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MASARYK UNIVERSITY Faculty of Social Studies Department of International Relations and European Studies

The Dutch Trading Company – VOC In 1600 – 1800 The Path to Dominance

Master Thesis

Supervisor: Author: Mgr. et Mgr. Oldřich Krpec, Ph.D Prilo Sekundiari

Brno, 2015

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Declaration

I hereby declare that this thesis I submit for assessment is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work.

Date : Signature …………………

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Abstract:

Since the arrival of the European in , the economic condition in Asia especially in has changed drastically. The European trading company such the Dutch’s VOC competing with the other traders from , Asia, and local traders for dominance in the trading sphere in East Indies. In , the Dutch’s VOC gained its golden age with its dominance in East Indies. The purpose of this thesis is to find out what was the cause of the VOC success during its time.

Keywords:

VOC, Dutch, Company, Politics, Economy, Military, Conflicts, East Indies, Trade, Spices, Dominance

Language used:

English

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Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank my supervisor, Mgr. et Mgr. Oldřich Krpec, Ph.D.,

Prof. Dr. Djoko Suryo for all of his advices, matur nuwun...

My friends; Tek Jung Mahat, and Weronika Lazurek. Thank you....

Prilo Sekundiari

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Table of Contents

Glossary______6 Introduction______8 1. Background and Historical Setting 1.1. Geographical Condition______12 1.1.1. Sumatera ______13 1.1.2. Kalimantan______15 1.1.3. Sulawesi______16 1.1.4. Moluccas______17 1.1.5. Java______18 1.1.6. Tumasik______20 1.1.7. Malacca______20 1.2. Political Situation______21 1.2.1. The Age of 1.2.2. The Spanish______26 1.2.3. The Portuguese ______28 1.2.4. The Dutch ______33 1.2.5. The British______35 1.2.6. The Rise of ______36 1.3. Social Economic Condition ______39 Conclusion______43 2. VOC - Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie 2.1. Reason of Existance ______45 2.2. Design of Organization ______47 2.3. System and Mode of Operation______51 2.4. Military Capability______53 2.5. Conflicts 2.5.1. Banda ______57

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2.5.2. Mataram______59 2.5.3. ______62 2.5.4. Muara Angke______65 2.6 Conflicts with Other European 2.6.1 The Portuguese______68 2.6.2 The British ______70 2.7 The fall of the Company ______71 Conclusion______73 3. The effectiveness of VOC operations from economic perspective 3.1 Analysis______76 Conclusion______84 4. The impact of VOC activities to Southeast Asia 4.1 Short Term Impact______85 4.2 Long Term Impact ______89 4.2.1 Infrastructure ______91 Conclusion______95 5. Conclusion ______97 Bibliography ______100 List of Pictures______104

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Glossary

Agrarische Wet Land Constitution Amboina Ambon Andalas Sumatera Banten Bantaam Batavia under VOC Bencoolen Bobato Council Celebes Contingentenstelsel VOC Regulation on Plantation Culturstelsel under Van Den Bosch Devide et Impera Strategy used by VOC EIC Extirpation Plant Eradication Fala raha Four Clans Generale Missive General's Dispatch Portuguese Port in India Gowa Kingdom in Heeren XVII the Board of VOC Hongi Tochten Trade supervision on sea Island in Jayakarta Jakarta Kalimantan Indonesian part of Borneo Keling Indian village Koeli Ordonnantie Slaves Regulation Malaccas Malayan Peninsula Mardjikers Free People

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Mataram Kingdom in Java Moluccas Spices Island Musketiers Volunteer Octrooi VOC’s special rights Ommeladen Surrounding Lands Pangeran Prince Passenstelsel Travel Regulation Pecinan Chinese village Poenale Sanctie Penal Sanction Prajurit Soldier Pribumi Native people Priangan Rakyat Jelata Common people Staten-Generaal Dutch’s Parliament Subak Balinese irrigation system Jakarta Tumasek Verlichte leverantie Plantation Tax VOC Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie Vrijburger Out of Contract West Indonesian part of Papua Wijkenstelsel Regulation to form Ethnic-based community

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Introduction

“Whoever is lord of has his hand on the throat of Venice” -Tome Pires -

Since the arrival of Europeans in Asia, the economic condition in Asia especially in South and South East Asia has changed drastically. Europeans such as the Dutch, the British, the Portuguese, and the Spanish, joining the race with the other traders from , China, India and the local traders for goods and items they wanted. At that time, nutmegs, , and other spices, were the treasures being hunted by many people from all around the world, including the Europeans. Malacca and Moluccas became a trophy contested by many sides.

The first European to reach South East Asia and East Indies were the Portuguese and they arrived in Malacca in 1511, conquered the peninsula, and then established themselves in Moluccas, the centre of the spices. The next European were the Dutch, following Portuguese’s path, they eventually found the spice island of Moluccas and built a trading company of their own, the VOC. The British and the Spanish were two sides of a coin; the British decided to settle down in India while the Spanish was forced to leave Moluccas for .

The tight competition in trading forced these rivals to work harder, as hard as they can, by all means, with all they got, to conquer their competitors and win the trading competition even if it requires use of military and violence. The Asian traders with their territorial advantages somehow managed to compete with the European traders, but in the end the European were the ones who out competed the Asian traders and claimed the trophy.

Among the Europeans, it was the Dutch with its VOC who finally claimed the thrown and gained its glorious age during the 17th century. In the following century, the

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British took over the thrown from the Dutch. The Portuguese and the Spanish, who started the age of exploration, were easily eliminated from the competition.

Several centuries passes by, and at the moment there has been a debate on happened during the 16th – 18th centuries especially regard to success of the Europeans in gaining their triumph in the world of trading. The success of the European during that period of time is being questioned, what was the cause? Was it due to technological gap between European and Asian? Or because of East Indies was so rich of natural resources and commodities? Is it Military factor? Prof. Irfan Habib in one of his essay clearly questioned; whether the success was due to the superiority in weaponry rather than superiority in business organization?1 . Indeed a very interesting and very challenging question that need to be answered by anyone interested in economic history. A question that also applies to the Dutch’s VOC as it was the most successful trading company of its time.

This thesis will elaborate further on the spectrum of VOC and its activities and will try to answer the current discourse or at least give description from different perspective and also to contribute to the study of history and economy in general and too much covered study of VOC and world trade in particular. This thesis will analyze the Dutch’s trading company or the VOC which operated during from 1600 – 1800 in East Indies. VOC was chosen because of its reputation as the first multinational company, a pioneer in world trading, and a business institution granted with special political and military capability. Since this special privilege made VOC very different from its counterparts and allowed it to push its agenda in every possible ways. The main research question of this thesis is;

“What was the role of military on VOC trading in East Indies?”

