1897

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tagsyear, timeline, colonial, dutch, harbour, achehnese, military, tramway, aceh, aceh-war, 19th-century
aliasesYear 1897, 1897 AD, the year 1897, 1897 (year), het jaar 1897

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Figures, places, and events in Acehnese history associated with the year 1897.

Figures, places, and events in Acehnese history associated with the year 1897.

People

Places

Events

Account from De Buitenbezittingen (1917) — 1897

1897 was the year in which Sabang was opened as a free port for general trade, the foundational act of the harbour that would become, under the N.V. Zeehaven en Kolenstation Sabang founded the following year, one of the principal coaling stations and transit harbours of the Netherlands-Indies. The Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s De Buitenbezittingen records the opening as a milestone in the long Dutch effort to draw the trade of Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden away from the British entrepôt of Penang. 1897 was the year in which the long tramway of Atjeh — the line that would replace the abandoned belt-tramway of 1885 along the postenlinie — first began to be built. According to the Encyclopaedisch Bureau, this long line “followed step by step our extension of authority in Atjeh’s Dependencies after 1896,” tying “post after post of the ever-expanding military occupation to the command centre at Kota Radja.” Where the 1885 belt-tramway had been a defensive ring around Kota Radja, the 1897 long-line was a strategic artery of conquest radiating outward into the Dependencies.

From coal station to free port

The history of Sabang as a Dutch establishment began in 1884, when the Netherlands-Indies Government built a small coal shed at the Zuidbaai (Lhôc Balhan) and appointed a chief over the island of Poeloe Wè. The Balhanbaai was, however, soon found to present “verschillende bezwaren” — various obstacles — for shipping, and a commission sent out in 1887 concluded that the Sabangbaai was more suitable for the construction of a coal station. In the same year the Bataviaasche firma De Lange received a concession for the construction of a coal station at the Sabangbaai. The geestelijken vader — the spiritual father — of Sabang, De Buitenbezittingen records, was the heer van Oosterzee, who first proposed the location; its political champion was the then-majoor van Heutsz, whose 1892 brochure De Onderwerping van Atjeh had urged the establishment of a free port to compete with Penang.

The free port and the competition with Penang

The opening of Sabang as a free port in 1897 was the realisation of van Heutsz’s proposal. The hope had been that the natural advantages of the harbour — its sheltered anchorage, its location at the meeting point of trade routes, its freedom from the tidal constraints that afflicted Penang and the lighting constraints that limited entry to Singapore at night — would draw Atjeh’s trade away from the British entrepôt. De Buitenbezittingen records, however, that “de grootsche toekomstdroomen van Sabang als handels-emporium voor geheel Noord-Sumatra niet verwezenlijkt hebben” — the grand dreams of Sabang as the trade emporium for all of North Sumatra were never realised. The “eeuwenoude betrekkingen” of Atjeh’s coastal traders with their friends in Penang, and the “geringe uithoudingsvermogen” of the Dutch capital then interested in Atjeh’s trade, proved more powerful than the new harbour’s advantages.

Telegraafkabel and later development

In 1897 Sabang was also connected by telegraafkabel to Oelèë Lheuë, establishing the communications link that would, in 1912, be supplemented by a direct cable to Medan. The radio-telegrafisch station established in 1911 would, De Buitenbezittingen records, become the most powerful in all of East Asia.

Significance

1897 marks the beginning of the conquest-phase of the Atjeh-tramway — the period in which the railway became the principal logistical instrument of the pacification of Atjeh. The long line of 1897 inaugurated a quarter-century of expansion that would only reach its natural terminus with the 1913 extension plans toward Arube Bay and the projected junction with the Deli railway at Tandjoeng Slamat.

Account from De Sociaaldemokraten in de Tweede Kamer (c. 1901) — the entry of socialist opposition

1897 is also a significant date in the parliamentary history of the Aceh War on the Dutch home front, as it marked the entry of socialist members into the Tweede Kamer and the first formal parliamentary attempt to force an investigation into the war’s costs and consequences. It was the year in which socialist parliamentarians H. van Kol and Troelstra were elected to the Dutch Lower House.

Election of socialist MPs

In 1897, P. J. Troelstra was elected for the district of Tietjerksteradeel, and H. van Kol was elected for Enschede. They were the first representatives of the Sociaaldemokratische Arbeiderspartij to sit in parliament. The party had previously been represented by Domela Nieuwenhuis from 1888 to 1891, but he had not been a party representative in the same sense. The arrival of Van Kol, Troelstra, and later Schaper (elected in 1899) marked the beginning of a sustained socialist presence in parliament that would directly challenge the colonial policies of the Dutch state.

