1899

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tagsyear, timeline, colonial, dutch, achehnese, military, tramway, diplomacy, law, mining, acheh, 20th-century, aceh, 19th-century
aliases1899 AD, the year 1899, 1899 (year), 1899 CE, Year 1899

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Events

Account from Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. (1954) — 1899

1899 is mentioned in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. in connection with the Aceh War — “On an excursion on 22 July 1899 the third Battalion made an attack” — as one of the years of the late-19th-century Dutch offensive in Aceh, the offensive that would culminate in the Van Heutsz-era colonnes of the early 1900s.

Source: Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954).

Account from De Buitenbezittingen (1917) — 1899

1899 was a doubly significant year in the history of Dutch rule in Atjeh. On the military side, it was the year in which the construction of a second tramway in the Atjeh Dependencies was begun — the line that would, between 1899 and 1906, be successively extended from Sigli to the harbour of Langsa, and from which a western branch was already in 1899 built from Sigli over Padang Tidji to Keude Breue. This second line, together with the 1897 long-line, formed the twin axes of the Atjeh-tramway network as it expanded outward from Kota Radja into the Dependencies.

On the administrative side, 1899 was the year that marked a turning point in the regulation of the relationship between the self-governing territories and the Dutch Gouvernement throughout the Outer Possessions. According to the Encyclopaedisch Bureau, until 1899 the relationship had been expressed in “detailed political contracts” (omstandige politieke contracten) in which the principles of governance, the mutual rights, obligations, and competences of the parties were all set out. After 1899, however, the Gouvernement shifted to a different instrument: the so-called Korte Verklaring (Short Declaration) — a brief declaration, signed by the native ruler and approved by the Gouvernement, that recognised Dutch supremacy, promised to abstain from political contacts with foreign powers, and pledged obedience to all regulations and orders issued by or on behalf of the Governor-General. The shift affected all of the Outer Possessions including Atjeh, where the long political-military campaign had created the conditions in which the simpler instrument could now be applied.

Significance

1899 thus stands at the intersection of two parallel transformations in Atjeh. The beginning of the second tramway in the Dependencies marks the geographic expansion of the military occupation; the introduction of the Korte Verklaring marks the administrative consolidation of Dutch authority over the self-governing territories. Both moves are part of the single post-1896 project of bringing Atjeh — and the wider Buitenbezittingen — under Dutch “effective authority.”

People

Places

Events

Account from Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. (1954) — 1899

1899 is mentioned in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. in connection with the Aceh War — “On an excursion on 22 July 1899 the third Battalion made an attack” — as one of the years of the late-19th-century Dutch offensive in Aceh, the offensive that would culminate in the Van Heutsz-era colonnes of the early 1900s.

Source: Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954).

Account from De Buitenbezittingen (1917) — 1899

1899 was a doubly significant year in the history of Dutch rule in Atjeh. On the military side, it was the year in which the construction of a second tramway in the Atjeh Dependencies was begun — the line that would, between 1899 and 1906, be successively extended from Sigli to the harbour of Langsa, and from which a western branch was already in 1899 built from Sigli over Padang Tidji to Keude Breue. This second line, together with the 1897 long-line, formed the twin axes of the Atjeh-tramway network as it expanded outward from Kota Radja into the Dependencies.

On the administrative side, 1899 was the year that marked a turning point in the regulation of the relationship between the self-governing territories and the Dutch Gouvernement throughout the Outer Possessions. According to the Encyclopaedisch Bureau, until 1899 the relationship had been expressed in “detailed political contracts” (omstandige politieke contracten) in which the principles of governance, the mutual rights, obligations, and competences of the parties were all set out. After 1899, however, the Gouvernement shifted to a different instrument: the so-called Korte Verklaring (Short Declaration) — a brief declaration, signed by the native ruler and approved by the Gouvernement, that recognised Dutch supremacy, promised to abstain from political contacts with foreign powers, and pledged obedience to all regulations and orders issued by or on behalf of the Governor-General. The shift affected all of the Outer Possessions including Atjeh, where the long political-military campaign had created the conditions in which the simpler instrument could now be applied.

Significance

1899 thus stands at the intersection of two parallel transformations in Atjeh. The beginning of the second tramway in the Dependencies marks the geographic expansion of the military occupation; the introduction of the Korte Verklaring marks the administrative consolidation of Dutch authority over the self-governing territories. Both moves are part of the single post-1896 project of bringing Atjeh — and the wider Buitenbezittingen — under Dutch “effective authority.”

