Soezkanaal — the Suez Canal, opened in 1869 — is the maritime infrastructure whose completion transformed the strategic and economic value of Straat Malakka as the shipping lane between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. The canal’s opening is, in the Vermeulen narrative, the proximate cause of the Sumatra-tractaat ([[1871)|Sumatra-tractaat]] of 1871 and therefore of the Dutch declaration of war on Atjeh of 1873.
The changed constellation
The Dutch government’s argument for the Sumatra-tractaat ([[1871)|Sumatra-tractaat]] of 1871 — and, two years later, for the declaration of war on Atjeh — was that the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 had changed the political-economic constellation of the Indo-European sea-lanes. Vermeulen records: “Juist hierdoor was de economische en militaire betekenis van Straat Malakka als verbindingsweg tussen Indische Oceaan en Chinese Zee aanzienlijk gestegen en de regering had dan ook welbewust om deze reden het Sumatra-tractaat met Engeland gesloten” — Just through this, the economic and military significance of the Strait of Malacca as a connecting route between the Indian Ocean and the Chinese Sea had considerably increased, and the government had therefore consciously, for this reason, concluded the Sumatra-tractaat with England.
Significance for Atjeh
The Suez Canal is the indirect cause of the Atjeh-oorlog ([[1873-1904)|Atjeh-oorlog]]. By transforming Straat Malakka into a major artery of world trade, the canal made the Atjeh sultanate — which commands the northern entrance to the strait — strategically valuable to the Netherlands in a way it had not been before. The diplomatic and military sequence — Sumatra-tractaat ([[1871)|Sumatra-tractaat]] of 1871, declaration of war of 1873 — is the immediate political consequence of the canal’s opening.
See Also
- Straat Malakka
- Sumatra-tractaat (1871)
- Declaration of war against the Sultan of Atjeh (1873)
- Atjeh-oorlog (1873-1904)
- Acheh
- 1869
- 1871
- 1873
Source
Schets eener parlementaire geschiedenis van Nederland van 1849 tot 1901, by Mr W. J. van Welderen baron Rengers, 4th rev. ed., Vol. IV: Oost-Indië 1891-1918 by Dr W. H. Vermeulen (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1955), p. 269.