1 Prof. Irfan Habib, with the essay “Merchant communities in precolonial India”, on The Rise of Merchant by J.D. Tracy.

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Previous studies have shown that there were some indications regarding the military role towards the VOC’s activities in the trading world. Some of those indications can be seen in the following;

“the voc might to some degree have developed a ‘technological’ form of military superiority, particularly in the realm of naval warfare and fortress design, but that in the early modern context this technological gap alone, particularly considering the improbably small size of the Company’s armies, was insufficient to explain its military success” (Mostert, 2007). Mostert studied the VOC’s military in many areas all around the world, during VOC’s period of 1655 – 1663.

Meanwhile Jeremy Black in his War in the Early Modern World 1450-1815, “ regardless of the limited impact of European up to the 18th century, the most important fact is that Europe was able to project its power, in however modest proportions, onto the rest of the world, and not the other way around “.

Moreover, Koen Van Den Bos through his research managed to put a conclusion as; “the failed conquest of Surat and the never attempted conquest of the Philippines are two grand examples of territorial in action, showing that the VOC in its core was an imperial war machine” 2(Van Den Bos, 2013).

Based on the statement above, it’s clear that military might have played an important role for the European and the VOC during the period of 15th – . Therefore it’s relevant to make an inquiry regarding the role of military on the Dutch’s VOC trading activities in East Indies.

2 Van Den Bos, Koen. The VOC: Trading Company or Imperial War Machine? An inquiry into the Grand Strategy of the VOC 1701 - 1705. (2013).P-82

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To be able to answer the question above, first of all we will elaborate the area, the situation, and the condition where the Dutch’s VOC was established and operated to seek if there are any relations or reasonable factors determining why the European and the VOC decided to trade and establish the company in this specific area. We will elaborate the environment, natural resources, sociological and physiological aspects of the people living in this area, historical setting - the social and political condition - that already existed before the arrival of the Dutch, the challenge and opportunity that may have emerged before the establishment of VOC.

Secondly, we will elaborate the profile and the history of the VOC itself, the shape and structure of the organization, the method and work approach, military capability, the timeline of the company from the date of foundation to dissolution and also the conflicts during its operating period of 200 years.

Thirdly, this thesis will analyze the efficiency of the trade conducted by the VOC based on the plantation or harvest method being applied, administration system, trading method used and the VOC trademark’s in tactics and strategy, also a slight comparison with the British’s trading company, the EIC in India.

Fourthly, we will see the impact of the VOC existence in East Indies in wider terms. Here it will cover the direct impact after the dissolution of VOC and the longer term impact covering the Dutch’s second period in Indonesia. Last but not least, the conclusion part will summarize the conclusion of the thesis.

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1. Background and Historical Setting

In the first part of the thesis we will see in general the geographic profile of East Indies and South East Asia along with the potential of natural resources contained in the area which eventually attracted people to come and trade. We will also describe the places and places with historical events related to VOC to measure the potential level of challenge, opportunity, and possible threat which VOC might have dealt with during its operational.

1.1 Geographical Condition

East Indies or nowadays known as Indonesia, is one of the countries in South East Asia. Indonesia is located in a very strategic place situating between two oceans; the and the Pacific Ocean, located between two different continents; the Asian continent and the Australian continent with two monsoonal seasons; the rainy and the dry season. Rainy season usually take place from October to April or when the winds blows on the sky from Asia to Australia carrying clouds full of water and Dry season take place from May to September or when the dry winds come from Australia to Asia continent. The temperatures vary depending on the season and the places. In some areas it can reach as high as 34 degree Celsius with lower temperature recording around 18 degree Celsius. 2/3rd or 65 % of the areas consist of waters. The highest peak is in Papua Island, the Cartenz’s peak at Jayawijaya Mountains, which is always covered by eternal snow.

Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago with more than 17.500 islands, including five biggest among them – Andalas or Sumatera, Borneo or Kalimantan, Java, Celebes or Sulawesi, and West Papua or Papua Island. Of the 17.500 islands,

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around 5000 islands are inhabited and 8000 of them are still not named3. Java is the most populated island for decades or even for centuries due to its central position, economically and politically. It has the world’s second longest coastlines ; the area stretches 5.000 kilometres from Sabang in the west to Merauke in the east, and 3.000 kilometres from Rote Island in the south to Miangas Island in the north with more than 800 ethnic groups or tribes and around 546 languages 4.

Indonesia is gifted with very fertile soil derived from eruption of volcanoes, , including some super volcanoes such as Toba, Krakatau, and Tambora were among super volcanoes. It is believed that the eruption of Tambora had caused a catastrophe in other part of the earth, meanwhile the eruption of Toba had left a lake which is believed to be its crater. It is not a surprising if this area is gifted with very rich with natural resources, plants and vegetations including spices, and warm water full of many kinds of fishes. Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles5, during the period of the British reign in East Indies 1811-1816 found the Bangkai 6 flower in Sumatera during his reign in East Indies. It is quite understandable and reasonable if it attracted many people to come for multiple reasons.

1.1.1 Sumatera

Sumatera Island or Andalas Island, as known earlier, is situated strategically in Western part of Indonesia, side-by-side with Malacca or the Malaysian peninsula and only the world’s busiest strait, the Malacca strait, which separates both of them.

3 The Chief of the Indonesia Geographical Association, Prof. Dr. Hartono, stated this during a seminar at Gadjah Mada University recently. Release about the seminar can be found via Gadjah Mada University’s official webste ; http://ugm.ac.id/id/berita/9907- dikhawatirkan.berkurang.jumlah.pulau.di.indonesia.didata.ulang 4 Indonesian Government Official Website , Country Profile. http://www.indonesia.go.id/in/sekilas- indonesia/geografi-indonesia 5 Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles was the founder of the Singapore. He wrote a book in 1817 with the tittle The History of Java. 6 Bangkai in Indonesian literally means corpse. The name was given due to the smell of the flowers in which smells like corpse or rotten flesh.

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Demographically, Sumatera consist of two parts; the Barisan mountains in the western side and swamp-water-river in the eastern side. River has an important role for transportation between Sumatera and Malacca strait7. Sumatera is also known as one of the best coffee producers in the world, in particular the north eastern part of Sumatera is quite famous; Tapanuli, Liwa, Lahat, Gayo, Takengon, Sidikalang, etc8. Other commodities produced in were pepper and rubber.

