1800 to 1830: Chaos and Resistance

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1800

VOC formally dissolved on January 1; properties Help the People of Aceh

revert to Dutch government.

Sultan of the Kraton Kanoman in Cirebon is

banished to Ambon by the Dutch. A low-level
rebellion breaks out under Bagus Rangen.
During these times, the Netherlands was allied to or
occupied by Napoleon's France. Until Daendels
arrived, not all Dutch officials in the Indies approved
of the government in Amsterdam.

Around this time, many ports and markets that had

been monopolized by the VOC were opened to free
trade. This turned out to be profitable for the local
government, which then allowed the Netherlands
Indies officials to be more independent of the
Napoleonic government in Amsterdam (until events
of war reduced trade around 1807-1808).

1801

British take control of the Minahasa region,

remaining until 1816.

1802

Melaka and Maluku are returned from British to

Dutch control by the Treaty of Amiens.

Dutch begin sending military reinforcements to

Java.

1803

Dutch government (Batavian Republic) issues The "Padri" advocates on Sumatra were heavily
colonial charter making the Netherlands Indies influenced by the Wahhabiyah in Arabia, a
government responsible to the Netherlands fundamentalist movement founded by Ibnu Wahhab
(unlike the VOC). in the middle 1700s. The movement is still favored
in Saudi Arabia today.
Three pilgrims from Minangkabau return home
after travelling to Mecca for the hajj, and
encountering advocates of the Wahhabi
movement that was gaining strength in Arabia
and had occupied Mecca itself. The three pilgrims
are called "Padri" after the port of Pedir (or Pidie)
in Aceh, where people from that area started their
hajj journey. The Padri movement begins to grow
in the Minangkabau area, promoting more
orthodox Islam as opposed to traditional local
practices.

British surrender Ambon to the Dutch.

Badruddin becomes Sultan of Palembang.

1805

Pangeran Diponegoro experiences prophetic

visions.

1806

British Navy skirmishes with French and Dutch

forces off Java.

British seize Bangka.

Ministry of Colonies is founded for the

Netherlands.

The "Batavian Republic" of the Netherlands,

under French control, is converted into the
"Kingdom of Holland", with Louis, the brother of
Napoleon, as king.

1807

Tondano leads a rebellion against the British in

Minahasa.

British retake control of Melaka.

French-run government of the Netherlands

appoints Daendels as Governor-General of the
Indies.

1808

January 1 Daendels arrives.

Daendels moves his residence to Buitenzorg

(now Bogor).

Daendels takes formal possession of Lampung

for the Dutch.

Pakubuwono IV appeases Daendels;

Hamengkubuwono II opposes him.
Mangkunegara II organizes "Mangkunegaran
Legion" with Dutch financing.
Daendels reinstates the exiled Sultan of Cirebon,
but the rebellion in the countryside around
Cirebon continues.
August 18 Daendels reorganizes areas under
Dutch control in Central and East Java. Bupatis
and local rulers are made employees of the Dutch
government.
Daendels orders a series of public works around
Banten, including highways and a new harbor, to
be carried out with local workers. The workers
revolt under the burden; the Dutch Resident at
Banten is killed. Daendels sends in a military
force to put down the rebellion and replace the
Sultan of Banten, who is sent to exile in Ambon.
Herman Willem Daendels
Daendels was a product of revolutionary Europe
and a supporter of Napoleon, but he was also a
colonialist. Daendels did not like the Sultans and
Princes of Java at all, but he himself was sent to
rule in their place. He thought he was ending
oppression, but he was really bring in a newer,
heavier rule from Europe. In particular, he took
advantage of Dutch treaty rights over native rulers
that had never before been exercised. He
reorganized the legal system, but he himself
governed through arbitrary decrees.
He faced problems from every side, especially a
British naval blockade that choked off much
economic activity.

British decide to abandon Melaka; Stamford

Raffles, then a clerk, writes urgent letter to India
urging a reversal of the decision. The decision is
reversed, and the British stay in Melaka.

Sulaiman becomes Sultan of Banjar.

