnecessary war.

His closing pages, written at the end of 1886, rejected the proposal by former Raad van Nederlandsch-Indië member S. C. H. Nederburgh to abandon the interior and withdraw to a single coastal point, arguing that this would be a “colonial suicide” incompatible with Dutch national honour. He also rejected a resumption of large-scale offensive warfare in the style of van der Heyden as financially and militarily impossible, given the exhausted state of the Indies army and treasury, and urged instead patient maintenance of the existing concentrated position, vigilance against piracy, and a wait for an Acehnese intermediary — suggesting the young Toeangkoe Mohammed Daoud (the later Sultan) as a possible candidate — while placing honour and duty above financial calculation.

Reception and Later Use

Although written as popular journalism rather than scholarship, Brooshooft’s book became a frequently cited contemporary source for the first thirteen years of the Aceh War, precisely because of its accessible narrative, its convenient folding maps, its reprinting of key documents (especially the 1873 Loudon–Fransen van de Putte telegrams, the van Swieten proclamations, and Pel’s instructions), and its full appendix of fallen officers. It preserves details of actions and personalities that later syntheses often compress.

Source

Geschiedenis van den Atjeh-oorlog 1873–1886. In populairen vorm verteld door Mr. P. Brooshooft. Utrecht: F. B. van Ditmar, 1886. Voorwoord, pp. 3–4 of the work (pp. 9–10 of the OCR), and the table of contents (pp. 311–315 of the OCR).

tags	person, author, historian, dutch, colonial, 19th-century, aceh-war
aliases	Mr. P. Brooshooft, Brooshooft

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