Kroëng Raja

Properties2
tagsplace, kampong, coast-state, acehnese, aceh-war, river, atjeh, westkust, coal, north-coast, 19th-century, village, aceh-proper, coastal, boundary, boundary-point, great-acheh, region, afsluitingslinie, bay, port, trade, groot-atjeh, medicine, public-health, 1937
aliasesKrueng Raja, Kroeng Radja, Kuala Raja, Kroëng Rajah, Kr. Raja, Krueng Raja (West Atjeh), Sungai Raja, Kroeng Raja, Kroeng-Raja, Krung Raja, Krueng Raya, Kreuëng Raya, Kruëng Raya, Krucng Raya, Kroeng Raya, K. Raya, the bay of Kroeng Raja, baai van Kroeng Raja, Kroeëng-Raja

15 min read

The Five Kwala’s

In his note of 30 April 30 April 1875 to the Governor-General, General Pel set out his plan for the consolidation of the Dutch position. As part of his plan, he proposed to occupy the coast-stretch from Kroëng Raja to Kroëng Raba and the VI Moekims: “By the occupation of that coast-stretch, in particular of the five access-points to the sea, the kwala’s Loë, Gighen, Atjeh, Tjangkoel and Pantjoer, Atjeh-proper is wholly cut off from the sea and thus, from a commercial point of view, dependent on us.”

The Operation of 25 January 1877

In January 1877 the troops resumed operations for the completion of Pel’s program. On 25 January 25 January [1877] the operations began under the commander-in-chief’s personal direction with a simultaneous landing at Kwala Loë and Kroëng Raja. “The latter place was not deemed suitable for a settlement, whereupon the troops returned along the beach to Ladoeng and thence over the mountains to Lambaroe Angan to join the other column, which had landed at Kwala Loë under Colonel Van der Heyden. After the junction, the strong Lamnga was occupied, abandoned by the enemy. Notwithstanding strong resistance, on 30 January 30 January [1877] the missigit Lambada too was stormed, from which our troops had been repulsed in October. With this the objective was in essence attained, and although no post was set up at Kroëng Raja, the occupation of the coast from Kwala Gighen to Kwala Loë had in fact cut the enemy off from the sea. In future he had to follow the difficult paths of the mountains for the import of food and war-material.”

Account from The Geology of Indonesia (1949) — Krueng Raja

The 1922 Zwierzycki observation

Zwierzycki’s 1922 entry for the Krueng Raja locality, as reproduced by Van Bemmelen, records “5 seams of brown coal of 2–9 ft; direction NW-SE; dip West”. This is one of the more substantial West-Atjeh coal occurrences: the five seams, ranging from 2 to 9 ft in thickness, indicate a coal-bearing sequence of significant aggregate thickness, and the recorded NW-SE strike with westerly dip provides the structural information needed for any subsequent exploration. The Krueng Raja locality is assigned to the Neogene series of Atjeh coals (the younger of the two coal-bearing series in the residency), which is consistent with its position in the West-Atjeh coastal stratigraphy: the Neogene sediments are exposed in the coastal embayments and along the lower reaches of the West-Atjeh rivers, downstream of the Paleogene outcrops.

Place in the Atjeh coal record

The Krueng Raja locality is one of the four West-Atjeh Neogene-coal localities in Zwierzycki’s consolidated inventory, alongside the Krueng Antjong (No. 17), East of Peureu Moue (No. 18) and Near Simpane Peust (No. 19). These four Neogene localities are distinguished from the three Paleogene localities (the Krueng Kluet No. 13, South of Tapatuan No. 14, and NW-Krueng Teunom No. 15) by their younger geological age and by their occurrence in the coastal embayments rather than along the inland margin. The Krueng Raja locality is the northernmost of the four Neogene localities, and it accordingly marks the approximate northern limit of the West-Atjeh Neogene coal zone as recorded in the colonial geological literature.

Significance

The Krueng Raja locality is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history because it is one of the more substantial West-Atjeh coal occurrences recorded in the colonial geological literature — the five seams of 2–9 ft brown coal represent a coal-bearing sequence of significant aggregate thickness, and the recorded structural information (NW-SE strike, westerly dip) provides the basis for any subsequent exploration. The locality is also the northernmost of the four West-Atjeh Neogene-coal localities, and it accordingly marks the approximate northern limit of the West-Atjeh Neogene coal zone as recorded in the colonial geological literature. The fact that the Krueng Raja brown coals, like the other West-Atjeh coal occurrences, were never mined on any significant scale is itself historically significant: it is the documentary evidence that the West-Atjeh coal occurrences, though locally substantial, were insufficient to support a colonial coal industry.