Account from The Geology of Indonesia (1949) — 1899

The Mining Law of 1899

For the full account of the Mining Law of 1899 see the entry on Netherlands Indies Mining Law of 1899. In summary: the Law’s state-mineral-rights principle — under which the mineral wealth of the country belongs to the entire community, and the right to develop and exploit this wealth can be granted only by the Government — distinguished the East Indian mineral-property regime from its Anglo-American equivalents and shaped the structure of the colonial mining concessions, the corporate organisation of the oil industry, and the technical development of the East Indian oil fields. The Law’s principal consequences for the oil industry were the avoidance of concession fragmentation and the single-company development of each geological structure, both of which favoured the dominance of the B.P.M. and the other major oil companies.

Application to Atjeh

The Mining Law of 1899 applied to the Atjeh and Dependencies residency from the date of its enactment. The colonial mining concessions granted in Atjeh under the Law — the 1909 Kinandam-Sumatra Mijnbouw Mij. coal leases at Bukit Durian, Bukit Pulai and Sarik, and the 1940 M.A.E.M. Geudong Concession for gold-dredging — were accordingly granted under the Law’s state-mineral-rights principle. The Atjeh oil fields — the East Atjeh block, the Tamiang block and the Atjeh oil complex fields — were also developed under the Law’s provisions, and the dominance of the B.P.M. and the other major oil companies in the Atjeh oil industry is, in part, a consequence of the Law’s state-mineral-rights principle.

Significance

1899 is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history because it is the year of the enactment of the Mining Law of 1899 — the legal foundation on which the entire colonial mineral economy of Atjeh was built. The Law’s state-mineral-rights principle shaped the structure of the colonial mining concessions, the corporate organisation of the oil industry, and the technical development of the East Indian oil fields, and the Atjeh oil fields, coal concessions and gold-dredging concessions were all granted under the Law’s provisions. The Law is accordingly the indispensable legal context for any understanding of the colonial mineral economy of Atjeh, and 1899 is the year in which that legal context was established.

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

Zentgraff records the death of Teukoe Oemar — the Heer der westelijke zee — in February 1899 near Meulaboh. News of his death travelled through the Atjehsche chabar angin — de Atjehsche boodschappers loopen als hazen en geven bij elke keudé het bericht aan een ander over — covering up to eighty kilometres a day, reaching both the staff at Koetaradja and far-off Sigli within days. Zentgraff also notes the omsingeling of the post at Meureudoe that year, prompting a forced march of eight maréchaussée brigades from Pidië to Panté Radja.

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

Account from Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)

1899 was the year of the Korte Verklaring — the Short Declaration — by which the colonial government replaced the older Groote Verklaring in eighteen articles with a short declaration in three articles, which the oeléebalangs of the Atjehnese landschappen were required to sign as the formal token of their submission to the Dutch government. Teungkoe habib Moehamat bin Sajet Oesoeih of Peudawa Rajeu signed the Korte Verklaring in 1899. In the same year he received the small star of trouw en verdienste.

Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)

1899 was the year of the Pasè expedition under van Heutsz, in which captain H. N. A. Swart crossed the swollen Pasè-rivier at Geudong on 21 June and earned the third class of the Militaire Willemsorde. Swart was wounded at the storming of Bambi on 8 May and on the Glé Risé on 21 November. Administrative errors of 1899 excluded T. Tjhi’ Toenòng from the succession in Keureutòë, setting in train the drama of Tjoet Meutia and T. Radja Sabi.

See Also

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

Prof. Snouck Hurgronje called the Meuseugit Raja at Koeta Radja ‘een ledig monument onzer dwaasheid’ and condemned its construction as one of the many expensive mistakes marking the start of Dutch Aceh involvement.

Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 41, 101.

Source

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 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. 5–6 (Bestuurs-organisatie), pp. 68–69 (section “De Atjeh-tram”)

Figures, places, and events in Acehnese history associated with the year 1899.

The Geology of Indonesia, by R. W. van Bemmelen, Vol. II: Economic Geology (The Hague: Government Printing Office; Martinus Nijhoff, 1949), p. 9 (Mining Law of 1899, fundamental principle and consequences).

Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923); Atjeh Patchouli-Olie, by Ir. W. Spoon (1932), where applicable.

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. 41, 101.

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