The first debate: class struggle and the Aceh War

The first significant debate after their election was on the Staatsbegrooting (State Budget). It concerned the “klassenstrijd” (class struggle) as the basis for the party’s existence and political programme. During this debate, Troelstra articulated the principle that “de klassenstrijd bestaat” (the class struggle exists) and that a parliament must reflect it.

Van Kol took the opportunity to launch a sharp attack on the Aceh War. He spoke of the war’s terrible consequences, its human and financial costs, and the capitalist interests that profited from it — see Economic interests in the Aceh War. He moved a motion calling for an impartial commission to investigate the war — see Van Kol’s Aceh War Motion (1897) — which was defeated by a vote of 72 to 3.

Broader colonial critique

Beyond the Aceh War, the 1897 budget debates saw Van Kol calling for:

  • Heavier taxation of the Javanese to be opposed
  • All forced cultivation (dwangcultuur) to be abolished
  • The usury of Arabs and Chinese to be combated
  • Better indigenous education
  • Freedom of the press, association, and assembly for the Indo people
  • Opposition to the extension of Dutch rule in New Guinea (which Van Kol predicted would bring new costs and wars, a prediction that was borne out in 1900)

Significance of the socialist entry

The year 1897 marks a turning point in the Dutch parliamentary debate on Aceh. For the first time, a permanent political presence in parliament was committed to exposing the war’s costs and questioning its legitimacy. The socialist group, though small, transformed the parliamentary discussion from one of tactical and logistical debate into a moral and political critique of colonialism and capitalism. Their interventions in 1897 established the framework for future socialist opposition to the war and to Dutch imperialism more broadly.

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*.

1897 is the year in which the Dutch government asked the Tweede Kamer for credits for a more substantive administrative presence on Nieuw Guinea — and was granted them only narrowly, by 49 to 23 votes. The debate that accompanied the vote is recorded in Schets eener parlementaire geschiedenis as the moment when the Tweede Kamer articulated its fear that any extension of Dutch authority in the eastern archipelago would follow the path of the Atjeh-oorlog — small beginnings dragging the Netherlands into deeper commitments.

The New Guinea vote

The government argued that the establishment on Nieuw Guinea was purely pacific in intent and was undertaken at the request of the zending (missions). The Tweede Kamer was “huiverig” — hesitant — to “steken in een wespennest” — stick its hand in a wasps’ nest. After a contested division the credits were granted by 49 against 23.

Van Welderen Rengers on the first step

The liberal MP Van Welderen Rengers used the occasion to formulate what became a frequently-quoted maxim of colonial parliamentary debate: “in koloniale zaken [geldt] het allerminst het spreekwoord: c’est le premier pas qui coûte” — in colonial affairs it is least of all true that the first step costs the most. The first step was easy; the later steps, dictated by prestige, cost money and lives. He pointed to the sluiting van het Sumatra-tractaat in 1871, when some members had feared “moeilijkheden met Atjeh” but had been reassured by minister Van Bosse. In 1873 the Netherlands had nevertheless declared war on the sultan of Atjeh.

Van Kol on piracy

In the same debate Van Kol (s.d.) pointed out that the colonial report for 1897 itself admitted that on the Mentawai-eilanden prahus were still being robbed and their crews murdered, and that even Straat Madoera was unsafe after sunset. If such conditions elsewhere did not provoke Dutch intervention, why should similar allegations have justified war on Atjeh?

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

Zentgraff devotes a full chapter to the Lhong punitive expedition of April 1897. After Teukoe Oemar had entrenched himself in Lhong, the landschap was fined f 30.000; being too poor to pay, the cattle were seized and shipped to Koetaradja in prauwen, many dying before embarkation; then the women’s jewellery was seized. Van Daalen’s potloodkladjes from Bivak Tamoen: 22 April: “Teukoe Lehong heeft nog geen cent betaald. ‘t Is bepaald komisch.” 25 April: “‘t Is beschamend en ik verlang daarom ook om hiervandaan te komen.” 27 April: “Arme drommels!” The women of Lhong stonden trotsch en vol felle haat tusschen de geladen geweren der soldaten, en zij spuwden hen hare woede en minachting voor de voeten. Het was geen oorlog meer doch eene wraakoefening, deels op onschuldigen, welke tevens eene beleediging van ons leger werd.