Account from De onderwerping van Atjeh (Van Heutsz, 1893)

In Van Heutsz’s 1893 tract De onderwerping van Atjeh, Kroeng Raja — the coastal village at the north-east of Groot-Atjeh — is the northern anchor of Generaal Pel’s 1875 coastal-line plan, the route-node of the principal landward path from Pedir into the interior, and (before the 1888–1890 closure) the export-harbour of the peper the XXII Moekims produced.

Kroeng Raja as the northern anchor of Pel’s 1875 coastal line

The first Dutch policy that named Kroeng Raja as an operational anchor was Generaal Pel’s plan of 30 April 1875, submitted by letter to the Gouverneur-Generaal Van Lansberge and reproduced by Van Heutsz in the 1893 tract. The plan prescribed the occupation of de kuststrook van de vallei van Groot-Atjeh begrepen tusschen Kroeng Raja en Kroeng Raba en van de VI Moekims — the coastal strip of the valley of Groot-Atjeh bounded between Kroeng Raja and Kroeng Raba, together with the VI Moekims. Van Heutsz quotes the plan on page 9 of the 1893 tract:

“Het plan toch dat ook, wat Groot-Atjeh betreft, uitgevoerd is, kwam neer op het bezetten van de kuststrook van de vallei van Groot-Atjeh begrepen tusschen Kroeng Raja en Kroeng Raba en van de VI Moekims. ‘Door het bezetten van die kuststreek’ zeide de Generaal o. a. ‘inzonderheid van de vijf toegangen naar zee de kwala’s Loé, Gighen, Atjeh, Tjangkoel en Pantjoer wordt Atjeh proper geheel van zee afgescheiden en dus uit een handelsoogpunt handelslijk van ons’” (The plan, which was also carried out as far as Groot-Atjeh was concerned, came down to occupying the coastal strip of the valley of Groot-Atjeh bounded between Kroeng Raja and Kroeng Raba, and the VI Moekims. “By occupying that coastal region,” said the Generaal among other things, “in particular the five sea-approaches, the kwala’s Loé, Gighen, Atjeh, Tjangkoel and Pantjoer, Atjeh proper is wholly cut off from the sea and thus commercially placed in our hands.”).

The Kroeng Raja anchor was, in Pel’s plan, the northern limit of the coastal occupation that was to seal Groot-Atjeh from the sea. The plan named five kwala’s — river-mouths — to be occupied: Loé, Gighen, Atjeh, Tjangkoel and Pantjoer. The Kroeng Raja anchor marked the north-eastern end of the occupation, and the Kroeng Raba anchor the south-western. The Kroeng Raja–Kroeng Raba line was, in this prescription, the operational form of Pel’s strategic argument: that the seal of Groot-Atjeh from the sea would reduce the interior to eene verzameling van binnenlandsche negorijen (a collection of inland villages) and so produce the onderwerping (submission) the war was fought to obtain.

The February 1877 excursion and the post-1875 question

The Kroeng Raja anchor was occupied in February 1877 by the excursie naar Koeala Loé en Kroeng Raja — the excursion to Koeala Loé and Kroeng Raja — that completed the Pel plan under Generaal Diemont (the same excursion described in the section above). Van Heutsz records the completion on page 12 of the 1893 tract:

“De vraag in den brief van Generaal Pel gesteld, wat in ons politiek en handelsbelang verder moest geschieden als Groot-Atjeh van de zee zou zijn afgesloten en wij enkele goed gekozen punten in de Onderhoorigheden zouden bezet hebben, was einde 1876 nog niet beantwoord en ook nog niet in Februari 1877 toen, na de gelukkige beeindiging van de excursie naar Koeala Loé en Kroeng Raja, de laatste hand aan Pel’s plan was gelegd” (The question posed in Generaal Pel’s letter, what should further be done in our political and commercial interest once Groot-Atjeh had been cut off from the sea and we had occupied a few well-chosen points in the Onderhoorigheden, was not yet answered at the end of 1876, and also not yet in February 1877 when, after the happy completion of the excursion to Koeala Loé and Kroeng Raja, the last hand was laid on Pel’s plan).

