1920

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tagsyear, timeline, colonial, iron-ore, acheh, 20th-century, aceh
aliases1920 AD, 1920 CE, the year 1920, 1920 (year), Year 1920

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Figures, places, and events in Acehnese history associated with the year 1920.

People

Figures, places, and events in Acehnese history associated with the year 1920.

People

Account from The Geology of Indonesia (1949) — 1920

The Kr. Geuenteuet reserve estimate

For the full account of the 1920 Kr. Geuenteuet reserve estimate see the entries on Kr. Geuenteuet and Iron ores in Atjeh. In summary: the 1920 reserve estimate for the Kr. Geuenteuet occurrence — 2,600,000 tons of ore with an average of 58–64 % Fe — is recorded by Van Bemmelen with the additional note that “Investigation was suspended on account of low market-prices.” The 58–64 % Fe grade is in the range of medium-grade iron ore, suitable for blast-furnace smelting; the gold-and-silver byproduct content (10 gr Au/ton, 33 gr Ag/ton) recorded in the 1922 Jansen-Lindberg-Wolvekamp report would, in other circumstances, have made the Kr. Geuenteuet occurrence a candidate for combined iron-and-precious-metal mining.

The 1920 N.V. Eerste Nederlandsch Indische Hoogoven Maatschappij production

1920 is also the year in which the N.V. “Eerste Nederlandsch Indische Hoogoven Maatschappij” produced 288 tons of pig-iron from its concessions “Illa” and “Elvira” in the sub-district Telok Betung in the Residency of the Lampong Districts — a separate iron-production episode that is recorded in Van Bemmelen’s text but that is not on Atjeh territory. The 1920 Lampong pig-iron production is, however, part of the wider colonial iron-metallurgy context within which the Atjeh iron-ore occurrences were assessed, and the fact that only 288 tons were produced (from a single small operation in the Lampong Districts) is itself evidence of the limited development of the colonial iron-metallurgy industry of which the Atjeh iron-ore occurrences were nominally a part.

Significance

1920 is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history because it is the year of the colonial-era reserve estimate for the Kr. Geuenteuet iron-ore occurrence — the largest documented colonial-era iron-ore reserve on Atjeh territory (2,600,000 tons of 58–64 % Fe ore). The 1920 reserve estimate is the principal quantitative basis for any assessment of the colonial iron-ore potential of Atjeh, and the “suspension [of investigation] on account of low market-prices” is the documentary evidence that the colonial state, despite its substantial investment in the geological survey of Atjeh, was unwilling or unable to translate geological reserves into productive mines. The 1920 Lampong pig-iron production (288 tons) is also part of the wider colonial iron-metallurgy context within which the Atjeh iron-ore occurrences were assessed, and it accordingly provides the comparative industrial context for the non-development of the Atjeh iron-ore reserves.

Account from Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)

1920 was the year of the low market for pepper — ‘in 1920 daalden de prijzen tot een eind beneden het bedrag, waarbij de Atjeher kan uitkomen’ — which together with the disease of 1918 and the rice-shortage of 1919 completed the collapse of the Atjehnese pepper-trade. The prices at Penang were 3 to 4 guilders for a picol, at most 7 guilders; before the European war a price of 10 guilders was just enough to get by. An investigation was instituted in 1920, by an expert in mental diseases, into the necessity of a lunatic asylum in Atjeh; the investigator was given a list of about 1.100 people considered insane. The Handelsvereeniging Amsterdam opened the estate Boeloeh Blang Ara in 1920.

Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)

E. B. Kielstra’s De vestiging van het Nederlandsch Gezag in den archipel was published in 1920 and is listed among du Croo’s sources.

See Also

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

Prior census year — but for Groot-Atjeh and Pidië no data exist, so the 36% population increase reported by the 1930 census is only an estimate.

Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 94, 195.

Source

The Geology of Indonesia, by R. W. van Bemmelen, Vol. II: Economic Geology (The Hague: Government Printing Office; Martinus Nijhoff, 1949), p. 207 (Kr. Geuenteuet 1920 reserve estimate, with the “suspended on account of low market-prices” note), p. 211 (Lampong 1920 pig-iron production).

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. 94, 195.

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