Pieter Coopman was the Compagnie’s schipper-commander who, with a squadron of six ships dispatched from Batavia on 6 June 1670, suppressed the Kotta Tengah–Paoeh revolt on the West Coast of Sumatra and restored the authority of commandeur Jacob Jorisse Pits. In Dr. F. W. Stapel’s Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland he is the naval commander who re-imposed the Compagnie’s Westkust authority in the immediate aftermath of the 1666 consolidation.
The 1670 revolt
The Painansch Contract system, though extended to Baros in 1668 and to Singkel in 1672, was repeatedly disturbed by Atjehsche intrigue and by internal dissension among the Westkust chiefs themselves. On 3 April 1670 the Hooge Regeering at Batavia received word “that those of Kotta-tengah and Paoeh, aroused by the escaped rebels from Paoeh, on the rumours of the coming of an Atjehsche army, had risen” (dat die van Kotta-tengah en Paoeh, opgeruid door de gevluchte rebellen uit Paoeh, op de geruchten der komst van een Atjehsche krijgsmacht in verzet waren gekomen). At the same time Baros had “denied the Compagnie the trade in their land and had received Atjehsche envoys with great honour” (die van Baros de Compagnie den handel in hun land hadden ontzegd en Atjehsche gezanten met groot eerbetoon ingehaald).
The 6 June 1670 expedition
“On 6 June there departed from Batavia six ships thither, under the schipper-commander Pieter Coopman” (Den 6den Juni vertrokken uit Batavia een zestal schepen derwaarts, onder den schippe-commander Pieter Coopman). The squadron of six ships was a substantial naval force for the Westkust, and its dispatch signals the seriousness with which Batavia took the simultaneous rising at Kotta Tengah, Paoeh and Baros.
The campaign
Coopman’s campaign was decisive. “He took and destroyed the fortifications at Kotta-tengah and Paoeh, and drove the rebels apart” (Hij nam en vernietigde de versterkingen te Kotta-tengah en Paoeh, en sloeg de opstandelingen uiteen). The destruction of the fortifications — versterkingen — at both places is the operational key: the Compagnie’s enemies on the Westkust had been fortifying villages, and Coopman’s mission was to render those fortifications unusable.
The success “had a favourable influence, also because it took away the unrest among the loyal inhabitants of the West Coast” (Dit krachtig optreden had een gunstigen invloed, ook doordat het de onrust onder de loyale bewoners der Westkust wegnam).
The aftermath: Baros
The Baros rising was treated separately. “Those of Baros swore on 1 October 1670 the old contracts anew” (Die van Baros bezwoeren den 1sten October 1670 de oude contracten opnieuw). The rulers of Bajang and Indrapoera “gave a new act of cession of the lands of Salido, and Poeloe Tjingkoek, which the government had asked for, because the original piece had been lost at Batavia” (De vorsten van Bajang en Indrapoera gaven een nieuwe acte van overdracht der landen van Salido, en Poeloe Tjingkoek, waarom de regeering gevraagd had, daar het oorspronkelijke stuk te Batavia was zoekgeraakt). The loss of the original cession document at Batavia is a small but vivid reminder of the administrative fragility of the Compagnie’s Westkust paper authority.
The Padang tolls
In August 1671 — Coopman’s expedition having restored the Compagnie’s position — the panglima-radja and regents of Padang “declared ‘from their own motion and particular inclination’ to transfer to the Compagnie the tolls and import and export rights, which there trading Chinese, Javanese and Malays had formerly had to pay to Atjeh” (de panglima-radja en regenten te Padang verklaarden Augustus 1671 ‘uyt eygen beweging ende besondere inclinatie’ aan de Compagnie over te dragen de tollen en in- en uitvoerrechten, welke daar handelende Chineezen, Javanen en Maleiers vroeger aan Atjeh hadden moeten betalen). The substitution of the Compagnie for Atjeh as the recipient of the Westkust tolls is the practical end of Atjeh’s commercial sovereignty on the Westkust, and it is the direct political fruit of Coopman’s campaign.
Significance
Coopman’s expedition of 1670 is the operational defence of the Painansch Contract system at its moment of greatest strain. The simultaneous rising at Kotta Tengah, Paoeh and Baros was the most serious Westkust challenge to the Compagnie since the Paoeh disaster of 1666, and Coopman’s six-ship squadron was the appropriate response. The Padang toll transfer of August 1671 is the constitutional ratification of his success.
See Also
- Jacob Jorisse Pits
- Painansch Contract
- Paoeh
- Kotta Tengah
- Baros
- Padang
- Bajang
- Indrapoera
- Salido
- Poeloe Tjingkoek
- Westkust van Sumatra
- Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie
- 3 April
- 6 June
- 1 October
- 1670
- 1671
Source
De Koloniën, by Dr. F. W. Stapel, in Geschiedkundige Atlas van Nederland (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1931), kaart 19, blz. 18 (tekst bij blad 4: Atjeh en de Westkust van Sumatra in 1684).