The February 1877 excursion was the operational completion of the Pel plan — the laatste hand (last hand) that fixed Kroeng Raja as the northernmost Dutch post on the Groot-Atjeh coast. The completion placed, in Van Heutsz’s diagnosis, the strategic question of the war — hoe moet men nu verder tot de volkomen onderwerping geraken (how is one now further to reach the complete subjugation) — at the centre of the policy, because the seal of Groot-Atjeh from the sea had been achieved without producing the onderwerping the seal was designed to produce. The reason, in Van Heutsz’s diagnosis, was that the seal was incomplete: Pedir — which had recognised Dutch sovereignty — was left open, and the interior continued to draw its rice-supply through the Noordkust statelet. The Kroeng Raja–Kroeng Raba line was thus, in Van Heutsz’s diagnosis, the operational form whose incompleteness exposed the strategic error of the Pel plan — the substitution of a coastal occupation for the blokkade the entire rijk required.

The post-1877 policy question — hoe moet men nu verder tot de volkomen onderwerping geraken — was, in Van Heutsz’s narrative, the question Resident Scherer would answer from the Noordkust in 1879–1880 with the scheepvaartregeling — the controlled routing of all Atjehnese maritime trade through Dutch-administered ports — that would convert the Kroeng Raja–Kroeng Raba line’s incomplete seal into the complete scheepvaartregeling-cum-closure the 1893 tract would prescribe.

Kroeng Raja as a route-node

Kroeng Raja was, in Van Heutsz’s later diagnosis of the routes from the Noordkust into Groot-Atjeh, a route-node of the principal landward path from Pedir to the interior. Van Heutsz records the route on page 84 of the 1893 tract: De beste en meest gebruikte weg van Pedir naar Groot-Atjeh loopt echter langs de Noordkust en kan men deze naar verkiezing volgen tot in Groot-Atjeh, dan wel tot Lampanas of Kroeng Raja en van een dezer plaatsen Zuidwaarts via Lambada naar Selimoen enz (The best and most-used road from Pedir to Groot-Atjeh, however, runs along the Noordkust, and one can follow this at choice into Groot-Atjeh, or else to Lampanas or Kroeng Raja, and from one of these places southward via Lambada to Selimoen etc.). The Kroeng Raja node was thus the northernmost point on the principal landward route from Pedir through the XXII and XXVI to the interior — the route whose closure, in Van Heutsz’s diagnosis, was the operational prerequisite of the seal of Groot-Atjeh from the Noordkust.

Kroeng Raja and the peper-export of the XXII Moekims

Kroeng Raja was, before the Dutch closure of the XXII Moekims under Generaal van Teijn in 1888–1890, the export-harbour of the peper the XXII Moekims produced. Van Heutsz records the export on page 94 of the 1893 tract, in the prescription for the scheepvaartregeling on the Groot-Atjeh coast: de peper, die Groot-Atjeh oplevert, ook van die van Loong en een deel der Zuidelijke nederzettingen, zoomede van die, welke de XXII Moekims, vóór de sluiting, langs Kroeng Raja uitvoerden (the pepper that Groot-Atjeh produces, also that of Loong and a part of the Southern settlements, as well as that which the XXII Moekims, before the closure, exported via Kroeng Raja). The Kroeng Raja export was, in Van Heutsz’s diagnosis, the fiscal stake that gave the closure-and-scheepvaartregeling system its leverage over the hoofden (chiefs) of the XXII Moekims — the hoofden whose peper-revenues had flowed through Kroeng Raja before the closure.

Significance (Van Heutsz account)

Kroeng Raja’s significance in Van Heutsz’s 1893 tract rests on its being the northern hinge of the Pel plan and the operational anchor whose occupation opened the policy question — hoe moet men nu verder tot de volkomen onderwerping geraken — the next two decades would fail to answer; the route-node of the principal landward path from Pedir through the XXII and XXVI to the interior; and the export-harbour of the peper the XXII Moekims produced before the 1888–1890 closure.

Account in Hooijer’s De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh (1897)

Kroeng Raja was a bay on the coast of Groot-Atjeh through which Toekoe Moeda Soleiman, guardian of the young Panglima Polim, was permitted by the Netherlands to ship his pepper — a commercial concession granted in the hope of securing his continued political support, which G. B. Hooijer recorded as having failed.

