1873 — in Kreemer’s history of Atjèh — is the pivotal year of the Atjèh-oorlog: the year in which the long Dutch–Atjèhnese diplomatic crisis of 1824–1873 culminated in the declaration of war of 26 March, the first expedition of April ended in failure and the death of generaal Kohler, and the second expedition of December set the stage for the fall of the Kraton of 24 January 1874.
January–March: the diplomatic endgame
The year opened with the collapse of the Dutch peace mission. The Singapore embassy of January 1873 — in which Atjèhnese envoys proposed treaties to the consuls of the United States and Italy — convinced the Dutch government that further negotiation was impossible. F. N. Nieuwenhuyzen, Regeeringscommissaris, was dispatched to Atjèh to demand recognition of Dutch sovereignty; when Atjèh refused, he declared war on 26 March.
April: the first expedition
The first expedition under generaalmajoor J. H. R. Kohler landed on 25 April 1873 with 168 officers and 3,200 men. The Atjèhnese resistance was “veel grooter dan men gemeend had te moeten verwachten” — “much greater than one had expected”. Kohler was killed on 14 April; the Kraton was not taken; the expedition was “een totale mislukking” — “a total failure”. The troops were withdrawn to Java, and a blockade was imposed — but the blockade “had echter weinig resultaat” (had however little result), and the Penang revolutionary committee sustained the resistance with letters to the Atjèhnese chiefs.
December: the second expedition
The second expedition under the recalled generaal J. van Swieten, with generaalmajoor G. M. Verspijck as second-in-command, landed on 9 December 1873 with 385 officers and about 7,800 men — “een macht zooals nog nimmer te voren in onze Oost was uitgerust!” — “a force such as never before had been equipped in our East!” On 23 December, the Javanese envoy Mas Soemo Widikdjo was sent into the Kraton with two letters — the last Dutch attempt at a peaceful settlement; he was tortured to death. The expedition’s objective — the Kraton — would fall on 24 January 1874.
Significance
1873 is, in Kreemer’s narrative, the year that transformed the Dutch–Atjèhnese relationship from a treaty-framework into a war of conquest. The failure of the first expedition revealed that the Atjèh sultanate could not be subdued in a single campaign; the scale of the second expedition revealed the Dutch commitment to a long war; and the death of Widikdjo closed the door on any diplomatic resolution. The year thus opens Kreemer’s seven-period division of the Atjèh-oorlog (see Kreemer’s seven-period division of the Atjeh-oorlog) and inaugurates the thirty-seven-year conflict that would not end until 1910.
See Also
- Acheh
- Aceh War
- Declaration of war on Atjèh (26 March 1873)
- First Aceh Expedition (5-29 April 1873) — Kreemer’s account
- Second Aceh Expedition (1873-1874) — Kreemer’s account
- F. N. Nieuwenhuyzen
- General J. H. R. Kohler
- Generaal van Swieten
- Verspijck
- Mas Soemo Widikdjo
- Raad van Achten
- Kreemer’s seven-period division of the Atjeh-oorlog
- 1874
Source
Atjèh. Algemeen samenvattend overzicht van land en volk van Atjèh en onderhoorigheden, door J. Kreemer, Archivaris van het Atjèh Instituut. Eerste Deel. Leiden: N.V. Boekhandel en Drukkerij voorheen E.J. Brill, 1922. Hoofdstuk I, B–C, blz. 13–15.