The year 1587 was the year of the peace treaty between Atjeh and the Portuguese at Malaka, by which the wingewest of Aru was transferred from Atjeh to Djohor and a generation of relative peace opened in the western Malay-Indonesian archipelago. The treaty defined the strategic framework of the Atjeh-Djohor rivalry that would frame Van der Woude’s chapter “Atjeh. Djohor. Malaka.” in his Van der Woude (1948) and was the proximate cause of the sultan of Atjeh’s subsequent pursuit of European alliances against Djohor.
The Atjeh-Portuguese peace
The 1587 peace between Atjeh and the Portuguese concluded a generation of Achehnese attacks on Malaka — the great Achehnese siege of 1-17 February 1575 had nearly succeeded, and the Portuguese had survived only by what they considered a miracle. The peace transferred the wingewest of Aru — the north-east Sumatran coast, in the region of modern Deli — from Atjeh to Djohor. Van der Woude notes that “de vijandschap tusschen Atjeh, een van de machtigste Staten op Sumatra, en Djohor, dat bij den vrede tusschen de Portugeezen en Atjeh in 1587 het wingewest Aru had ontvangen, was niet geluwd”. The sultan of Atjeh, in 1598, sent envoys to Goa asking Portuguese help against Djohor; the Portuguese received the envoys with honours at Malaka in May 1599 and at Goa, but the help was not forthcoming.
The strategic framework
The 1587 treaty defined the strategic framework of the Atjeh-Djohor rivalry that would frame the early Dutch-Indies period. The sultan of Atjeh’s hostility to Djohor — and his parallel hostility to the Portuguese — defined his European policy: he played the Dutch, English, French and Portuguese against each other, seeking to recover Aru and to dominate the pepper trade of the Strait of Malaka. The Houtman brothers’ visit of 1599 — the event that opens Van der Woude’s Atjeh chapter — was the first Dutch intrusion into this strategic framework, and the sultan’s reception of the Dutch, English and French in the years 1599-1602 was the working-out of his post-1587 European policy.
Significance
The year 1587 is, in Van der Woude’s narrative, the year of the Atjeh-Portuguese peace that defined the strategic framework of the Atjeh-Djohor rivalry and the proximate cause of the sultan of Atjeh’s subsequent pursuit of European alliances against Djohor. The treaty’s transfer of Aru from Atjeh to Djohor defined the strategic framework within which the sultan’s European policy would unfold, and the Atjeh-Djohor rivalry that the treaty inaugurated was the principal Malay-Malay strategic fact of the early-modern period. The Achehnese attack on Djohor of 1613 — the closing military episode of Van der Woude’s Atjeh chapter — was the principal military expression of the rivalry that the 1587 treaty had defined.
See Also
Source
Coen, Koopman van Heeren Zeventien. Geschiedenis van den Hollandshen Handel in Indië (1598-1614), by Johan van der Woude (Amsterdam: C.V. Uitgeverij v/h C. De Boer Jr., 1948), Hoofdstuk V (pp. 109, 136-137).
The year 1587 was the year of the peace treaty between Atjeh and the Portuguese at Malaka, by which the wingewest of Aru was transferred from Atjeh to Djohor and a generation of relative peace opened in the western Malay-Indonesian archipelago. The treaty defined the strategic framework of the Atjeh-Djohor rivalry that would frame Van der Woude’s chapter “Atjeh. Djohor. Malaka.” in his Van der Woude (1948) and was the proximate cause of the sultan of Atjeh’s subsequent pursuit of European alliances against Djohor.
The Atjeh-Portuguese peace
The 1587 peace between Atjeh and the Portuguese concluded a generation of Achehnese attacks on Malaka — the great Achehnese siege of 1-17 February 1575 had nearly succeeded, and the Portuguese had survived only by what they considered a miracle. The peace transferred the wingewest of Aru — the north-east Sumatran coast, in the region of modern Deli — from Atjeh to Djohor. Van der Woude notes that “de vijandschap tusschen Atjeh, een van de machtigste Staten op Sumatra, en Djohor, dat bij den vrede tusschen de Portugeezen en Atjeh in 1587 het wingewest Aru had ontvangen, was niet geluwd”. The sultan of Atjeh, in 1598, sent envoys to Goa asking Portuguese help against Djohor; the Portuguese received the envoys with honours at Malaka in May 1599 and at Goa, but the help was not forthcoming.
The strategic framework
The 1587 treaty defined the strategic framework of the Atjeh-Djohor rivalry that would frame the early Dutch-Indies period. The sultan of Atjeh’s hostility to Djohor — and his parallel hostility to the Portuguese — defined his European policy: he played the Dutch, English, French and Portuguese against each other, seeking to recover Aru and to dominate the pepper trade of the Strait of Malaka. The Houtman brothers’ visit of 1599 — the event that opens Van der Woude’s Atjeh chapter — was the first Dutch intrusion into this strategic framework, and the sultan’s reception of the Dutch, English and French in the years 1599-1602 was the working-out of his post-1587 European policy.
Significance
The year 1587 is, in Van der Woude’s narrative, the year of the Atjeh-Portuguese peace that defined the strategic framework of the Atjeh-Djohor rivalry and the proximate cause of the sultan of Atjeh’s subsequent pursuit of European alliances against Djohor. The treaty’s transfer of Aru from Atjeh to Djohor defined the strategic framework within which the sultan’s European policy would unfold, and the Atjeh-Djohor rivalry that the treaty inaugurated was the principal Malay-Malay strategic fact of the early-modern period. The Achehnese attack on Djohor of 1613 — the closing military episode of Van der Woude’s Atjeh chapter — was the principal military expression of the rivalry that the 1587 treaty had defined.
See Also
Source
Coen, Koopman van Heeren Zeventien. Geschiedenis van den Hollandshen Handel in Indië (1598-1614), by Johan van der Woude (Amsterdam: C.V. Uitgeverij v/h C. De Boer Jr., 1948), Hoofdstuk V (pp. 109, 136-137).