Pedir (also spelled Pidië) was a landscape in the northern part of Atjeh that played a critical strategic role during the final phase of the Aceh War. Since the Dutch navy and troops controlled the coast of Groot-Atjeh, Pedir became the primary route by which Panglima Polim—the resistance leader of the XXII Moekims—maintained contact with the sea. Its subjugation was the first objective of the Pidië Expedition in 1898.
Strategic importance
Before the 1898 campaign, Pedir served as the lifeline for the resistance in the interior. Since Dutch forces controlled the coast of Groot-Atjeh, Polim could only communicate with the outside world by traversing the mountains from the XXII Moekims through Pedir to the north coast. Cutting off this route was therefore essential to isolating the resistance.
The instructions given to Van Heutsz in March 1898 explicitly stated that the expedition should begin at Segli in Pedir and advance over the mountains toward Polim’s territory. Once Pedir was secured, Polim’s access to the sea would be severed, and the Dutch supply and reinforcement route would replace his.
The expedition and its results
The Pidië Expedition began on 1 June 1898 at Segli. Van Heutsz, supported by Dr. Snouck Hurgronje, secured Pedir and then advanced into the VII Moekims—the mountain district between Pedir and the XXII Moekims. There Polim had positioned his bands, but they were gradually driven out through sustained military pressure.
The capture of Keumala on 14 June 1898—only two weeks after the campaign began—demonstrated the effectiveness of the new approach. Following the capture, Pedir remained under Dutch control, and the coastal blockade was completed. The resistance leader, deprived of his sea connection and pursued relentlessly, was eventually forced into the highlands of Samalanga and beyond.
Account from H. F. Meijer (1883) — the Dutch establishment of 1876
Meijer’s Chapter VIII gives the fullest Dutch account of the first Pidir establishment. The realm bordered on the west on the XXII Moekims of Groot-Atjeh, 65 to 70 kilometres from Kroeëng Raja by the much-used road along the beach, while the little-used road through the interior would take three and a half to four days. Meijer explains the state’s place in the war economy: together with Gigiëng — with whose rivers Pidir shares one mouth — it had become the natural supply place of the whole war party of Groot-Atjeh when the blockade closed Olehleh and Kroeëng Raja. The prince Toengkoe Radja Pakik confirmed his submission on the Koran at the end of February 1876 and ceded a terrain free of charge for the Dutch establishment; a commission chose the point near the beach on the creek by which sloops could reach the river mouth at high tide, 1,800 metres from the royal residence; and the landing of 31 May – 4 June 1876 landed the detachment of Captain J. R. Engelhard there, a first garrison of 244 men with 2 mountain guns, 4,000 sandbags and 35,000 randjoes, which built the fortification by the end of June amid the daily pressure of hundreds of openly hostile armed Atjehers. Until the coming of Assistant-Resident De Scheemaker political affairs remained with the station commander Captain-Lieutenant Meijn.
In the same chapter Meijer records how an embassy from the prince, on 5 August, came to Kota Radja to signal the royal good disposition and was shown all the Dutch establishment. The post was, for all its long usefulness — as he writes at the close of his account — moved nevertheless in 1877 to Segli.
See Also
- Pidië Expedition
- Segli
- Panglima Polim
- VII Moekims
- Groot-Atjeh
- Keumala
- Joannes Benedictus van Heutsz
- Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje
Source
Somer, Dr. J. M. Het Atjeh-probleem van 1890-1900 (Overprint uit Journal / Organ van de Netherlands-Indies Officers Association, [1935], pp. 7, 10-11); Het einde van den Atjeh Oorlog (Overprintken uit de Evening Post van 25, 26 en 27 Augustus 1903, pp. 13-16); Damste, H. T. “Atjeh-historie,” Koloniaal Tijdschrift 1916.