1809

Daendels builds mountain route from Batavia to
Cirebon (Jalan Raya Pos/Groote Postweg),
orders town of Bandung to be relocated to the
road (its current site). Pangeran Kornel, local ruler
of Sumedang, refuses to cooperate due to the
mistreatment of locals.
While in Batavia, Daendels started a campaign to
clean up the city's canals. His project to build a
great highway through the Parahiyangan took the
lives of many laborers.

Daendels abandons the Dutch presence at

Banjarmasin in order to consolidate his hold on
Java.
1810

Daendels abandons the Dutch presence at

Banjarmasin.

May British retake Ambon, Ternate and Tidore.

Raden Rangga, brother-in-law of the Sultan,

starts failed revolt against Dutch in Yogya;
Daendels marches on Yogya, forces
Hamengkubuwono II to abdicate in favor of young
Hamengkubuwono III.

Napoleon annexes the Netherlands to France.

Daendels flies the French flag over Batavia.

Raffles visits Lord Minto, British Governor-

General in India, in Calcutta, urging him to drive
the French and Dutch from Java. Minto is
convinced.

1811

January Daendels imposes new treaties on

Yogya and Surakarta, including end to rent
payments by the Dutch to the Sultans for the
north coastal areas.

Hamengkubuwono III hands over Pangeran

Natakusuma to the Dutch on suspicion of being
involved in 1810 rebellion.

May Daendels is replaced by Jan Willem Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles

Janssens. (Daendels soon served under Raffles was known for his scientific interests as well
Napoleon on his failed Moscow campaign.) as the work he did for the British East India
Company: governing Java, governing the output at
August 3 British forces land on Java. Bengkulu, Sumatra which was British at the time,
and of course, for founding Singapore.
Local princes at Banten, which was still an area of
unrest due to the burden of public works ordered
by Daendels, take the Sultan of Banten prisoner
and cooperate with the British.

August 26 British under Lord Minto take Batavia.

The Dutch, having suffered heavy losses, retreat
to Semarang.

September 18 Dutch surrender to British at

Salatiga.

Thomas Stamford Raffles appointed Lt-Governor

of Java.

Bagus Rangen is captured by the British; the

rebellion around Cirebon subsides.

Dutch resident at Palembang and company are

killed, probably on orders of Sultan Badruddin;
the British have Badruddin dethroned and
replaced by his brother.

Hamengkubuwono II retakes title in Yogya.

December Raffles visits Yogya Kraton, generates

much hostility.

Pakubuwono IV sends secret letters to Yogya

offering assistance against the British, but hoping
to make Yogya overextend themselves; British
begin secret negotiations with Hamengkubuwono
III; Natakusuma offers help to British.

1812

January 12 Raffles issues a proclamation to
reorganize and modernize the court system.
June British shell, take, and loot Yogya.
Pakubuwono IV of Surakarta offers little help.
Hamengkubuwono II is removed by the British,
sent to exile in Padang, and replaced again by
Hamengkubuwono III.
Natakusuma becomes Pangeran Pakualam I,
founding the house of Pakualam.
Raffles had the same delusion as Daendels, that he
was ending oppression, when in fact he was
bringing in a tighter colonial rule. The nobility in
Yogya considered the British to be horribly impolite.
In Raffles favor, it could be said that he liberalized
the economy of Java with free-market reforms that
helped farmers. He abolished forced labor and the
compulsory cultivation of crops. He also tried to end
the slave trade between Indonesians and
foreigners.

October British sign treaty with Sultan of Banjar. On the other hand, while farmers under Raffles
were free to grow whatever they wanted, they still
had to pay up to 40% of their crops to the
British take Timor. government.

British seize Belitung as reparation for the

"massacre" at Palembang the previous year.

1813

Bahauddin becomes Sultan of Palembang.

Raffles abolishes the Sultanate of Banten; the

Sultan to receive a pension from the British
government.

November Revolt in the Netherlands against

Napoleon.

