1892

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tagsyear, timeline, aceh, colonial, law, military, snouck-hurgronje, 19th-century
aliasesYear 1892, 1892 AD, the year 1892, 1892 (year)

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Figures, places, and events in Acehnese history associated with the year 1892.

People

Places

Events

Figures, places, and events in Acehnese history associated with the year 1892.

People

Places

Events

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*.

1892 is the year of two events bearing on Atjehnese and Indies history: the enactment of the Wet op het Nederlanderschap en het Ingezetenschap ([[1892)|Wet op het Nederlanderschap en het Ingezetenschap]] of 12 December 1892 (S. 268), which inadvertently reduced the indigenous inhabitants of the Nederlandsch-Indische archipel — including the Atjehnese — to the legal status of foreigners in their own land; and the contract between the Billiton Maatschappij and the Indies government that would later serve as the reference point for Atjeh-oil concession policy.

The Netherlands Nationality Act

By incorporating, without fully thought-through consequences, a clause modelled on a German pattern, the Wet op het Nederlanderschap en het Ingezetenschap ([[1892)|Wet op het Nederlanderschap en het Ingezetenschap]] of 12 December 1892 made the inlanders — indigenous inhabitants — into vreemdelingen (foreigners) in the Indies. The mistake was acknowledged and was one of the matters that the post-1901 ethical-policy governments sought to repair through juridical gelijkstelling (equalisation) of the indigenous population. The nationalities question bore on every inhabitant of the archipelipel, including the population of Atjeh once the pacificatie had brought it under Dutch rule.

The 1892 Billiton contract

In 1892 the Billiton Maatschappij and the Indies government concluded a contract setting the cijns (royalty) on tin extraction at a level higher than the 2 % of gross yield that Cremer would later propose in his Rengers-era Mijnwet. The contrast is repeatedly cited by Vermeulen as the yardstick against which the generosity (or parsimony) of subsequent Atjeh oil concessions — including the Koninklijke/Perlak arrangement exposed by Van Heutsz — was measured.

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*.

1892 is the year in which the Dutch government attempted a blockade of Atjeh — an attempt that “niets uitrichtte omdat Atjeh heel weinig van buiten nodig had” (accomplished nothing because Atjeh had very little need of anything from outside). The same year is the date of the advice of Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje that gave the method for the subjugation and pacificatie of Atjeh. The two episodes together mark the nadir of the concentratie period and the moment at which the intellectual basis for the post-1896 conquest was laid.

The 1892 blockade

The 1892 blockade of Atjeh — the Dutch government’s attempt to bring the sultanate to submission by commercial isolation — produced, the source records, “niets” (nothing). The reason given is structural: “Atjeh heel weinig van buiten nodig had” (Atjeh had very little need of anything from outside). The sultanate’s economic autarky made the standard Dutch coercive instrument of the nineteenth century — the maritime blockade — inapplicable.

The 1892 Snouck Hurgronje advice

The same year 1892 saw the advice of Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje that, in the source’s narrative, supplied the “methode aangaf tot onderwerping en pacificatie” (method for subjugation and pacification). Snouck Hurgronje’s advice had three components: (i) ignore the “sultanspartij” (sultan’s party) at the court as of no significance; (ii) do not negotiate with the enemy but strike him sensibly, “daar de Atjeher zijn overwinnaarswijsheid niet zou afleggen zonder gevoelig geslagen te zijn” (since the Atjehnese would not lay down his pride of victory without being sensibly struck); and (iii) thereafter seek to win the confidence of the population by a good welfare policy. The advice was based on Snouck’s “in zeer korte tijd volbrachte studie van land en volk van Atjeh” (study of the land and people of Atjeh completed in a very short time).

The Snouck analysis of Atjehnese society

The source preserves Snouck’s analysis of Atjehnese social structure. The Atjehnese live in kampongs (villages); a group of kampongs sharing one mosque forms a mukim; three or more mukim’s form a landschap (territory) under an uléebalang. The hereditary uléebalangs were “de eigenlijke heren des lands” (the actual lords of the land). Several uléebalang territories form a federation, the sagi, under the leadership of the most prominent, influential or energetic uléebalang, called the panglima sagi. In Groot-Atjeh (so named in contrast to the onderhorigheden such as Pidië, the Gaju- and Alaslanden) there were three sagi’s. The sultan’s authority over the panglima’s sagi and the uléebalangs existed “alleen in naam” (in name only).

