1926

1926 was the year of the communist uprisings on Java — and of the nasmeulend verzet (smouldering resistance) that flared up again on the Westkust of Atjeh at the same time — which together forced a partial restoration of the K.N.I.L.’s strength after the cutbacks of the post-First-World-War period. It is also the year in which the Nederlandsch Indië Platen Atlas (1926) was published by Volkslectuur in Weltevreden, printed by G. Kolff & Co. in Batavia, as a jubilee volume commemorating the silver reign of Koningin Wilhelmina. It is one of the political-military and publishing years of the inter-war period in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. and a landmark year in the official colonial historiography of Atjeh.

The communist uprisings

“Fortunately the communists decided in 1926 that this had gone far enough and began a couple of risings, while on the West Coast of Atjeh some smouldering resistance flared up again for a moment…” The communists in 1926 judged that the cutbacks had gone far enough and began a few uprisings, while on the Westkust of Atjeh some smouldering resistance flared up again. The two events — the communist uprisings on Java and the nasmeulend verzet on the Westkust of Atjeh — were independent but simultaneous, and together they forced a partial restoration of the colonial army’s strength.

The cutbacks and the restoration

The cutbacks that provoked the communist judgement had been the post-First-World-War policy of “geen man en geen cent” — no man and no cent — by which the colonial army’s strength had been reduced to 36,000 (then cut by 6,000) for an archipelago of 70 million. The communist uprisings of 1926 and the Westkust resistance forced a partial restoration of the strength; then the economic crisis hit, communism was conveniently declared “done with,” and the legermacht was reduced again. “And after 1936 to expand again.”

The Westkust resistance

The nasmeulend verzet on the Westkust of Atjeh in 1926 was the last flicker of the Acehnese armed resistance after the handover of 1918. The book notes that the Westkust verzet of 1925–1927 was the last significant Acehnese resistance episode of the inter-war period; the Troemon tragedy of 1926 is also mentioned in this context.

Publication of the Nederlandsch Indië Platen Atlas

In January 1926, the Nederlandsch Indië Platen Atlas (1926) was published by Volkslectuur in Weltevreden, printed by G. Kolff & Co. in Batavia. The atlas was produced “ter gelegenheid van het vijf-en-twintigjarig regeringsjubileum van Hare Majesteit de Koningin” — on the occasion of the silver jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen’s reign. The atlas was edited by a Special Commission of Editors (Speciale Commissie van Redactie) in the Indies, and its publication was overseen by Dr. C. P. Gunning, director of Volkslectuur. It was the colonial government’s most ambitious publishing programme of the inter-war period, intended for wide distribution both in the colony and in the Netherlands.

Figures in Atjehnese history associated with 1926

People

Governor Van Heutsz — featured posthumously in the Nederlandsch Indië Platen Atlas (1926) (died 11 July 1924).
General van der Heyden — featured posthumously in the atlas (died 1900).
C. Snouck Hurgronje — featured in the atlas as a living advisor.
Koningin Wilhelmina — reigning monarch, whose silver jubilee the atlas commemorates.
Andreas Victor Michiels — commemorated by the Michiels Monument depicted in the atlas.
C. P. Gunning — director of Volkslectuur, under whose care the atlas was published.

Places

Weltevreden — the Atjeh Monument is depicted in the Wilhelminapark.
Koeta-Radja — mentioned as the northern terminus of the Sumatran road.
Peutjoet — depicted with the names of fallen soldiers.
Batavia — the capital, where G. Kolff & Co. printed the atlas.
North Sumatra — described as the homeland of the Atjehers.

Events

Publication of the Nederlandsch Indië Platen Atlas (1926) by Volkslectuur.
The railway network in Atjeh is noted as expanding.
The Communist uprisings of 1926 on Java.
The nasmeulend verzet on the Westkust of Atjeh.

Other

Pacification of Atjeh — commemorated by the Atjeh Monument.
Buitengewesten — described as having undergone transformative infrastructure development.
Onthoudingspolitiek — described as having been abandoned under Van Heutsz in favour of active policy.
Islam in Atjeh — discussed as one of the earliest Islamic regions of the Archipelago.

