The Hague (Dutch: ‘s-Gravenhage or Den Haag) is the seat of government of the Netherlands and the place of publication of several of the Dutch colonial-period works cited by Snouck Hurgronje in The Achehnese Vol. I. As the residence of the colonial ministry and the home of the Koninklijk Instituut voor de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië (Royal Institute for the Linguistics, Geography and Ethnology of the Netherlands Indies), The Hague was the metropolitan centre from which the scholarly study of Acheh was largely conducted.
Cited Works Published at The Hague
Snouck Hurgronje’s most explicit reference to The Hague in Vol. I comes in a footnote to the Introduction, in which he refers his readers to a recent essay by P. H. van der Kemp on the 1819 treaty concluded by Raffles with “Johor Allum” as king of Acheh. “Essay of P. H. van der Kemp in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indië, vol. LI, pp. 159–240 (the Hague, 1900).” The volume of the Bijdragen in which Van der Kemp’s article appeared was published at The Hague in 1900, and from its pages Snouck quotes long extracts from the archives of the India Office in London.
The same journal of the Royal Institute, published at The Hague, is cited again in connection with G. K. Niemann’s “Bijdrage tot de kennis der verhouding van het Tjam tot de talen van Indonesië” (Bijdragen for 1891, “at the Hague, p. 27 et seq.”), as well as its Bibliographische Bijdragen. Other writings of G. A. Wilken, including the treatise on Struma en Cretinisme in den Indischen Archipel (Bijdragen for 1890), are likewise cited by Snouck as publications of the Hague-based Institute.
The Hague and Colonial Scholarship
Throughout Vol. I, The Hague thus functions as the metropolitan counterpart of Leyden (where the book itself was published by E. J. Brill) and of Batavia in the colony. The Royal Institute at The Hague was the chief organ through which the work of Dutch colonial administrators in the [[Netherlands India|Netherlands Indies] — including Snouck Hurgronje himself, who served as Adviser for Native and Arab Affairs at Kuta Raja — was communicated to the European scholarly public.
Significance
The Hague’s appearance in Vol. I is confined to footnotes and bibliographical references, but those references form the backbone of Snouck’s documentation. Without the journals and monographs published at The Hague, the comparative apparatus of The Achehnese could not have been constructed.
Account from Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819 — The Hague
The Hague (Dutch: Den Haag; formally ‘s Gravenhage) is the seat of government of the Netherlands and, in Van der Kemp’s monograph, the metropolitan pole from which Dutch colonial policy in the East Indian Archipelago was ultimately directed. Although the day-to-day conduct of colonial administration rested with the Governor-General and Council of the Indies at Batavia, and the immediate negotiations over the Acheh reservation took place in London, final authority — including the King’s authorisation of treaties — flowed from The Hague.
Van der Kemp’s first explicit mention of The Hague is the remarkable letter of J. C. Baud to the Minister of Colonies Falck, dated ‘s Gravenhage, 28 November 1822, in which Baud urged a vigorous Dutch colonisation of the Archipelago as a counterweight against possible foreign — particularly North American — encroachment (Van der Kemp, 1900, p. 199). The letter is one of the few documents Van der Kemp cites as anticipating the later American preoccupation with the Philippines, and it situates The Hague as a centre of strategic foresight, not merely of formal ratification.
In February 1824 The Hague was thrown into confusion by the unexpected arrival of Captain Elout — son of the Minister of Finance G. A. G. P. van der Capellen’s former colleague — bearing the draft Anglo-Dutch convention together with a verbal request that the King authorise insertion of an Acheh clause. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs was at that moment “without a leading head”; it was being looked after only provisionally by the diplomat Ridder Reinhold, who explicitly disclaimed competence on colonial matters. The Department of Colonies was likewise headless, because Falck — its proper chief — was in London serving as one of the plenipotentiaries. For this reason all the London papers were referred for advice to Minister Elout of Finance, even though colonial affairs were not strictly within his portfolio (pp. 196–197).
The King’s authorisation, drafted by Reinhold and signed by the sovereign on 13 February 1824 (the King’s Authorization of 13 February 1824), was issued at The Hague and sent back to London in the hands of Captain Elout. It directed the plenipotentiaries to sign the treaty, even if the British raised objections to dropping the existing Acheh treaty, provided the latter could be represented as concerning only hospitality to shipwrecked sailors. The Hague thus became the place where the fatal reservation was authorised — a reservation that would lie dormant for half a century before being revived against Dutch interests in the Sumatra Treaty of 1871 negotiations.
See Also
- Holland (Netherlands)
- Netherlands India
- Leyden
- P. H. van der Kemp
- G. K. Niemann
- G. A. Wilken
- Batavia
- Kuta Raja
- London
- Netherlands
- Falck
- Captain Elout
- Ridder Reinhold
- J. C. Baud
- King’s Authorization of 13 February 1824
- Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London 1824
Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu
Seat of the Dutch government; with Buitenzorg, confirmed that Aceh was ready for civil administration in 1918.
Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 406.
Source
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.
Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159–239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.
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. 406.