The pepper concession

Hooijer wrote that the erection of the post at Lam Soet had indeed secured the safety of the road from Lambaroe near Anagaloeng, but that this had put no end to the enemy’s activity: de hoop, dat Toekoe Moeda Soleiman, de voogd van den jongen Panglima Polim, Sagihoofd der XXII Moekims, ons steun zou blijven verleenen, na hem de gelegenheid gegeven was, zijn peper uit de baai van Kroeng Raja te verschepen, bleek ijdel — the hope that Toekoe Moeda Soleiman would continue to lend the Dutch support, after he had been given the opportunity to ship his pepper out of the bay of Kroeng Raja, proved vain.

At the same time the population of the southern part of the XXVI Moekims took flight, Toekoe Moesa Anaq Batee attacked the passer-goers between Lambarih and Anagaloeng, and the Dutch post on Boekit Daroe was continuously shelled.

Significance

The episode is a compact instance of the Dutch use of trade privileges as an instrument of political attachment in Atjeh, parallel to the earlier closure of the West Coast to import and export, which had driven Teukoe Oemar to seek Dutch favour for want of money.

In the eye survey of Groot-Atjeh (1937)

Kroeëng-Raja was one of the places of examination in Dr. C. E. Gomperts’s eye survey of 1937, and appears in the second of the two photographs printed with the report, captioned “Oogheelkundig onderzoek te Kroeëng-Raja.”

It was named among the districts of Groot-Atjeh where Western influence had penetrated further and traffic was busier — with Oeloe-Lheuë, Seulimeum, Sibreh, Indrapoeri and Lho-Nga — which gave Gomperts a measure for the frequency of venereal infection, and hence for its small share among the causes of blindness; and among the districts where, on the theory that conjunctivitis follicularis was a mild trachoma spread by racial admixture, the condition should have been concentrated.

See Also

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

Place between K.M. 22-23 on the Noordkust with old fortress walls at the beach, popularly called ‘Portugeesche vestingen’ (Portuguese fortifications). Walls with schietgaten (loopholes) largely intact; 4 covered water wells with dome roofs inside one enclosure. Whether history or legend is uncertain.

Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 57.

Sources

The Achehnese, Vol. II, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.

The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906. Chapter I, § 1, p. 1. Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 323–325, 336–344.

De geschiedenis van Nederland in onzen tijd, by J. A. de Bruyne, Directeur der Hoogere Burgerschool te Zierikzee. Deel IV. 1872-1883. Nieuwe uitgave. Schiedam: J. F. Dupont, 1912, Hoofdstuk I, pp. 70-71, 83-84.

The Geology of Indonesia, by R. W. van Bemmelen, Vol. II: Economic Geology (The Hague: Government Printing Office; Martinus Nijhoff, 1949), p. 49 (Table 13, coal localities of Sumatra, No. 16).

De onderwerping van Atjeh, door J. B. van Heutsz, Majoor der Infanterie, gewezen Chef van den Staf in Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden. ‘s-Gravenhage: De Gebroeders van Cleef; Batavia: G. Kolff en Co., 1893, esp. pp. 9, 12, 84, 94. OCR-filename: 20260718_105749_DLP-107-De_onderwerping_van_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.

De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh, door G. B. Hooijer, Gep. Luit.-Kolonel O. I. Leger, met 24 platen (Haarlem: De Erven F. Bohn; Batavia: G. Kolff & Co., 1897). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Centrale Boekerij, Amsterdam. OCR-filename: 20260719_140140_DLP-134-De_verlaten_posten_in_Groot_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 49-50.

Acknowledgement of sources. This article is a single consolidated account combining the material previously held in this entry with the account given in De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh (1897) by G. B. Hooijer. Dutch terminology has been rendered in English, the original Dutch being retained only in direct quotations and in bibliographic citations.

Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 57.

Oriënteerend oogheelkundig onderzoek bij de Atjehsche bevolking van Groot-Atjeh gedurende 1937 (“Orienting Ophthalmological Survey among the Atjehnese Population of Groot-Atjeh during 1937”), by Dr. C. E. Gomperts, offprint from the Geneeskundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indië, Afl. 19, Deel 80 (1940), pp. 1191-1238 (Batavia-Centrum: G. Kolff & Co.). Received by the editors 25 October 1939. Offprint DLP-157, Bibliotheek KITLV.

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