In Western part of Sumatera, in Sawahlunto, coal was found and mined by the Dutch. Culturally, Sumatera has many similarities with the condition in Malaysian Peninsula due to the acculturalization and assimilation that occurred during the period of Kingdom in which many inhabitants were taken from Malaysian peninsula after being conquered by Aceh Kingdom. On the other hand, Chinese Moslem settlements were founded by Marco Polo during his visit back in 1292. Presumably they were Chinese merchants conducting trading in these areas. One of the areas in Sumatera, the Bencoolen or the of Bengkulu was former British Administration back in 1685, subordinated to Madras in India under the East India Company before it became part of the Dutch Indies in 1825 as part of the Anglo- Dutch Treaty9.

Sumatera was home of two great kingdoms; the Sriwijaya Kingdom and the Aceh Kingdom. The Sriwijaya was a huge kingdom with huge influences reaches as far as India in the west and Champa in the north in Cambodia. The centre of the Sriwijaya Empire located in in Southern Sumatera10. Meanwhile the Aceh Kingdom, an Islamic kingdom, located in Aceh region or in the northern edge

7 Indonesian Government Official Website, South Sumatera Profile. http://www.indonesia.go.id/in/pemerintah-daerah/provinsi-sumatera-selatan/profil-daerah 8 Indonesian Government Official Website , North Sumatera Profile. http://www.indonesia.go.id/in/pemerintah-daerah/provinsi-sumatera-utara/profil-daerah 9 http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Indonesia.htm#Bencoolen 10 Indonesian Government Official Website , South Sumatera Profile. http://www.indonesia.go.id/in/pemerintah-daerah/provinsi-sumatera-selatan/profil-daerah

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of Sumatera, just in the mouth of Malacca Strait. Aceh Kingdom conquered the whole areas of Sumatera and most parts of Malaysian Peninsula and also an arch rival of Portuguese while they were in Malacca, and later remained one of the Dutch’s toughest opponents in 19th century.

1.1.2 Kalimantan

Kalimantan or Borneo Island is considered to be one of the largest islands in the world. An Island with very abundant natural resources such as oil, coal, etc and enormous number of plants and animals such rattan, timber, orangutan etc. Most of its areas are covered by tropical rain forest. Settlements were established along the coastline especially southern part facing towards . Rivers were used as means of transportation due to the size and the path which connects the sea and the areas located deep inside the forest. Kingdoms were mostly found in the southern part of Kalimantan. The Banjar kingdom holds its reputation as the main ruler in this area11. Several other kingdoms existed in the deep areas of Kalimantan. The Dayak tribe is the native ethnic of Kalimantan. They lived mostly in the central part of the island and used river as their main means of transportation

In terms of trading, Sukadana in southwest of the island was one of the most popular and crowded trading port used by many traders including the British and Mataram Kingdom especially after Malacca being conquered by the Portuguese in 1511. The Dutch VOC arrived in at 1605, the same year when the Portuguese sailed away from Moluccas due to heavy defeats from the Dutch VOC and the resistance from the locals. Borneo is the whole part of the Kalimantan, but the Indonesian part of Borneo is commonly known as Kalimantan and the Malaysian part

11 Thesis on the role of Banjar Sultanate on the trading world in East Indies during th 18th century. (Wicaksono, Ibnu. Kesultanan Banjarmasin dalam lintas perdagangan di abad ke XVIII, Jakarta, 2010. P-32).

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of Borneo known as Serawak12. Small part of Borneo in the northern part is a sovereign territory known as the Sultanate of Darussalam. The deeper part of Kalimantan was unexplored by the Europeans during the early time when they arrived due to the environmental reason.

1.1.3 Sulawesi

Previously known as Celebes, an Island situated in central Indonesia. A producer of iron seeds in its time13, the name of Celebes derived from the event when the Portuguese came to the area to find gold and other metal. The southern part of the Island is t21he most populated and was popular for centuries as it was previously former part of Gowa Kingdom. One of the tribe in the area, the Bugis is a very famous and well known for its capability in sea navigation and sailing since the proven by the Phinisi ship which is the trademark of the Bugis sailor.

Gowa and were the most influential kingdoms in Sulawesi during 17th Century. Makassar was the port the VOC wanted for many years14. It was considered to be a big obstacle for the campaign in Eastern part of East Indies especially after the fall of Malacca into Portuguese’s hand, Makassar become more and more vital port of trading as it played role as connector for the goods from , Philippines, and the goods from Moluccas, Banten, Sukadana, , Northern part region of Java, Banjarmasin, as well as to Sumatera and Malacca itself. Makassar’s Bugis sailor had also established a trading relation with the Malacca

12 In 1953 the Indonesian government changed name Borneo into Kalimantan as a result of new province creation during that time. 13 The Iron was gained from Matano and . (Bulbeck dan Caldwell. Land of Iron; The historical archaeology of Luwu and the Cenrana valley. Hull: Centre for South-East Asian Studies, University of Hull. 2000. Chapter 3). 14 The fall of Makassar in 1666 was considered to be the final blows as it was Southeast Asian’s local port. (Knaap, G. All About the Money: Maritime Trade in Makassar and West Java Around 1775. Journal of the Economic & Social History of the Orient. . 2006)P-483

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Sultanate, the kingdom and several others, before the Portuguese and the Dutch arrived in Southeast Asia.

1.1.4 Moluccas

Moluccas is a group of island located in the central-eastern part of East Indies. Around 400 Islands spread all over the areas and among those islands there are big islands such Ambon, Seram, , and Yamdena. Moluccas situated between Celebes in the west and Papua Island in the east15. Moluccas has it owns uniqueness of natural resources. The demography in Moluccas is a combination of Asia and Australia. The vegetations and the animals in Moluccas somehow closer to Australian type rather than to Asian type, but there are plenty of Asian tipe of plants as well. 90% areas in Moluccas are water, the land is about 10% with 70% of them are mountains. Moluccas as a province is considered to be one of the oldest in Indonesia.