1814
June Lord Minto, British Governor of India and
Raffles' patron and promoter, dies. Charges of
corruption are brought against Raffles, who is
eventually found innocent.

June 21 Agreement between the nations that

fought Napoleon to found a new "Kingdom of the
Netherlands".

August 13 British agree on eventual return of

possessions in the Indies to the Dutch.

British war with Balinese in Buleleng and

Karangasem over the slave trade.
Javanese palace guard with keris, early 1800s.

Bone attacks the British.

British residents are stationed in Banjarmasin and

Pontianak.

Hamengkubuwono IV takes rule in Yogya.

Diponegoro (his older brother, who had declined
the succession) is appointed as guardian for the
13-year-old Sultan.

British expedition reports on Borobudur and

Prambanan to Europe for the first time.

1815

Much of Minangkabau nobility killed by Padri The eruption of Tambora changed climate
supporters; Padri begin to expand promotion of worldwide; in the northern United States, 1815 was
Islam into Batak areas. called "the year without a summer", and snow fell in
July.
April-July Mount Tambora on Sumbawa erupts:
12,000 are dead from the eruption itself, later
50,000 die from related famine.

May Raffles visits Borobudur.

Raffles establishes direct rule over Cirebon,

removing power from its Sultans.

Netherlands government establishes regulations

for governing the Netherlands Indies. (These
would serve as a sort of constitution for the
Netherlands Indies, in one form or another, until
1942.)

1816

Bone attacks British again.

August 19 Dutch return to Batavia. Cornelis Elout

continues Raffles' reform policies.

Dutch unsuccessfully try to get rajas of Bali to

accept Dutch authority.

1817

Madura consolidated into single kabupaten.

Pattimura leads revolt against returning Dutch in

Ambon; hanged in December.

Botanical Gardens founded at Bogor.

Gunung Ijen erupts in eastern Java.

Thomas Matulessy, or Pattimura, led a rebellion

against the Dutch in Ambon in 1817.

1818

March Raffles is sent to govern British fort at

Bengkulu.

Raffles sends a small force into Lampung to

establish a British presence there; British East
India Company officials in Calcutta tell him to turn
back.

Raffles sends troops to Palembang to intervene in

negotiations between the Sultan and the Dutch.
They are arrested and sent to Batavia. British
officials again tell Raffles to withdraw.

Dutch under Cornelis Elout end the slave trade on

Java.

Dutch return to Melaka.

Dutch return to Pontianak.

1819

January 19 Raffles founds Singapore, having

purchased the island from the Sultan of Johore.

Dutch return to Padang. Raffles tries to incite anti-

Dutch actions in the Minangkabau countryside.

Najamuddin Pangeran Ratu becomes Sultan of

Palembang.

1820

Pakubuwono V becomes Susuhunan of Solo.

Dutch send expedition to the Aru Islands.

Umbrella commission is organized to oversee

Protestant churches in the Netherlands Indies.
Netherlands Indies cent from the 1820s

1821

Remaining Minangkabau nobles sign treaty giving

Minangkabau to Dutch in exchange for protection
against the Padri. "Padri War" begins.

Cholera appears in Java for the first time; rice

harvest fails.

Najamuddin Prabu Anom becomes Sultan of

Palembang.

1822

Hamengkubuwono IV dies amid rumors of

poisoning. Hamengkubuwono V is new Sultan.
Diponegoro is upset by the handling of the
situation by Dutch officials.

Mount Merapi erupts near Yogya.

Gov.-Gen. van der Capellen

1823

Dutch forces are defeated by the Padri at Lintau.
Gov.-Gen. van der Capellen abolishes land
leases in Central Java.
Pakubuwono VI ascends in Solo.
Kramo Jayo becomes Sultan of Palembang.
The nobility of the Yogya kraton in these days
served without collecting a salary. Instead, courtiers
were given the right to collect rent on land within the
Sultanate. Such rentable lands had been greatly
reduced due to colonial expansion, first by the VOC,
then the British. The situation for them improved a
little after the Dutch returned in 1816, as European
planters began to rent lands (and the use of the
peasants living on them) for plantations.

