1881

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tagsyear, timeline, aceh, colonial, meusigit-raja, administration, dutch, 19th-century
aliasesYear 1881, 1881 CE, 1881 AD, the year 1881, 1881 (year), 1881 Atjeh, 1881 civil government

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Figures, places, and events in Acehnese history associated with the year 1881.

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Account from Oost-Indisch Journael (1947) — 1881

1881 was the year of the completion of the Meusigit Raja of Koeta Radja and of the solemn transfer of the mosque to the Acehnese people on 27 December 1881 — in the name of the Dutch government — by the governor of Aceh and Dependencies, A. Pruys van der Hoeven. The mosque — whose first stone was laid on 9 October 1879 in the presence of Governor-General Van Lansberge — was completed in 1881 and on 27 December 1881 was solemnly transferred to the Acehnese people.

The book immediately registers the Acehnese indifference to the solemn transfer: on the contrary, both during the construction and later, the Acehnese stood at his most indifferent towards it. Not one Acehnese made himself available as a workman at the construction, which was entirely performed by Chinese workforce — that is, by pig-eating unbelievers — and the work was bitterly mocked by the Acehnese. The 1881 solemn transfer was therefore received with indifference and mockery: the Acehnese people considered it the forced benefaction of their most unsympathetic unbeliever, the Hollander. Snouck Hurgronje would later call it “an empty monument of our folly.”

Account from Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh (1923) — 1881

For Langhout 1881 was the year in which the war was believed ended: “de loop van zaken in het gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden leverde het bewijs, dat in 1881… de oorlog een einde genomen had”, and that the time of pacification and restoration had arrived, “waarin het burgerlijk bestuur met andere middelen dan het zwaard naar onderwerping zou moeten streven”. Van Lansberge wrote to Van der Heijden that “the crown was set upon the building” — the crown that proved not to fit: within three years (1881–1884) “welhaast alle behaalde voordeelen weer verloren gingen” (“almost all advantages gained were lost again”), and the building’s walls could not bear the crown’s weight “voor het zóóver was, moesten nog zeven en dertig jaren verloopen” — thirty-seven more years, until the definitive separation of 1918.

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

The year of the fateful turn for which Verstege keeps the sharpest judgments of his pamphlet: on 7 March the aged ulama Toengkoe Sjech Marabahan was received by van der Heyden in the presence of many chiefs and clergy; on 11 March the Governor-General van Lansberge signed the Kabinetsbrief that crowned what the pamphlet calls the political mistakes of the time — the introduction of the normale bestuursinrichting and the replacement of the single command of general van der Heyden by the two-headed government (see Establishment of civil government in Aceh (6 April 1881)). In April (Verstege places the introduction on the 9th) the general handed over the civil administration to Pruijs van der Hoeven with the closing warning, “Groote voorzichtigheid blijft geboden” (“Great caution remains required”); the new governor still called the state “zeer bevredigend” in April and May, but already on 22 May 1881 he ordered the patrols no longer to visit the kampongs, bound them to fixed roads, and forbade arresting armed Atjehers beyond a 500-metre ring around the bentings; soon afterwards patrolling was stopped altogether, posts were given up despite the populations’ requests, the fight against robber bands was entrusted to a gewapende politie (armed police) — and the “maraudeurs” grew into hostile bands resuming the guerilla war. On 28 March the minister van Goltstein declared to the Kamer that the conqueror’s goal was reached and “that all guarantees were present that the war would not be resumed”, though on the standpoint of the administrator the answer was less satisfying: the people of Groot-Atjeh, once appearing 800,000 souls, had sunk to 50,000 — as against van Swieten’s 125,000 of 1874 and the official 575,000 of 1883, a figure put by Verstege among the proofs of how elastic the population statistics of Atjeh were. The year also stands in the pamphlet as the year of preceding voices that were drowned.

See Also

Civil Administration Experiment (1881–1884)

The period 1881–1884 was marked by the experiment of separate civil administration in Groot-Atjeh, initiated after the recall of General van der Heijden. Contemporary observers, including the authors of the 1885 report on the geconcentreerde stelling, noted that the bestuursverandering en wisseling van stelsel (administrative changes and policy shifts) of this period were to be regretted. The civil gouverneur A. Pruys van der Hoeven attempted to govern through conciliation rather than military pressure, but the security situation continued to deteriorate. By 1884, the policy had failed and the concentration was ordered. The religious leadership, led by Tengkoe Sjech Saman di Tiro, gained strength throughout this period.

Sources

  • 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.
  • Oost-Indisch Journael: Palaver om de tafel met het gat, by Merac, Toekan-Serie no. 2, ed. G. L. Tichelman (Haarlem: De Gulden Pers, 1947), the chapter on the Meusigit Raja.

Figures, places, and events in Acehnese history associated with the year 1881.

People

Places

Events

Account from Oost-Indisch Journael (1947) — 1881

1881 was the year of the completion of the Meusigit Raja of Koeta Radja and of the solemn transfer of the mosque to the Acehnese people on 27 December 1881 — in the name of the Dutch government — by the governor of Aceh and Dependencies, A. Pruys van der Hoeven. The mosque — whose first stone was laid on 9 October 1879 in the presence of Governor-General Van Lansberge — was completed in 1881 and on 27 December 1881 was solemnly transferred to the Acehnese people.

The book immediately registers the Acehnese indifference to the solemn transfer: on the contrary, both during the construction and later, the Acehnese stood at his most indifferent towards it. Not one Acehnese made himself available as a workman at the construction, which was entirely performed by Chinese workforce — that is, by pig-eating unbelievers — and the work was bitterly mocked by the Acehnese. The 1881 solemn transfer was therefore received with indifference and mockery: the Acehnese people considered it the forced benefaction of their most unsympathetic unbeliever, the Hollander. Snouck Hurgronje would later call it “an empty monument of our folly.”

See Also

Sources

  • 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.
  • Oost-Indisch Journael: Palaver om de tafel met het gat, by Merac, Toekan-Serie no. 2, ed. G. L. Tichelman (Haarlem: De Gulden Pers, 1947), the chapter on the Meusigit Raja.

De Geconcentreerde Stelling in Groot-Atjeh, ‘s-Gravenhage: De Gebroeders Van Cleef, 1885, p. 12.

Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 42–45.

Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), pp. 68-74. OCR: DLP-158.

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