Picture 1: Map of Moluccas (pic source : www.spiceislandsforts.com)

15 Moluccas Governement. Province Profile. http://www.malukuprov.go.id/index.php/2014-01-29-11-12- 57/letak-geografis-provinsi-

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In Northern part of Moluccas, the civilization had been improved to some degree especially in political realms. They already implemented division of power since 1255 under the Foramadiahi treaty, by dividing the power and authority into four soa or clan. The political realm in northern part on Moluccas doesn’t recognize “ prince” as a political institution16. Therefore, the crown prince will not be automatically chosen as the next in case the current Sultan passed away or unable to continue his duty. Sultan was chosen through an open meeting conducted by bobato or the council which consisted of 18 people and fala raha or four clans. The chosen Sultan will be sworn to protect the people and the nature. Sultan must follow the regulation and terms applied to him as political institution which means Sultan can also be criticized through the highest and smoothest way in local manner17.

1.1.5 Java

Java is a relatively young island, in which most of its areas shaped by volcanic activities. The hugely number amount of volcano has fertilizes the land and attracts people to come and settle down in Java. During early ages, most civilization such as such temples and ruins’ was found around the slope of the volcanoes due to the fertile environment. As stated by Clive Day on his book, the superiority in wealth and population that Java possesses over the other territories of the Dutch in the East Indies can be ascribed in large part to the remarkable fertility of the Island, due to its geological constitution18. The large numbers of the volcano was due to the fact that East Indies was located in chain of magma called the ring of fire. In Java itself there were 38 volcanoes with Semeru as the highest volcano and Merapi as the most active in Java and in the archipelago.

16 Ruray, Syaiful Bahri. Rediscovery The Spices Islands, The Legal and Socio-Political in North Moluccas. Paper on Conference : Maluku Utara Dalam Perspektif Diversitas Multidimensi”. (, November. 2010) P-11. 17 Usually Sultan was criticized through dancing or the smoothest art such Legu Kadaton 18 Day, Clive. The Policy and Administration of the Dutch in Java. (Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, New York, , Melbourne 1966). P-2

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Some others civilization located along the northern coast of Java Island as the economic activities took a part in the people’s daily life at that time. Some part of Java such the central part is also known as the Land of Thousand temples due to the large numbers of temples and sacred praying places found. The temples were mostly established during prevalence of and in the area or around the 4th and 5th centuries in which that time the Tarumanegara kingdom was considered to be the first Hindu kingdom in Java. Java’s location surrounded by the Java Sea, Indian Ocean, Sunda and Malacca straits, and South China Sea undoubtedly has placed Java as a strategic island in terms of trading. For the same reason, the Dutch moved its VOC headquarters from Amboina in Moluccas to Jakarta or Batavia in Java.

In correlation with world of trading, areas in the northern coast such Banten, Jayakarta, in West Java, , Demak, , in , , Gresik, and in pays a great role in the history of the world trading especially in East Indies. Banten for example, the region was already a very well known port of trading before the European traders came to Banten. Chinese traders, Indian traders, Persian traders and local traders can live side by side without any dispute or conflict among them.

Jakarta19, or previously known as Sunda Kelapa, Jayakarta, and Batavia, situated just next to Banten. The name changes represent how important this city is, each name changes was closely related to the shift of the ruling power in the city. Sunda Kelapa literally means Victory comes from effort, Jayakarta means the Victorius City20, and Batavia name existed during the shift of power in the area when Banten, British, and VOC involved in sequence clashed around 1618. According to record from Tome Pires, Portuguese sailor, Jakarta was one of the busiest trading ports in Java in early . Many traders from Asia and other parts of East Indies especially the eastern part placed their anchor in Jakarta to meet and trade.

19 Several sources also used Jacatra or Jaccatra 20 The Name Jayakarta was given by the Sultan of Cirebon after managed to defeat the Portuguese in Sunda Kelapa

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1.1.6 Tumasik.

Singapore is a small island located in the edge of Malaysian peninsula, previously known as Tumasik or Tumasek which means “sea city” before it changed into Singapore. During the Kingdom period especially during Sriwijaya and , Singapore did hold its strategic position as a trading post or outpost. After the fall of Sriwijaya and Majapahit, Singapore21 later become part of the Johor kingdom’s area before finally established as British’s trading port. The Johor area itself was once consider to be an option of VOC’s new headquarter22 but the Portuguese’s position in the peninsula somehow made it impossible. Regardless its limited natural resource Singapore is an important economic port in South East Asia.

1.1.7 Malacca

Malacca or Malacca is a peninsula situated between the Malacca strait and the Gulf of . It’s one of the most important gateway in the world trading as most of the shipping line goes through the Malacca strait towards either East Asia ; China- Japan-Korea-Hongkong-Taiwan/Formosa, and to East Indies to spice island, Java, Sunda Straits and to some extend to Australia and as well as Pacific. The Peninsula was constantly under attack from several powers such as Sriwijaya, Majapahit, Aceh, Portuguese, Dutch, and British. The area between Sumatera, Malacca, Singapore, and Java was probably one of the dynamic areas for centuries as the shift of power occurred.

Kingdoms with the great influence in the area were Johor, , and Patani. Johor with the capitol in Batu Sawar was the head of the Malay constellation23. These involved in conflicts with the Portuguese, the VOC, and Aceh during

21 The City of Singapore was founded by Sir Thomas Stanford Raffles during British period in Southeast Asia 22 Before VOC’s command centre was moved to Jakarta or Batavia, either Banten or Johor was the option. (Day, Clive. The Dutch Administration in Java. Kuala Lumpur. 1966.) P-42 23 Mitrasing, Inggrid S. Negotiating a in the Straits of Malacca (1500–1700). Kemanusiaan Vol. 21, No. 2, (2014), 55–77

20 the period of 16th and 17th centuries. The Aceh kingdom and Bugis were among the kingdoms closely related to Malacca. Bugis tribe was close to the Kingdoms in Malacca as they had relation in trading, but Aceh kingdom was more eager to conquer Malacca along with the whole kingdoms in the area. The reason of the Aceh interest was slightly unknown but possible it was because of the glory of expansion.

Both Aceh kingdom and Johor kingdom was Islam based kingdom.

1.2 Political Situation

During its early ages, this area was an area full of and dynamism, where peoples still worship spirits and believe in superstition. Hinduism and Buddhism not to forget to mention Confucianism, came not long after it, and then followed by the arrival of Islam. The evidence of the existence of Hinduism – Buddhism in East Indies, can be found through the existence of these kingdoms ; Tarumanegara in West Java, Ho-ling or Kalingga di East Java, Melayu in Andalas, and in East Java, Bali, Sunda Padjajaran, Ancient Mataram, Majapahit in East Java, and Sriwijaya at the East coast of Sumatera. The last two kingdoms mentioned, for the Indonesians, were considered to be the National Kingdom due to its reputation on its triumph ages. Sriwijaya kingdom was the first National Kingdom, and Majapahit was the 2nd National Kingdom in which both were very strong in terms of naval armada.

