Figures, places, and events in Acehnese history associated with the year 1857.
People
Figures, places, and events in Acehnese history associated with the year 1857.
People
Account from Schets eener parlementaire geschiedenis (1955)
The following account is drawn from the parliamentary history of the Dutch Second Chamber as narrated by Vermeulen in the colonial section of the 1955 fourth revised edition of Rengers’s *Schets*.
1857 is the year in which, after the dispatch of a Dutch warship, a contract was concluded between the Dutch colonial government and the Sultan of Atjeh stipulating “wederzijdse toelating van handel en tegengang van zee-, strand- en mensenroof” (mutual admission of trade and suppression of sea-, strand- and people-robbing). The contract was, in the retrospective of Nederlanders over de Zeeën, “niet nageleefd” (not honoured) by the Atjehnese side — the immediate operational failure of the [[Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824|1824 London Treaty]‘s double commitment.
The 1857 contract
The 1857 contract was the operational form given to the 1824 undertaking that the Netherlands would respect Atjehnese independence while suppressing Atjehnese piracy. After the dispatch of a warship — the typical Dutch response to a prolonged impasse with a maritime Southeast-Asian polity — a formal written agreement was concluded. The contract’s reciprocal clauses (mutual admission of trade, mutual suppression of piracy, slave-raiding and shipwreck-plundering) reflected the standard Dutch treaty template of the mid-nineteenth century.
The non-observance
The 1857 contract was, the source records, “niet nageleefd” (not honoured). Dutch, English, American and other ships continued to be plundered. The failure of the contract — alongside the continuing impossibility of reconciling the 1824 undertaking’s twin commitments — supplied the Dutch government with the immediate diplomatic grievance that, after the Sumatra-tractaat of 1871 freed its hand on Sumatra, would crystallise into the declaration of war of 26 March 1873.
Significance
1857 is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history because the contract concluded in that year is the last diplomatic instrument between the Netherlands and the Sultan of Atjeh before the slide to war. Its non-observance — the standard Dutch grievance after a failed treaty with a maritime Southeast-Asian polity — is the immediate operational failure that, in the source’s narrative, justifies the 1871 treaty with Britain and the 1873 declaration of war.
Nineteenth-Century Historiography & Campaign Analysis
The Treaty of 1857
In 1857, General J. van Swieten, who later commanded the Second Aceh Expedition, visited the Aceh Sultanate as a special diplomatic envoy on behalf of the Dutch East Indies Government. His mission resulted in the signing of the Treaty of 1857 between Netherlands and Aceh, which sought to regulate commerce, clarify maritime boundaries, and foster peaceful cooperation between colonial authorities and the sultan’s court at Kraton of Aceh.
During his stay in 1857, J. van Swieten gathered intelligence and personal familiarity with the Acehnese coast and leadership. This experience later led colonial commentators and military planners to assume that he possessed intimate knowledge of Aceh, an assumption that was scrutinized during debates over the conduct of the Second Aceh Expedition in 1873 and 1874.
Long-term Consequences
Despite the agreements reached in 1857, General G. G. Booms observed in his 1875 analysis that successive Dutch administrations did very little after 1857 to maintain active diplomatic contact or update their military intelligence regarding the interior of Aceh. Consequently, by the time war was declared in 1873, the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army operated on outdated assumptions dating back to 1857, severely compromising the planning of the First Aceh Expedition.
See Also
- 1824
- 1871
- 1873
- Aceh Sultanate
- Acheh
- Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824
- Atjehoorlog
- Declaration of war against the Sultan of Atjeh (1873)
- First Aceh Expedition
- G. G. Booms
- J. van Swieten
- Sultan of Acheh
- Sumatra-tractaat (1871)
- Treaty of 1857 between Netherlands and Aceh
Source
Nederlanders over de Zeeën: 350 Jaar geschiedenis van Nederland buitengaats, onder redactie van Dr. H. J. de Graaf, met medewerking van Prof. G. Gonggrijp, W. R. Menkman en Prof. Jhr Dr P. J. van Winter, 2e geheel herziene druk (Utrecht: W. de Haan N.V., MCMLV), p. 216.
Over de eerste expeditie tegen Atjeh: Een antwoord aan Generaal de Stuers, G. G. Booms, ‘s-Gravenhage: A. van Hoogstraten & Zoon, 1875, pp. 14-15; Atjeh gedurende de tweede expeditie en later, Een Oud Officier, Batavia: Ogilvie & Co., 1876, pp. 10-15.