1873

Properties2
tagsyear, 19th-century, aceh, aceh-war, colonial, dutch, 1873
aliases1873, Year 1873, 1873 in Atjeh, 1873 in Aceh, First Aceh expedition year, Year 1873 Atjeh, 1873 war start, First Atjeh expedition

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1873 was the pivotal year of the outbreak of the Aceh War, marked by the failed First Aceh Expedition and the launch of the Second Aceh Expedition. Despite the first expedition’s failure, the resistance demonstrated by the XXII Moekims—even before Dutch troops entered their territory—established the pattern of sustained opposition that would characterise the thirty-year conflict. Later in the same year, a second expedition under Generaal Van Swieten achieved greater success and would eventually capture the kraton in January 1874.

Chronology

Strategic significance

The inhabitants of the XXII Moekims—led by Sri Moeda Perkasa (Panglima Polim)—resisted from within their own territory, demonstrating that resistance did not require direct confrontation with the colonial army. The events of 1873 established the fundamental strategic challenge of the war: the Dutch could occupy the capital and declare authority over the three sagi, but the distributed resistance—particularly in the XXII Moekims—would persist for decades.

East Coast context

1873 was also the year of intensified naval blockade on the east coast, where J. A. Kruyt cruised with the warship Timor. The Dutch government’s push for war was partly motivated by persistent piracy that had long disturbed order in Sumatran and Malacca waters. On the east coast, pepper exports of 5,000–6,000 kojang at Penang fetched 200–250 pilaardollars per kojang in August 1873.

Account from Verstege’s Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk (1886)

For Verstege, in 1886, the year of the rash beginning stands condemned through the very documents that had been kept at the time from the nation — the deliberations of the secret committee of 16-18 April 1874 (published only in November 1881) and the inquiry into the first expedition. The war was declared with a disordered fleet, a wholly insufficient army and at the most unfavourable season of the year; van Swieten’s predecessor on the naval list had warned as early as the council of 21 February 1873 (see his successor Geerling’s report of 17 October 1874). The day order of the Governor-General of March 1873 showed that the expedition went out to demand satisfaction for treachery and betrayal.

Appendix D of the pamphlet compiles the expeditionary record: the three infantry battalions — one, the V Battalion of Madurese barisans, counted as a hindrance rather than help — remained about 340 non-commissioned officers and men, a sixth, short of establishment, and only two of them could be armed with breech-loaders, because the despatch of Beaumont ammunition and tools from the Netherlands had been delayed; hence, when the expedition was decided on 21 February, only one battalion (the XVth) had Beaumont rifles, and the men of the IXth were scarcely acquainted with their new rifles and hardly trained at all when they sailed on 22 March. The 8 cm muzzle-loaders proved too heavy for the broken ground of Atjeh, and the miner company went aboard with 103 men instead of 120. The landing took place on 10 April, the advance on the 16th, and on 17 April the retreat to the beach bivouac was begun; the inquiry gave the killed and wounded in those few days as 471 officers and men. The state of the after-care was, after four days of battle, already “allertreurigst”. On 23 December 1873 the second expedition’s parlementaire Mas Soemo Widjojo was sent to the Sultan with a white flag and a peace offer, and was murdered in the cruellest manner in the presence of Panglima Polim (see Murder of parlementaire Mas Soemo Widjojo (23 December 1873)).

See Also

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

26 March: Dutch declaration of war on Atjeh after failure of early 1873 mission. First Aceh Expedition (3600 men, General Köhler killed, Dutch withdrawal). End 1873: Second Aceh Expedition under General van Swieten (twice as strong, ~7200 men). Groot-Atjehdeclared Gouvernementsgebied. Beginning of ~40-year Aceh War.General Köhler’s death at the meuseugit at Koeta Radja during the first Aceh expedition; beginning of the Aceh War (actie-tijd).

Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 37, 38, 78.

Source

De expeditiën naar Atjeh 1873-1874, W.W.F. Herfkens, Koninklijke Militaire Academie, 1900, pp. 1–48.

Het einde van den Atjeh Oorlog (Overdruk uit de Evening Post van 25, 26 en 27 Augustus 1903, pp. 3–5); Somer, Dr. J. M. Het Atjeh-probleem van 1890-1900 (Overdruk uit Journal / Organ van de Netherlands-Indies Officers Association, [1935], pp. 4–5); Damste, H. T. “Atjeh-historie,” Koloniaal Tijdschrift 1916.

Atjeh als land voor handel en bedrijf, by Dr. R. Broersma (Utrecht: Gebrs. Cohen, 1925), pp. 5, 29, 37.

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. 37, 38, 78.

Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), pp. 12, 14, 17-18, 33, 119-125. OCR: DLP-158.

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