The Sriwijaya kingdom conquered Malacca, Java, Borneo, Sumatera, and had its diplomatic relation with India. Meanwhile Majapahit had its influences all around East Indies. During of this Sriwijaya and Majapahit kingdom’s period the area in East Indies experienced the most wild and brutal political situation. The conflict caused by internal and external competition happened very often. Rebellion, mutiny, treachery, and struggle for the thrown occurred very easily and gone worse by the desire to expand the influences by attacking, conquering and annexing other kingdom’s territory.

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Sriwijaya was one of the most powerful kingdoms on its age; supported by strong naval power, and strong army, this kingdom was able to conquer Java Island and Malaysian peninsula and subsequently invaded Khmer and Champa before it eventually collapsed after being attacked by Singhasari kingdom from Java and Colamandala kingdom from southern India.

Picture 2: Sriwijaya Empire. (Credit to: Gunawan Kartapranata)

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Meanwhile Majapahit kingdom was considered to be the first kingdom able to unite the whole area of East Indies24. Emerged after the period of Sriwijaya, Majapahit’s kingdom central point was located in East Java, at the northern coast of Java Island. The kingdom was very well known for its internal conflict such rebellion and civil war. Majapahit’s kingdom’s territory spread wide until Malaysian peninsula and northern part of Borneo. Majapahit kingdom eventually collapsed due to massive scale of civil war and unable to hold the influence of Islamic kingdom, the Demak Kingdom in central Java.

Picture 3: Majapahit Empire (Credit to: Gunawan Kartapranata)

After Islam arrived, some of the kingdoms reaches its golden ages; Demak, Cirebon, Aceh, Banten, and Mataram. Some of these kingdoms involved in conflict with the Portuguese, such as Demak and Aceh, and some involved in a long and continous fight against the Dutch such as Mataram.

24 Sriwijaya’s expansion somehow is more likely to move to the north meanwhile Majapahit’s expansion is more likely to unite the whole East Indies

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When the Portuguese arrived in Malacca, they were considered as a dangerous threat by many kingdoms especially by small kingdoms situated along the either in Malaysian peninsula or Sumatera Island because they realizes that sooner or later they will be conquered soon by the Portuguese. Moreover the trading situation changed very drastically after the arrival of the Portuguese, many traders started to move to into other places and tried to avoid the Portuguese. Therefore many kingdoms started to react by taking preventive as well as offensive stance to the opposition in Malacca. One of the Kingdoms challenging the Portuguese was Aceh kingdom in northern part of Sumatera.

Aceh kingdom had huge influence and big interest in Malacca and felt being contested by the arrival and existence of the Portuguese in Malacca. The conflict between the Aceh and the Portuguese lasted for more than a century, with numerous battle occurred between them around the Malacca strait. Aceh kingdom was very aggressive in the area especially when Sultan on the thrown. Aceh attacked and conquered the most areas of Sumatera from the north to the south. Aceh also constantly attacking Malacca as Johor and Portuguese was considered to be arch rival. Portuguese itself in the end was being defeated by the Dutch VOC, on the same tone with the Portuguese; the Aceh kingdom itself finally was also being defeated by the Dutch during the great with the Dutch on 19th century.

Kingdoms in East Indies itself were eventually disappeared or collapsed due to several factors as; no succession or failed on its succession process, economically destroyed25 leads to collapsed, destroyed by the natural disasters26, being conquered by another kingdom or state, etc. Most Islamic based kingdom was defeated by the

25 One of the reasons of the collapsed of the Sriwijaya Empire was also due to the decrease on its economy as the centre of Sriwijaya gradually moved deeper within the island, moving away from the Malacca strait. 26 East Indies is geographically located in a ring of fire, where natural disasters can occur many times and any time

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Dutch. If we may summarize, during the reign of the Dutch’s VOC in East Indies (1600 – 1800), it can be mentioned some of the kingdoms having conflict relation with the Dutch VOC;

 The Ternate Sultanate (1257 – 1927)  The (1500 - 1825)  The (1400 – 1511)  Inderapura Kingdom (1500 – 1792)  The Demak Kingdom (1475 – 1548)  The Kalinyamat Kingdom (1527 – 1599)  The (1496 – 1903)  The Banten Kingdom (1527 – 1813)  The Cirebon Sultanate (1552 - 1677)  The Mataram Kingdom (1588 - 1681)  The (1659 - 1823)

One thing interesting from the period of these kingdoms, if we observed, there had been a differentiation on focus and paradigm before the arrival and after the arrival of the European in East Indies. During the period of Sriwijaya and Majapahit, many kingdoms attacked each other but after the arrival of the Europeans, the focus of these kingdoms changed drastically by more focusing on the European.

After the arrival of the European, the battle, conflict, and war among the local kingdom started to decrease as they were now having the common enemy to defeat. They realized it’s not possible for them to defeat the enemy by themselves. The Alliance between the kingdoms started to roll as kingdoms joined together gathering power and resources they had for mutual purpose to beat the new enemy. Several kingdoms based on Islam such as Aceh, Cirebon, and Demak created an alliance to

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suppress the Portuguese influence. Meanwhile during the VOC, Mataram kingdom managed to gather small kingdoms in Java to join on the massive assault to Batavia.

1.2.1 The Age of Exploration

During its early stages of exploration of expansion, none of the Europeans managed to found the source the spices that they were looking for. All of them suffered failure and deadlock. The Portuguese were the first to reach the spices Island after previously they landed and established themselves in Malacca and made contacts with others traders In Java. The Dutch followed the Portuguese’s path and arrived in Java, meanwhile the Spanish landed in Philippines before eventually came to spice island. The British followed the Spanish path but immediately sailed back to Europe after realizing the danger. Finally all of them Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and British made it to East Indies, the centre of spices.

1.2.2 The Spanish

The Spanish journey to find the centre of the spices landed nearby the Spices Island, in the Philippines, from there two of their ships; Victoria and Trinidad led by Elcano sailed to the south and arrived in Talangame port, Ternate, Moluccas27. This fleet was what remained from the Magellan’s fleet when they first arrived in Philllipines. Magellan itself was killed during the fight with the Philippines native. When the Spanish arrived in Moluccas, the Portuguese were already there. The Portuguese already made an alliance with Ternate kingdom, the ’s rival in Moluccas. Ternate28 and Tidore was a rival in local hegemony. Being coldly greeted in Ternate, The Spanish then sailed to Tidore and were warmly received by the Tidore Sultan, Almansur.

