Diponegoro and the Java War (1825-1830)

After the annexation of The Netherlands by France in 1811, the British took over the

remains of the VOC Empire. In the East Indies the British Governor Raffles, who

founded Singapore (which very soon economically overpowered Batavia) in 1816 after

his forced departure from Batavia, has put through a lot of reformations in his five

years as Governor-Genearal of the former Dutch East Indies, at that time mainly Java.

The return of the Dutch in 1816 - 1820 was not problem-free. This was due to the fact

that the Dutch wanted to turn a lot of the "reformations" around.

Financially the reinstatement of the East Indies was a disaster for the new and poor

kingdom of William I.

In order to establish an equilibrium between England and the much feared France, the

British wanted the new Dutch Kingdom (officially united with Belgium until 1839) to

have a few colonies again. The British were even so kind as to give Holland a loan, so

that they could keep head above water (financially). Monopolising the trade in opium

eventually resulted in the needed profits only around 1828.This, in fact was the start of

the so-called Indian Positive Balance ("Indisch Batig Saldo").

The poor Holland (hardly any money in the bank) had to try to get back "old" authority

over the East Indies. On top of it all there were large revolts from the moment that

Holland returned to the East Indies, for instance the one on the Moluccas, headed by

Pattimura .

Nobody wanted those Dutch, who tactlessly tried to turn back time to the good old days

of the VOC, back.

One of the largest, and for the Netherlands the most expensive, revolt was the Java

War under guidance of Diponegoro..

The real motive eventually was a problem with succession at the courts of Yogakarta. In

the meantime, it was also a problem that the Javan nobility was not allowed to ask rent

for the land anymore. This was one of the changes that Raffles and his predecessor

"The Thundering Grande Lord" Daendels had put through.

The Dutch Daendels was indeed the General who invaded Holland supported by the French in

1794. During his East Indies period as Governor-General (1808-1811), he gave order to build the

Grote Postweg ("Grand Postal Road ") from the West to the East of Java, thousands of peasants

were forced to do this and died due to severe labour. After his return to Europe he joined

Napoleon on his way to Moscow and finally died as Governor-General of the former slave

fortress Elmina in the present state of Ghana.

The Java nobility was deprived of their income. This did not mean that the population

had prospered, because the colonial authorities wanted to start collecting this. But

that is really a completely different story.

Continuing drought and a few failed harvests logically caused commotion amongst the

population. And now those much-hated Dutch were back again!

The memory of the compulsory Lord services for Daendels for the construction of the

Grand Postal Road from West- to East-Java was still fresh. The thundering Grande Lord

prouded himself in the fact that the Grand Postal Road was built at minimal costs in

only one year (naturally: the compulsory Lord services). Thousands of Javanese did not

survive!

The personal frustrations of pangeran Prince Diponegoro would eventually be the

cause of the outburst, because he was not chosen to be the next sultan of Yogakarta.

The construction of a road through his area was the spark that lit the fire. It has never

become clear if this was connected to the Grand Postal Road.

Diponegoro became convinced that he was chosen by Allah to lead a rebellion against

those secular Dutch. So then a, in the eyes of the Javanese, holy war started to which

everybody, the nobility as well as the unhappy peasants, had to commit. Soon, Java

was completely in frenzy. The Dutch did not understand at all....

The Dutch authorities were totally surprised by the massiveness of the rebellion and

the fanatism. Defeat after defeat was suffered. It even looked like they had to give up

Java again. This was not preferable because Java was to be the pillar on which the poor

Dutch economy had to stand again. (!)

Pangeran Diponegoro

The "army" that was stationed in the East Indies had their hands full on all those other

local rebellions, so they could not concentrate on their defence against Diponegoro.

Diponegoro developed into a charismatic leader with excellent tactic insight. The

Dutch had not learned a thing from the guerrilla tactics during the Boni wars in

Surinam. They left for the homelands in large groups (beating drums or not)…they had

no defence against Diponegoro, who applied a kind of a tactic of "burnt earth". No food

was left anywhere and, more important, no clean water in the jungle for the fully

European packed Dutch troops.

This way, the Indian army lost one third of its men every year and this had to be

completed from Europe as fast as possible. In their utter despair they set up a

campaign in Europe to recruit people. They also bonded with several Indian monarchs

from out of Java. In 1830 they had about 20,000 men, half of them were Europeans.

The tactics of the new Dutch head De Kock eventually were of great importance. He

"simply" adopted the methods of Diponegoro and established small but heavily

fortified posts ("bentengs"). Moreover, the Dutch proved to be masters in the "divide

and conquer" principle. The peasants were promised lower costs by the instrument of

land lease, because the nobility would again earn the rent. That way, the knife cut both

ways: the peasants thought they were better off and the nobility had income again.

The nobility was again able to negotiate with the European land loaners who wanted to

rent land from the Java farmers

Diponegoro was willing to negotiate but was still, despite an escort, imprisoned by De

Kock in Magelang during the start of the negotiations on 28 March in 1830.

Diponegoro had demanded that he would be recognised as sultan and as the head of the

Islam on Java.

Those demands were too large for an already beaten Prins.

This suited de Kock well: "I did not at all find it unpleasant. This was a perfect

opportunity for me to tell him that we could not only not indulge in such demands, but

that I also considered him to be my prisoner from that moment on."

Diponegoro was exiled to Makassar on Celebes. In 1837, he was even visited by Prince

Henry (the youngest son of the later King William II) who called him a proud man who

was captured by the Dutch because of "treason". Diponegoro spent his days with

writing texts from the Koran. He died in 1855.

His grave in Makassar is a national monument now.

The university of Semarang on Central-Java (the area where Diponegoro lived) is

named after Diponegoro.

Diponegoro's saddle and lance were moved to Holland as a bounty and were returned to

Indonesia in 1975.

Apart from the large destruction, the Java War killed (estimated) 200,000 Javanese,

(famished included) 7,000 Native and 8,000 European soldiers. The political

consequences were clear: the Java nobility had lost its power up until the next century.

What happened with the Dutch:

Governor-General Van der Capellen had returned to Holland in 1825 a frustrated man:

everything had failed and moreover he had to tell King William I that the rebellion of

Diponegoro might well be the end of the new colonial adventure.

This man must have had a very bad time pacing around on his trip back to

Holland........

General De Kock

Governor-General

Van der Capellen

www.iae.nl | Diponegoro and the Java War | page03

The Flemish (for Belgium and Holland were united now) Du Bis de Gisignies would be his

successor. The story says that Du Bis de Gisignies weighed a 145kg, when he returned to

Europe in 1830, he had lost 60kg.

His successor Van den Bosch started with new ideas: he was to be the founder of the

cultural system. According to King William I, he was able to produce money from the

Indies like "Moses could get water out of a rock". This was in spite of the debt of 40

million guilders, caused by Diponegoro and others, he had to start with.

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