Account from Nederlandsch Indië Platen Atlas (1926) — The Year

The atlas was published in January 1926 as a jubilee publication for the silver reign of Queen Wilhelmina. By this year, the transformation of the Buitengewesten was sufficiently advanced that the atlas could boast of automobile travel from Kota Radja in Atjeh to Padang, and the expansion of the Atjeh and Deli railway networks. The war in Atjeh, which had begun in 1873, was now fully in the past, commemorated by monuments rather than fought on battlefields — a transition marked by the publication of the atlas itself, whose plates of the Atjeh Monument and the cemetery at Peutjot enshrined the conflict in the official colonial memory.

Significance

1926 is significant in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. as the year of the communist uprisings on Java and of the nasmeulend verzet on the Westkust of Atjeh. The book’s argument is that the two events together forced a partial restoration of the colonial army’s strength, and that the cutbacks that provoked the communist judgement were the post-First-World-War policy of “*not a man and not a penny.” The year 1926 is therefore the book’s marker of the inter-war political-military context: the communist uprisings, the Westkust resistance, and the partial restoration of the colonial army’s strength.

In the broader colonial historiography, 1926 is the year in which the Nederlandsch Indië Platen Atlas — the most ambitious popular publication of the late colonial period — was issued as a self-conscious reckoning of Dutch achievement in the East Indies. The atlas’s juxtaposition of the Atjeh Monument and the cemetery at Peutjot on a single plate, alongside its portraits of Van Heutsz, Van der Heyden and Snouck Hurgronje as the “Groote Mannen” of the latest colonial history, fixed the pacification of Atjeh as the centrepiece of the official colonial narrative.

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

Zentgraff records 1926 as a year of major patrouille disasters on the Westkust and criminal violence in Blang Kedjeren. In March 1926 the patrouille-Grünefeld, travelling from Singkel to Troemon, was bijna geheel afgemaakt through the failure of waakzaamheid by a schildwacht; fifteen karabijnen were lost. The patrouille-Paris at Sapé suffered disaster, but the Jav. maréchaussée Kromodikoro heroically took command though zwaar gewond. The patrouille-Klaar earned the Kroontje. Tjoet Ali attacked the patrouille-Schreuder in July 1926.

On 7 December 1926 a Gajoe murdered sergeant Van Gent and sergeant De Gruiter at the tangsi of Blang Kedjeren. Van den Broek was decapitated with a single klewang-blow. The murders, Zentgraff writes, recalled the Duivel op de Blang affair of 1909: the same isolation, the same spanning, the same murderous release.

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

Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)

In 1926 the great Teukoe Keumangan of Seunagan acknowledged to du Croo that T. Radja Tampo’ had indeed been on the pasar at Djeuram, but that an oelèëbalang who betrayed so holy a figure “could not remain a territorial chief in Seunagan”. Du Croo also watched in 1926 a toean of the Swart school travel through his old district after ten years, to which the Acehnese “streamed together from far and near”. Dr. P. van Hulstijn’s Van Heutsz en de Buitengewesten appeared in 1926. The fright caused by the resistance of 1925/1926 became the cause of the eventual construction of through roads and of the connecting roads between the north, east and west coasts.

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

S.F.C. (Société Financière des Caoutchoucs) acquired interests at Meulaboh, sparking more activity on the Westkust. Bakongan attack led to establishment of bivak Bakongan.

Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 51, 55, 196.

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), chapter “Ooms leger.”

Nederlandsch Indië Platen Atlas met korte beschrijvingen, uitgegeven door Volkslectuur, Weltevreden, Java. Weltevreden: G. Kolff & Co., January 1926. Full work.

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. 51, 55, 196.

tags	year, timeline, colonial, dutch, publication, jubilee, communist-uprising, aceh, 20th-century
aliases	the year 1926, 1926 AD, 1926 (year), Year 1926

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