1902

Properties2
tagsyear, timeline, colonial, dutch, achehnese, sumatra, policy, aceh, ethical-politiek, 20th-century
aliasesYear 1902, 1902 AD, the year 1902, 1902 (year)

7 min read

Figures, places, and events in Acehnese history associated with the year 1902.

People

Places

Other

Account from Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. (1954) — 1902

1902 is mentioned in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. in connection with the decorations of the Marechaussee — as the year in which the korporaal Nussy received the M.W.O. 4e klas in July 1902 for an earlier gevecht, beginning the decoration arc that would culminate in his M.W.O. 3e klas for 1911.

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) — 1902

1902 is identified by the Encyclopaedisch Bureau as the moment at which “the time at which a beginning was made with the complete subjection to our effective authority — by which the unfamiliarity with the greater part of the Buitenbezittingen was lifted — properly dates.” The Bureau frames 1902 as the year in which the post-1896 strategic reorientation in Atjeh was extended, by deliberate policy choice, to other parts of the Outer Possessions — specifically to Djambi and the adjoining region of Koerintji.

The decision to pursue “an active policy with regard to Djambi and thereby also against Koerintji” was adopted by the Indische Regeering in 1902 “principally in consequence of the relevant advices of the Residents of Palembang and Benkoelen and of Dr. Snouck Hurgronje.” The role of Snouck Hurgronje — already the principal architect of the post-1896 Atjeh policy — in extending the same logic to Djambi/Koerintji places 1902 as a hinge moment in the wider colonial project of which Atjeh was the leading edge.

The Bureau is explicit that the 1896 Atjeh turn and the 1902 Djambi turn are phases of a single transformation: “after a new direction was inaugurated in our policy in Atjeh in 1896 following the betrayal of Toekoe Oemar, which would lead to the complete pacification of that territory,” the date at which effective authority began to be extended across the Buitenbezittingen as a whole “properly dates only from 1902.” Atjeh thus functions as the template for the wider Buitenbezittingen campaign of “effective authority.”

Significance

1902 is the moment at which the Atjeh model of post-1896 active pacification was deliberately extended to other parts of the Buitenbezittingen. The central role of Snouck Hurgronje in both decisions underscores the intellectual continuity of the project. 1902 thus marks the transition from an Atjeh-specific strategic reorientation to a colonial-wide policy of effective authority.

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*.

1902 is the year in which Van Kol (s.d.) traversed Atjeh “van Noord tot Zuid” — from north to south — and was able to certify to the Tweede Kamer that the pacificatie had progressed further than he had thought, and that the horrors of the Atjeh-oorlog ([[1873-1904)|Atjeh-oorlog]] were already past. The same year also saw the installation of the Commissie tot onderzoek van de mindere welvaart ([[1902)|commissie tot onderzoek van de mindere welvaart der inlandse bevolking]] — the commission on the diminished welfare of the indigenous population — whose report, when it finally appeared in 1914 in no fewer than 33 volumes, would become one of the foundation documents of ethical-policy governance.

Van Kol’s traverse of Atjeh

In 1902 Van Kol — social-democratic member of the Tweede Kamer, former colonial civil servant and one of the most consistent parliamentary critics of the Atjeh war — travelled through Atjeh from north to south. On his return he reported that the pacificatie was further advanced than he had anticipated and that the “gruwelen” — the horrors — of the war belonged to the past. The illusion of approaching peace was, however, almost immediately dispelled by the expedition of Van Daalen in 1904.

The Commissie tot onderzoek van de mindere welvaart

In the same year misoogst and hongersnood in several parts of Java had made it impossible for the government to delay action; the Commissie tot onderzoek van de mindere welvaart ([[1902)|commissie tot onderzoek van de mindere welvaart]] was installed. Its final report, when it appeared in 1914, filled 33 volumes — a monument of ethical-policy documentation that Fock drily noted had “naar het meer dan volmaakte [gestreefd]” — aspired to more than perfection. More modest but at least as useful were the economisch-historische bijdragen issued by the Ministerie van Koloniën in 1904 under the editorship of Van Deventer, Fock and Kielstra.

Cremer’s Comptabiliteitswet amendment

In 1902 Cremer — minister of Colonies in the kabinet Pierson — submitted a wetsontwerp to amend the Indische Comptabiliteitswet so as to abolish the bijdrage (contribution) of Nederlandsch-Indië to the finances of the realm. The amendment, finally enacted on 26 June 1903 (S. 172), formally closed the batig-slot era.

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

Zentgraff records two key events of 1902. On 22 August 1902 T. Tjhi Toenong laid a hinderlaag in the high alang-alang near Meunasah Djeuro against a Dutch transport of twenty bajonetten from Simpang Olim: seven soldiers killed in the first rush, five geweren lost. Een kranig Europeesch soldaat, Fortier, wist het povere restje bijeen te houden tot luitenant Van Gheel Gildemeester met 40 man te hulp kwam. The gedenksteen: Hulde aan de gevallenen bij den klewangaanval te Simpang Olim op 22 Augustus 1902. Also in 1902, Colijn, advancing via Isaq into the Gajoland, was forced to retreat at the Boer ni Intem-Intem: men zag: de Kompeuni durft niet — a impression the Gajoes would hold until Van Daalen’s colonne of 1904 arrived from an unexpected direction.

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

Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)

On 8 February 1902 H. N. A. Swart was transferred to the 1st Garrison Battalion of Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden and placed with the marechaussée at Lho’ Nga; on 27 March he was charged with the government of the XXV Moekims; on 17 July with that of Poelò Raja as Civiel Gezaghebber, “and there, on Poelò Raja and in July 1902, Swart’s real administrative work began”. In 1902 Van Daalen noted on Swart’s journal the prohibition of travel without military escort, which van Heutsz overruled. In the same year, in a bivouac in the Meulabohsche, van Heutsz named Van Daalen as his intended successor in the hearing of Snouck Hurgronje.

See Also

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

Overgaaf (handover) and abdication of the last Sultan of Atjeh. The sultanate, having existed for about 4 centuries, ceased to exist. (Sultan’s actual submission came in January 1903.)

Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 26.

Source

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), p. 2 (Bestuurs-organisatie)

Figures, places, and events in Acehnese history associated with the year 1902.

A List of the Best Books Relating to Dutch East India, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague (1902).

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. 271, 285.

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. 26.

Graph View

Backlinks