The Sultan of Atjeh (d. 1874) — the jeugdige sultan whom Borel elsewhere names Alauddin Mahmud Syah II — was the young sovereign of the sultanate of Atjeh whose death in early February 1874 removed the only authority capable of negotiating a peace, enabled the Dutch annexation proclamation of the same month, and so transformed the war from a conflict with a sovereign state into a counter-insurgency against a headless federation of sagi and mukim chiefs.
The Death and the Annexation
The young sultan died in early February 1874, in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Kraton of 24 January 1874. His death was, in Borel’s reading, the political precondition of the Dutch annexation. “Er bestond nu geen gevestigd bestuur meer” — there was now no longer any established government with which to treat. The Dutch government refused to allow a new sultan. By proclamation, the Indische regeering announced that it would assume the opperbestuur over Atjeh. The decision was taken by telegraph in the first days of February between van Swieten and the minister van Koloniën; simultaneously a blijvende vestiging was decided. “Of men al dadelijk eene volkomen annexatie op het oog had, moet betwijfeld worden,” Borel cautions; but the political effect was annexation nonetheless.
Significance for the Conduct of the War
The sultan’s death had two consequences for the conduct of the war. First, it removed the only negotiating partner with sufficient gezag to bind the sagi and mukim chiefs. The Atjehneesche hoofden — Toekoe Nek of Marassa, Toekoe Nanta of the VI Moekims, Toekoe Bait of the XXII Moekims, Panglima Polim and the Imam of Longbatta of Longbatta — could now make peace or war in their own names, and none could speak for the whole. Second, it committed the Dutch to a blijvende vestiging in the interior, since there was now no sovereign to whom the Kraton could be returned and no regime to which a protectorate could be entrusted. Borel treats the death as the moment at which the Atjeh-oorlog ceased to be a war against a sovereign state and became the long counter-insurgency that would consume the Indische leger for the next thirty years. The sultan’s youth — he was, Borel records, jeugdig — and the absence of any rijksgroot with the gezag to succeed him, together fixed the political shape of the war.
See Also
- Death of the Sultan of Atjeh and annexation proclamation (1874)
- Annexation proclamation of Atjeh (1874)
- Fall of the Kraton (24 January 1874)
- Kraton of Atjeh
- Kraton (institution)
- Jan van Swieten
- Toekoe Nek
- Toekoe Nanta
- Sagi
- Mukim
- 1874
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 38, 48, 58.