1915 was a year of projected administrative expansion and infrastructural development in Acheh, situated within the Dutch East Indies. As the global disruptions of the First World War began to affect colonial supply chains, the Dutch authorities in Sumatra relied on long-term budgetary projections to maintain governance and pacification efforts following the Aceh War.
Statistical and Administrative Record
The year 1915 is primarily documented in the Atjeh up to date compilation through multi-year colonial spending plans. Rather than recording immediate military costs, the surviving ledgers from this period focus on standardized, predictable provincial budgets:
- Budgetary Projections: Colonial ledgers outline specific allocations for 1915, recording initial project or administrative spending at 50,250 guilders, with a broader aggregate budget category reaching 125,000 guilders.
- Administrative Consolidation: These figures reflect a colony transitioning from the extreme, unpredictable costs of active guerrilla warfare to a stabilized, revenue-generating colonial province. The financial overhead of maintaining the KNIL garrisons and local infrastructure was being absorbed into routine multi-year provincial budgets.
Statistical and Administrative Record
The year 1915 is primarily documented in the Atjeh up to date compilation through multi-year colonial spending plans. Rather than recording immediate military costs, the surviving ledgers from this period focus on standardized, predictable provincial budgets:
- Budgetary Projections: Colonial ledgers outline specific allocations for 1915, recording initial project or administrative spending at 50,250 guilders, with a broader aggregate budget category reaching 125,000 guilders.
- Administrative Consolidation: These figures reflect a colony transitioning from the extreme, unpredictable costs of active guerrilla warfare to a stabilized, revenue-generating colonial province. The financial overhead of maintaining the KNIL garrisons and local infrastructure was being absorbed into routine multi-year provincial budgets.
Account from Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)
1915 was the year in which the colonial government came with a new regulation of the pepper-trade, by which the customs-office no longer had any concern. The hacil tanah or wasé oeléebalang was to be divided fifty-fifty between the landschap and the pangkaigever and the peutoeha. That regulation too has not encouraged the pangkaigever. By 1915 the gouvernements rubberonderneming at Langsa had reached barely half its projected 1.000 bouw of planting; it then worked with 430 coolies, mostly contract labourers, and had a yield of 123.000 pounds of rubber at a cost-price of 66 cents.
Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)
In 1915 a smallpox epidemic struck the north coast and vaccination and re-vaccination were carried out on a large scale; the Koloniaal Verslag recorded “increasing confidence in the administration” and that no attacks on Europeans occurred during the poeasa month. In March three Alassers attacked the bivouac guard at Koeta Tjanè; in June onderluitenant Müssig was murdered at Tangsé and the officier van gezondheid De Vos wounded at Lho’ Soekon; in January a Chinese was murdered at Sigli. In 1915 Swart laid the first stone of the Javasche Bank te Koetaradja; and “ever since 1915 I have been, in view of the political situation, wholly convinced of the possibility of that separation”, he said in 1918.
See Also
- Acheh
- Atjeh up to date
- 1914
- 1916
- Dutch East Indies
- 1915
- Aceh War
- Atjeh Patchouli-Olie (1932)
- Nieuw beleid in Atjeh (1908)
- Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)
- H. N. A. Swart
- General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh (1943)
- Pacificatie van Atjeh
- Atjeh-oorlog
Source
Atjeh up to date (Statistical and Administrative Compilation, c. 1914). Archival reference DLP-10. Fragmentary OCR extraction containing financial projections and colonial budget tables for 1915.
1915 was a year of projected administrative expansion and infrastructural development in Acheh, situated within the Dutch East Indies. As the global disruptions of the First World War began to affect colonial supply chains, the Dutch authorities in Sumatra relied on long-term budgetary projections to maintain governance and pacification efforts following the Aceh War.
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.