27 Nasution & Amirulloh. Hegemoni: Persaingan Hegemoni Cengkeh di Ternate Sekitar Abad 16 dan 17. AVATARA, e-Journal Pendidikan Sejarah Volume 1, No. 1, Januari 2013 28 Ternate’s influence expanding to Nusa Tenggara, Buton, and Mindanao

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Tidore was a big kingdom in the area with the influences extending from Central and East , Seram Pasir or Timur, Ambon, Ulisiwa, Raja Ampat Islands and some part of West Papua29. The arrival of the Spanish in Tidore was considered to be an opportunity by the Tidore people. They thought that the Spanish would make a great ally for them especially during the competition in Moluccas with the Ternate. The presence of the Portuguese indeed changed the political constellation between Ternate and Tidore.

After the Sultan of Tidore declared the interest to make an ally with the Spanish, the Spanish then were given the right to trade in Tidore. The Tidore’s interest towards the Spanish was so huge, they even wanted to change the name of Tidore Island into Castilla30. Spices such cloves and cinnamon were gathered from Tidore and surrounding islands such island and Bacan island and traded with the Spanish.

When the Dutch arrived and established VOC in Amboina, the situation in Moluccas escalated quickly. VOC was very aggressive in Ternate and Tidore. They won’t allow anyone to gather spices from Makian Island, a primary source of high quality of cloves in Moluccas. The Spanish responded by waging war in cloves price which resulted in the decrease of the VOC’s spices activities as the people in Moluccas; Makian Island, Moti Island, Bacan Island and even Ternate31, decided to sell cloves to the Spanish for higher price. Despite the competition between the Portuguese and the Spanish legally ended in 1528 when the Zaragoza treaty was made which had an impact that the Spanish must leave Moluccas, but in reality the trading competition in Moluccas between both European and both kingdom continues to occur.

29 Junaidi, Muhammad. Sejarah Konflik dan Perdamaian di Maluku Utara.(Refleksi Terhadap Sejarah Moloku Kie Raha) Jurnal Akademika Fisip UNTAD no 1 vol 2 (2009). 30 Nasution & Amirulloh. Hegemoni: Persaingan Hegemoni Cengkeh di Ternate Sekitar Abad 16 dan 17. AVATARA, e-Journal Pendidikan Sejarah Volume 1, No. 1, Januari 2013 31 The cloves from Ternate was smuggled to Tidore even under the VOC tight supervision

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The VOC was in really hard time due to the strategy taken by the Spanish. Luckily, the Spanish had on bad luck especially in the early of 17th century as the Ternate ruler decided to give more right for the VOC to trade in Ternate and surrounding areas. Situation worsened for the Spanish as their base in Manila, Philippines, was under heavy threat from the Chinese pirates32. There was news spreading that the Chinese pirates in large number would attack the Spanish position in Manila. In 1663, all of the Spanish fleet and all resources they had in Moluccas including Tidore were withdrawn to Philippines to defend the areas.

1.2.3 The Portuguese

After the success of Bartholomew Diaz and Vasco da Gama to find new worlds, new places, and new things, the Portuguese sent more ships and sailors from Belem, to explore unknown places far-far away across the ocean and continent. Motivated by “feitoria, fortaleza, igreja” or gold, glory, gospel and filled with the spirit of reconquista emerged and awaken by the fall of Constantinople, they sailed away to match the glory gained by Marco polo and Venice.

The Portuguese next voyage on 1511 led by Alfonso D’Albuquerque successfully found Malacca – the key point of spices trading in South East Asia but they hadn’t found the centre of spices yet. Albuquerque’s fleet sailed from Goa to Malacca with 17 or 18 ships carrying 1200 men33. One year after it, on 1512, they truly found Moluccas; the place where the world’s finest spices produced and the Portuguese knew that they will just have to defend of what they already have at all cost.

32 Nasution & Amirulloh. Hegemoni: Persaingan Hegemoni Cengkeh di Ternate Sekitar Abad 16 dan 17. AVATARA, e-Journal Pendidikan Sejarah Volume 1, No. 1, Januari 2013 33 Ricklefs, M. C., A History of Modern Indonesia since c.1200, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan (2001). P-26

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When they first arrived, they were welcomed by the people of Ternate. The Portuguese intention in Ternate turned out was more than just to trade, they wanted more or the total monopoly of spices trading in Ternate. After the Sultan , the leader of Ternate Kingdom was murdered at the in 1570, the people of Ternate realizes what it meant. The next Sultan of Ternate, Sultan Baabullah, declared the war against the Portuguese. Three Portuguese stronghold ; Tolucco, Santo Lucia dan Santo Pedro fell few years after the war started and their final resort, the Sao Paulo fort was being surrounded and cut off from outside world. The Portuguese base in Malacca was nowhere to help because they were also facing constant attack from Demak Kingdom and Aceh Kingdom. In 1575, The Portuguese finally left Ternate with a humiliation after suffering a heavy defeat on Sao Paulo fort.

Since the arrival of the Portuguese in, many traders either local or Indian and Chinese traders started to avoid and moved away from Malacca to elsewhere more secure and comfort situations. The Portuguese occupation in Malacca has caused unrest among the society and also towards the Moslem kingdoms In Java and Sumatera. The Portuguese had to defend themselves from the attack conducted by the Aceh Kingdom and from the Demak Kingdom, but the Portuguese managed to repell the attack due to its more improved weaponry.

In 1521, the Kingdom of Demak sent its armada to attack the Portuguese in Malacca. Led by their war commander Pati Unus or famously known as “Pangeran Sabrang Lor” the Demak Kingdom launched a combined joint force together with other small kingdoms in Java and Sumatera. Many kingdoms agreed to join the attack because they felt discomfort and threatened by the Portuguese position in Malacca. The attack consists of 100 ships and 10.000 men. Unfortunately due to unrivalled weaponry the attack was failed. The Portuguese in Malacca relied on the reinforcement coming from the strong Portuguese base in Goa and they were heavily

29 depending on the reinforcement as the threat increased along with the political changes in Malacca.