Raffles, in poor health, returns to England.
Van der Capellen, however, was of the same liberal
mindset as Daendels and Raffles before him, and
was disgusted by the feudal lifestyle these planters
had started to enjoy. But when he abolished this
system of land leasing, he also stopped the main
source of income for the nobility, turning them
 against the Dutch.

1824

March 17 British and Dutch sign Treaty of London
and divide the Indies between themselves. The
Dutch claim Sumatra, Java, Maluku, Irian Jaya,
and so on. The British claim Malaya and
Singapore, and retain an interest in North Borneo.
Aceh is supposed to remain independent.
The Treaty of London in 1824 was intended to divide
the Indies between British and Dutch control. Many
of the boundaries defined in this treaty would later
become boundaries of the Republic of Indonesia.

Bone takes Dutch areas in south Sulawesi.

Netherlands Indies faces a financial crunch--Gov.

Gen. van der Capellen offers the colony to a
private British firm, Palmer and Co., as collateral
on a loan to bail out the colonial government.
(The Netherlands government, embarassed by
these events, made large loans to the
Netherlands Indies in 1826 and 1828.)

Dutch institute direct rule in Riau.

1825

March 29 Nederlandsche Handel Maatschappij is Diponegoro had support of many princes and
founded.
Dutch defeat Bone before Java War; sporadic
fighting continues for years.
Padri fighters take southern Tapanuli area. King
Sisingamangaraja X of the Bataks is killed fighting
against the Padri.
bupati, rural farmers, and religious leaders,
including Kyai Maja. The Yogya Kraton did not side
with him. Pakubuwono VI of Surakarta supported
him quietly. The "Java War" began with a dispute
over a new road that would have disrupted an
orchard that Diponegoro had planted, but this was
only the last in a long series of insults and conflicts.

Dutch require Muslim pilgrims who wish to make

the hajj to get a passport and pay a 110 gulden
tax.

May Diponegoro and court retainers clash in

dispute over new road.

July Dutch send troops to arrest Diponegoro,

who declares rebellion. This was the beginning of
the "Java War", which lasted until 1830.

Adam al-Wasi' Billah becomes Sultan of Banjar.

Line of succession in Palembang ends. Dutch

institute direct rule.

Dutch issue orders to arrest Raden Intan in

Lampung. Raden Intan dies and is succeeded by
Raden Imba Kusuma.
1826

Guerilla warfare widespread throughout central

and east Java.

The Dutch begin organizing special troops for

fighting in the Indies.

Van der Capellen is replaced by Du Bus as

Governor-General.

August Dutch return Hamengkubuwono II from Prince Diponegoro

exile in Ambon, and reinstall him as Sultan of
Yogya.
October Diponegoro is defeated at Gowok, near
Surakarta. His forces are pushed back.
Pangeran or Prince Diponegoro is remembered as a
great hero today. He had the mystic vision of a
religious leader, the pedigree of the House of Yogya,
and an affinity for the common people. Many streets
and public institutions have been named for him.

1827

Dutch reorganize forces in the Java War, change

to more flexible tactics, take offensive against
guerilla bands.

1828

April Javanese successes against the Dutch.

Madura consolidated with Surabaya.

Smallpox epidemic in Bali.

Fort Du Bus founded by Dutch in Irian Jaya.

November Kyai Maja, spiritual advisor to

Diponegoro, is taken prisoner by the Dutch after
hand-to-hand combat.

1829

September Pangeran Mangkubumi (uncle of

Diponegoro) surrenders. He is allowed to return
to his palace.

October Sentot surrenders. The Dutch make him

a Lieutenant-Colonel.

Sentot
Sentot fought against the Dutch during the Java
War, but later switched allegiances.

1830
 March Diponegoro agrees to negotiations in
Magelang, is arrested, exiled to Manado, then to
Ujung Padang (until 1855).

Pakubuwono VI, suspected by the Dutch, is

exiled to Ambon (until 1849). Pakubuwono VII
becomes Susuhunan of Solo.

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