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

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

Zentgraff devotes a full chapter to the Lhong punitive expedition of April 1897. After Teukoe Oemar had entrenched himself in Lhong, the landschap was fined f 30.000; being too poor to pay, the cattle were seized and shipped to Koetaradja in prauwen, many dying before embarkation; then the women’s jewellery was seized. Van Daalen’s potloodkladjes from Bivak Tamoen: 22 April: “Teukoe Lehong heeft nog geen cent betaald. ‘t Is bepaald komisch.” — Teukoe Lehong has not yet paid a cent. It is decidedly comic. 25 April: “‘t Is beschamend en ik verlang daarom ook om hiervandaan te komen.” — It is shameful, and I therefore long to get away from here. 27 April: “Arme drommels!” The women of Lhong stonden trotsch en vol felle haat tusschen de geladen geweren der soldaten, en zij spuwden hen hare woede en minachting voor de voeten. Het was geen oorlog meer doch eene wraakoefening, deels op onschuldigen, welke tevens eene beleediging van ons leger werd.

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

Account from Atjeh in de Tweede Kamer (1897)

For the parliamentary history of Atjeh, 1897 was the year of the Atjeh debate of 16 November and 17 November, the fullest discussion of the Atjeh-oorlog held in the Tweede Kamer since the 1870s, and of the rejection of Van Kol’s motion for a commission of enquiry by seventy-two votes to three.

Events of the year recorded in the debate

The state of the war as described in the debate

The Dutch had by then abandoned the geconcentreerde stelling held since 1884 and adopted the system of mobile columns. Of the twenty-one posts in Groot-Atjeh at Van der Heyden’s departure and the eight added under civil government, seventeen remained, of which eight were destined to be abolished, leaving about nine. The garrison stood at eight thousand men against the ten thousand of Van der Heyden’s time; the Korps Marechaussee was being expanded; the tram ran to Indrapoeri and was to be extended to Selimoen. Beri-beri admissions had fallen to two to four a day in the whole of Atjeh. Van Vlijmen reported the whole Atjeh-vallei at rest and the population returned to its rice fields, commanded from the three bivouacs of Tjot Mautjang, Indrapoeri and Loknga.

According to Cremer the population was returning to its fields in the XXV Moekims, the XXII Moekims and the XXVI Moekims, but did not yet trust that the Dutch would remain; there existed among them “eene heilige vrees voor Toekoe Oemar.” Sixty-two coastal princes had by then made declarations recognising Dutch sovereignty, the earliest dating from 1885.

Twenty-four years had elapsed since the declaration of war of 26 March 1873.

Account in Hooijer’s De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh (1897)

1897 is the year to which the publication of De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh by G. B. Hooijer is assigned, the illustrated album of twenty-four plates describing the Dutch outposts of Groot-Atjeh abandoned after the defection of Teukoe Oemar.

Publication

The work was issued by De Erven F. Bohn at Haarlem and G. Kolff & Co. at Batavia, with the author styled Gep. Luit.-Kolonel O. I. Leger — retired Lieutenant-Colonel of the Netherlands East Indies Army. The known copy is held by the Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen in Amsterdam.

Hooijer wrote in the year following the events he described, closing his narrative with the hope that the crisis of 1896 would furnish the occasion to act with force, and referring to the reigning sovereign as onze jonge Koningin — Queen Wilhelmina.

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.

De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 2: Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), pp. 30–32, 243–248.

De Buitenbezittingen 1904 tot 1914, Deel I, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen, Aflevering X (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), pp. 68–69 (section “De Atjeh-tram”).

De Sociaaldemokraten in de Tweede Kamer (Amsterdam, c. 1901). Vrije Universiteit Bibliotheek, pp. 1-3

Figures, places, and events in Acehnese history associated with the year 1897.

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. 267-268.

Atjeh in de Tweede Kamer: Debatten bij de behandeling der begrooting van Nederlandsch-Indië voor 1898, uitgave van de Sociaaldemokratische Arbeiderspartij in Nederland (Amsterdam: J. A. Fortuijn, 1897). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Br P95-178, pp. 3–80.

Acknowledgement of sources. This article combines material from the publications cited above; the material newly added derives from Atjeh in de Tweede Kamer (Amsterdam: J. A. Fortuijn, 1897) and Een strijd in Atjeh (Rotterdam: N.V. Drukkerij Korteweg for the Vereeniging „SIMAVI”, 1934). Dutch passages are quoted in the original with an English rendering.

De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh, door G. B. Hooijer, Gep. Luit.-Kolonel O. I. Leger, met 24 platen (Haarlem: De Erven F. Bohn; Batavia: G. Kolff & Co., 1897). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Centrale Boekerij, Amsterdam. OCR-filename: 20260719_140140_DLP-134-De_verlaten_posten_in_Groot_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, title page and p. 54.

Acknowledgement of sources. This article is a single consolidated account combining the material previously held in this entry with the account given in De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh (1897) by G. B. Hooijer. Dutch terminology has been rendered in English, the original Dutch being retained only in direct quotations and in bibliographic citations.

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