The Dutch misreading

The source’s verdict on Dutch policy before 1892 is direct: “Onze politiek werd veel te veel beheerst door de geheel verkeerde voorstelling, die wij ons van de betekenis en de macht van de Sultan maakten” (Our policy was far too much dominated by the wholly wrong conception we had of the significance and power of the Sultan). The Snouck advice of 1892 supplied the corrective.

Significance

1892 is the year in which the intellectual basis of the post-1896 Dutch conquest of Atjeh was laid. The failure of the blockade confirmed that coercion-by-isolation was inapplicable; the Snouck Hurgronje advice supplied the alternative: ignore the sultan, strike the uléebalangs into submission, then win the population by welfare policy.

The struggle for Kaloet (August-October 1892)

The year 1892 was marked by intensified military operations around the Atjehnese fortification of Kaloet in the XXV Moekims of Groot-Atjeh — operations documented in detail in the Atjeh-Album of 1896’s chapter De Strijd om Kaloet (“The Struggle for Kaloet”).

Night-patrol of Lieutenant Brant (22-23 August 1892)

On the night of 22-23 August 1892, Lieutenant Brant of the maréchaussée lay in ambush with a detachment of maréchaussées in the dry bed of the Kroeng Kali opposite Kaloet, with the intention of catching the Atjehnese garrison as they came in the morning. The Atjehnese, however, versliepen zich (overslept), and the patrol had to return to Lamreng at 7 a.m. without having caught anyone.

Reconnaissance of 23 August 1892

Immediately after the return of the Brant patrol, a verkenningcolonne (reconnaissance column) under Captain Jhr. Graafland of the Militaire Willems-Orde, with Lieutenant Brant as guide, set out from Lamreng up the Kroeng Tandjong and destroyed the Atjehnese fortifications in the river before approaching to within 50 metres of Kaloet’s vóórwal (front wall) and withdrawing. This reconnaissance of 23 August 1892 was the first Dutch operation against Kaloet.

Failed assault of 1 October 1892

On 1 October 1892 a strong column from Lambaroe under a captain and three lieutenants, supported by 75 men from Lampermej and 50 men of the 14th Battalion, assaulted Kaloet from the north-east and was repulsed with 7 killed and more than 30 wounded, including Lieutenant Hoolboom (mortally wounded) and Lieutenant Drijber. The failure was followed by General Deykerhoff’s refusal to risk further lives in a renewed assault — an act of moral courage that the Atjeh-Album characterises as misschien meer moed noodig gehad, dan voor het toestaan (“perhaps more courage was necessary than for the granting”).

People (additional)

Places (additional)

Account from Atjeh by H.C. Zentgraff (1938)

Zentgraff records that in 1892 Snouck Hurgronje submitted his Verslag over de politiek-religieuze toestanden in Atjeh — the report that would shape Dutch policy for the following decade. Also in 1892 came three governor’s letters — dated 10 September, 26 October, and 21 December 1892 — forbidding the Korps Maréchaussée from offensief optreden in het voorterrein door hinderlagen of patrouilles van Uw korps. Tengkoe Koetakarang’s Tadkirat arrakidin — the Vermaning der stilzittenden — was edited by Snouck Hurgronje in the same year.

Atjeh, door H.C. Zentgraff. Gedrukt bij Drukkerij “De Unie”, 1938, Batavia.

Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)

1892 was the year in which Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje completed his stay in Atjeh (February) and Joannes Benedictus van Heutsz published De onderwerping van Atjeh; the year in which the conciliatory governorship of Deijckerhoff began, favoured by the army’s preparations against Lombok. Evacuations from the geconcentreerde linie numbered 3,171 men. On 7 April 1892 H. N. A. Swart was promoted 1ste Luitenant.

See Also

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

Snouck Hurgronje’s stay in Atjeh begins (1892-1893) to advise on political situation. Recommended aggressive policy.

Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 40.

Source

Schets eener parlementaire geschiedenis van Nederland van 1849 tot 1901, by Mr W. J. van Welderen baron Rengers, 4th rev. ed., Vol. IV: Oost-Indië 1891-1918 by Dr W. H. Vermeulen (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1955), pp. 305, 327.

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), pp. 217-218.

Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), passim.

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. 40.

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