Pakoe Alam was a Javanese auxiliary prince (pangeran) whose hulptroepen — auxiliary troops raised in the principalities of central Java — were sent to Atjeh as part of the second Dutch expedition and, together with those of Mangkoe Negoro, were returned to Java in February 1874 as part of generaal van Swieten’s afwachtende houding force reduction.
The Auxiliaries in Atjeh
The Javanese hulptroepen of Pakoe Alam and Mangkoe Negoro arrived in Atjeh in the early weeks of the second expedition as part of the auxiliary force attached to the Dutch bezettingskorps. The Barissans van Madura — inlandsche hulptroepen from Madura — had arrived separately on 29 January 1874 and would remain in Atjeh through the great offensive of December 1875 – February 1876 (one bataljon arrived as reinforcement on 10 December 1875). The Javanese auxiliaries of Pakoe Alam and Mangkoe Negoro, by contrast, were sent back to Java in February 1874, together with a veld-batterij, as part of van Swieten’s reduction of the Dutch force after the fall of the Kraton of 24 January 1874 and the death of the sultan and annexation proclamation of early February. The reduction was part of the broader afwachtende houding — “geen vechten meer met den vijand, maar werken met schop en spade.”
The Return to Java and Its Consequences
The return of the Javanese auxiliaries to Java in February 1874 was, in Borel’s narrative, part of the systematic run-down of the Dutch striking force that began with the return of the vesting-artillerie and the achterlaadkanonnen and culminated in the departure of van Swieten with the hoofdmacht on 26 April 1874. The result was the crisis of May–June 1874, when the bezettingskorps was reduced to a state in which some companies could field fewer than thirty men of an original 125, and the Atjehneezen crept to within 300–400 pas of the parapet. The auxiliaries of Pakoe Alam and Mangkoe Negoro were, in Borel’s reading, the first reduction; the hoofdmacht was the second. The contrast with the Barissans van Madura — retained, reinforced, and used in the great offensive — is sharp.
See Also
- Mangkoe Negoro
- Bataljon Barissans van Madura
- Jan van Swieten
- the return of the vesting-artillerie and achterlaadkanonnen to Java
- Departure of Jan van Swieten from Atjeh (April 1874)
- Crisis at Kota Radja (May–June 1874)
- Afwachtende houding
- Second Aceh Expedition (1873–1874)
- 1874
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. p. 58.