Picture 4: Illustration of Battle Demak vs Portuguese (pic source : jurnalmaritim.com)

In 1522, the Portuguese managed to make a treaty with one of the Hindu Kingdom in Java, the . According to this treaty, the Portuguese were given the right to build a fort or stronghold on the north coast of Jakarta, just on the edge of River, a very strategic position in military perspective. Unfortunately until the treaty comes to its due, the Portuguese was failed to fulfil the needs of the treaty. The result of this treaty was an attack, launched by the Demak Kingdom on the Portuguese position in Jakarta and Banten areas. The Portuguese were swept away from Java Island in 1527.

Another kingdom showing their dislike on Portuguese position in Malacca was the Aceh Kingdom, a huge kingdom ruling the whole island of Sumatera, their position just side-by-side with the Portuguese in Malacca with only Malacca strait separates them. The kingdom of Aceh, or the Aceh sultanate, gained its golden ages under Sultan Iskandar Muda (1607 – 1636). Under his reign, Aceh kingdom managed

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to conquer Pahang, a primary source of tin. In 1619, Aceh destroyed the trading port of Kedah, a huge port of pepper, many European traders bought pepper from Kedah including the Portuguese who used to buy pepper from Kedah in huge amount. This condition forced the European to buy pepper from Aceh34.

Picture 5: Aceh Kingdom (Credit to: Gunawan Kartapranata)

34 Mitrasing, Inggrid S. Negotiating a New Order in the Straits of Malacca (1500–1700). Kemanusiaan Vol. 21, No. 2, (2014), P-69

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The Aceh kingdom’s campaign in their attempt to reduce the Portuguese influence in the region continues as Aceh kingdom constantly invading several ports of trading in Malacca; in 1620, and Andragiri in 162435. The invasion on Perak was conducted twice in the same year. Perak was one of the sources of tin and Andragiri was a source of pepper. Both were the trading post used by the Portuguese to buy commodities needed.

In 1629, the Aceh kingdom launched a full scale attack against Portuguese position in Malacca. For the Portuguese, it was another massive attack36 they had to encounter. The attack launched by the Aceh Kingdom consists of 246 ships, 48 of them were big galleys, and 19,400 men37. The original purpose of this attack was to secure the Aceh kingdom hegemony on Malacca strait and to expand their influence on Melayu peninsula – total conquer of Malacca. The attack towards Portuguese was failed despite they managed to conquer Kedah and transported the Kedah inhabitants to Aceh38.

The Portuguese itself eventually managed to be conquered by the Dutch VOC through carefully planned attack learning from previous attacks on Portuguese, and also with the help from the Malaccans; Pahang and Patani. The VOC had been preparing the attack for five years after several failures on its attempt to conquer the region. One thing interesting from the success of Dutch attack towards Malacca is, the Aceh kingdom refused to join the attack despite the Dutch did made the offer to Aceh to join the attack and Aceh Kingdom is clearly and very obvious an arch rival of the Portuguese within the areas.

35 Ibid.(2014) P-70 36 In 1567, Aceh kingdom made large scale attack employing foreign military. 37 Mitrasing, Inggrid S. Negotiating a New Order in the Straits of Malacca (1500–1700). Kemanusiaan Vol. 21, No. 2, (2014) P-72. 38 Aceh Kingdom’s strategy during its Malayan campaign was by significantly and continuously reduced the supporting elements of Portuguese existence in Malacca.

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1.2.4 The Dutch

Picture 6: Itinerario (pic source : personen.kroniekvanenkhuizen.nl)

The success of the Spanish and the Portuguese in exploring and finding the new world inspired the Dutch to follow their success. 1595 the first sea voyage was made by the Dutch with four ships; , Hollandia, dan , carrying 290.000 along its voyage from various investors. This voyage was named The

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Compagnie Van Merre or far distant long company39. De Houtman’s voyage took 15 months to get to East Indies and landed in Banten, Java Island, in which that current time has already become a centre of trade due its strategic position in the world of trading.

Cornelis de Houtman wasn’t the first Dutch ever arrived in East Indies and Java in particular, previously there was another Dutch, Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, a crew member of Portuguese voyage expedition. Van Linschoten wrote a note about the voyage in which later his writing was used by as a guide to reach East Indies. In terms of trading, Cornelis de Houtman wasn’t successful as his voyage to reach East Indies. In Banten, he and his crew members was forced to leave Banten due misbehaviour and rudeness of attitude they showed during their stay in Banten40.

Cornelis de Houtman then continued his voyage to the East following the north coastline of Java with the hope to find something, but their journey only reached to Madura and then Bali. De Houtman’s expedition was full of trouble caused by lack of discipline and leadership shown by De Houtman. After studying their route and loading the ship with spices, they sailed back to Netherland. This first expedition took three years to complete its journey and from total 249 crew onboard the four ships, only 87 managed to come back home alive.

Arrived back home with story to tell and spices as an evidence, their voyage was considered a big success and brought the decision to send the next following wave of expedition 1598. One of the expeditions sailed in this second attempt of finding Spice Island was an expedition comprised of eight ships. Acting as a captain was Jacob van Neck, with Van Waerwijk, and Van Heemskerck on the navigation. They arrived in

39 Parthesius. Dutch Ships in Tropical Water. The Development of the (voc) Shipping Network in Asia 1595-1660. Amsterdam University Press. (2010) 40 A Naval battle was occurred with exchanging cannons between De Houtman’s fleet and Banten. (Mostert, Tristan. Chain of Command. The military system of the Dutch East India Company 1655-1663, Leiden, 2007) P-18

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Banten on November 28th, 1598, different with Cornelis de Houtman, they showed great attitude and well accepted in Banten. Jacob van Neck had learnt from previous mistakes made by De Houtman. Following the success of the two previous expeditions, the Dutch sent more and more expedition to East Indies. In 1598, there were 22 ships belongs to the trading company and personal owner took a sail towards East Indies. In 1602, in single year, there were 65 ships returned to Netherland fully loaded with spices and goods.

1.2.5 British

The British arrived in Moluccas through their expedition on July 26th,, 1579, led by Sir Francis Drake. During in Moluccas, they spent their time negotiating with the Sultan of Ternate as the British were concerned about the position of the Portuguese in Moluccas. Drake felt that the situation in East Indies somehow would increase into a level of conflicts as several European ships were sighted all over the water in East Indies. Realizing the danger that might occur, Drake finally sailed back to . In 1591, The British sent another fleet following the result of Sir Francis Drake to East Indies with the hope they can further actively involved in spice trading but unfortunately, Sir ’s expedition only managed to reach Malacca strait. The British succeed in reaching Moluccas in 1604 under Sir Henry Middleton, and few years later they constantly improved themselves by building more and more trading post in many areas in East Indies.

