Figures, places, and events in Acehnese history associated with the year 1888.
Events
- Van Rijn’s visit to Aroe-baai — A Dutch naval or military officer surnamed Van Rijn visited the bay of Aroe (Aroe-baai) on the coast of Atjeh in 1888, conducting a reconnaissance or punitive operation. The visit was one of the many small-scale maritime actions that characterised the middle period of the Aceh War, when the Dutch sought to maintain pressure on the coastal districts through periodic naval demonstrations and coastal raids while the main guerrilla conflict continued in the interior. Such visits served both to gather intelligence and to remind the coastal population of Dutch reach.
- Granting of Dutch coat of arms chain to Baid Setia Maharadja (1888) — The Netherlands Indies government presented a gold chain bearing the Dutch coat of arms to Teukoe Moeda Baid Setia Maharadja, uleebalang of the VII Moekims, as part of its strategy of co-opting Acehnese elites during the Aceh War. The chain was made of gold wire (gouddraad) and terminated in the Dutch royal arms (het Nederlandsche wapen), a formal mark of colonial favour intended to publicly recognise and cement the loyalty of an indigenous ruler who had aligned himself with Dutch authority. See Granting of Dutch coat of arms chain to Baid Setia Maharadja (1888).
People
- J.H. van Langen — Dutch military officer active in Atjeh during this period; involved in colonial administration and military operations on the coast and in the interior as the Dutch gradually extended their footprint beyond the immediate vicinity of Kutaraja.
- P.J. Veth — Professor and principal figure of the Batavian Society; through his scholarly network, the Society continued to acquire and catalogue Acehnese material during the 1880s.
- Schmeltz — Curator and ethnographic specialist associated with the Batavian Society’s collections; his work in the 1880s contributed to the documentation and organisation of the Acehnese objects that would later be catalogued in the 1928 treasure-room guide.
- Teukoe Moeda Baid Setia Maharadja — Uleebalang of the VII Moekims; received the Dutch coat of arms chain in this year, a mark of colonial favour that would be revoked just eight years later in 1896.
Places
- VII Moekims — Territory governed by Baid Setia Maharadja at the time of the award; a group of seven districts (moekims) in the coastal region of Atjeh.
- Kutaraja — Dutch administrative and military headquarters in Atjeh; seat of the colonial civil and military apparatus.
- Batavia — Home of the Batavian Society and its treasure room, where the Baid Setia Maharadja chain would eventually be deposited after its revocation.
Concepts
- Uleebalang — The class of territorial aristocrats whom the Dutch sought to co-opt as allies against the religious resistance.
- Acehnese Gold and Silverwork — The broader craft tradition within which the Baid Setia Maharadja chain — a piece of Dutch-colonial gold wirework rather than indigenous Acehnese work — occupies a distinctive place.
See Also
- 1896
- 1877
- Aceh War
- Uleebalang
- Teukoe Moeda Baid Setia Maharadja
- Revocation of Baid Setia Maharadja’s honours (1896)
- Granting of Dutch coat of arms chain to Baid Setia Maharadja (1888)
- Koninklijk Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen
- Batavian Society Treasure Room Aceh Collection
Sources
Gids voor den bezoeker van de schatkamer, Koninklijk Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, Batavia, 1928. Druk: Ruygrok & Co., Batavia. Cabinet 5 (Atjeh), item 31.
Account from Atjeh by H.C. Zentgraff (1938)
Zentgraff records minister Keuchenius’s kabinetsbrief of 15 August 1888, letter X no. 52, in reply to Tengkoe Sjech Saman di Tiro’s demand that the governor convert to Islam: the minister cited the 257th verse of the 2nd Sura of the Koran — “Laat geen dwang in den Godsdienst zijn” — as Holland’s answer to de brutale uitdaging van een arroganten oelama, nearly twenty years after the war began.
Atjeh, door H.C. Zentgraff. Gedrukt bij Drukkerij “De Unie”, 1938, Batavia.