The British’s presence in trading world in East Indies began to deteriorate after the Amboina incident despite they managed to establish their trading activities in Java Island. They had different focus with the Dutch as for the British, what happened in Europe was more important and had more influential effect rather than of what happened in Southeast Asia.

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The British attempts to gain more hegemony in East Indies can be seen very clearly after the Anglo-Dutch war in last decades of 18th century. After the collapsed of the Dutch’s VOC in the end of 18th century, they were able to get more foot hold in East Indies’ soil. For the British itself, their strategy was to create large so they can get more areas overseas but their interest in East Indies somehow was not as huge as the Dutch.

1.2.6 The Rise of Islam

Another result of the trading in East Indies was the arrival of Islam as a religion or believes for the people living in the areas. There were some debates regarding the nature or when exactly Islam arrived in East Indies for the first time. There are three theories, the first one is the Gujarat Theory which stated that Islam in East Indies came from Gujarat (Cambay, India) brought by the merchant on 13th century.

The second theory is the Persian theory which said that Islam in East Indies came from Persia, supported by the evidence – a tomb, The most reliable evidence for the within a local Indonesian society consists of Islamic inscriptions (mostly tombstones41, of a famous Moslem preacher that originally came from Middle East and also the Middle East village found in East Java. The last theory is the /Arabian theory, this theory is also known as the opposite theory of the Gujarat theory, according to this theory Islam came from Arab/Mecca – supported by the existence of Arab Village at the West Coast of Sumatera. This theory also denied that it wasn’t the 13th century when Islam came to East Indies, but earlier around 7th century.

In the middle ages of 15th century, the vastly spread of Islam in Java significantly removed Hinduism influences in many areas in Java. The kingdom that has a huge

41 Ricklefs, M. C., A History of Modern Indonesia since c.1200, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan (2001) P-3.

36 influence in part of spreading Islam is the Kingdom of Demak, or more famously known with its “Wali Songo”. Wali literally means Saints. Wali Songo consists of 9 Moslem preachers originally based in Demak;

1. Sunan Gresik or Maulana , spread Islam in Gresik, East Java 2. , spread Islam in Ampel near Surabaya, East java 3. , spread Islam in Tuban, Lasem, and Rembang area 4. Sunan Drajad, spread Islam in Lamongan, East Java. 5. , spread Islam in Kudus, Central Java 6. , spread Islam in Island nearby Java such Madura and Bawean. He also spread Islam in Moluccas 7. Sunan Muria, spread Islam in Muria mountain, Central Java 8. , spread Islam in Kadilangu, Central Java 9. Sunan Gunung Jati, spread Islam in Cirebon, Banten, and Sunda Kelapa, West Java.

The influence of the Islamic Kingdom can be felt along the northern coast of Java Island; from Demak to Gresik in the east, and to Cirebon, Jayakarta, and Banten in the west. The kingdom of Demak also played important parts in the collapsed of the mighty Majapahit Kingdom

The preaching method conducted by the Wali Songo was very effective and efficient, as they were elegantly spreading Islam to the society without causing any trouble, no force used, but wholeheartedly accepted by the society. They way the preached was excellent – mixing the value of Islam with the sociological norms in the society and giving it into the daily life custom without any cultural shock occurred. During their preach, the Wali Songo always emphasized on loving each other as human beings, self awareness instead of being arrogant, and value the good norms of life as well as stay humble. They created dances, songs, poetries, games for children, and stories as a means to deliver their message. They dynamically combined the

37 substance of Islam and at the same time preserving the local wisdom. Two of the members of the Wali Songo, Sunan Kudus and Sunan Gresik – the name taken from the area of Kudus and Gresik where he used to live and preach – also use trading as a way to preach.

One of the lessons given by the Wali Songo to their students was the “Kawruh Kasanga” or the Ninth Knowledge which was the following;

1. Nitik marang kabeneran 2. Mangalembono marang Gusti Alloh 3. Tunduk Patuh dumateng Alloh 4. Prasaja ing pangandikan 5. Mbabar bangun remening ati sapada pepadaning liyan 6. Linandesan ikhlas 7. Mbangun pakaryan agung kanthi cinaketaning islam sapada 8. Ginayung pepadaning nur illahi 9. Mbabar sastra jendra.

Nitik marang kabeneran means everything must based on truth, Mangalembono marang Gusti Alloh means worship to the God, tunduk patuh marang Gusti Alloh means follows the God’s will, prasaja ing pangandikan means to be humble, Mbabar bangun remening ati sapada pepadaning liyan means must be careful during conversation and harm the opponent of speaking as well as making his or her happy, linandesan ikhlas means follow the plan like the running water, mbangun pakaryan agung kanthi cinaketaning islam sapada means spreading the value of Islam to everyone, ginayung pepadaning nur illahi means all human beings belongs to the God, Mbabar sastra jendra teaches people not to ask more than their capacity or capability. So, this ninth of knowledge was one of the principles taught by the Wali Songo to the people in Java Island and also to other parts of archipelago in East Indies during that time.

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The level of acceptance was enormously high as the people comfortably accepted Islam as a religion of peace and full of caring. When required, they also played their part in battle although it’s very rare and uncommon thing to do. On the other hand, the development of the Wali Songo and the rise of Islam of course brought bad news for the kingdoms based on Hinduism-Buddhism as their influences started to decline and disappear very fast along with the spread of Islam. This was also a bad news for the newly arrived Europeans in East Indies such as the Portuguese in short terms and to the Dutch in longer terms. If there’s any comparison or difference between the development of Islam in 7th century and the development of Islam the 15th century, then the answer might be Wali Songo itself. From the year 674 to 1433, or almost 800 years, none of the local people in East Indies were accepting Islam as a belief or religion. It was the other Asian, or in this matter the Chinese, who accepted Islam as a religion during those years.

1.3 Social Economic Condition

Generally the situation in East Indies during the 15th century was at time of shift as the Hinduism and Buddhism at their critical point of struggling due to the massive and rapid development of Islam in Java Island. Acculturation was another thing that should not be forgotten, as a result of the International trading, in Banten areas many communities started to grow exclusively based on its race origin; the “keling” or the Indian village, the “pecinan” or the china town, the Arabian village etc. These villages did hold important role not only as a place to settle down but also as a place where the trade and transfer of knowledge occurred. Despite there were many villages based on race and rationally there were potential conflicts that may occurr due to differences but according to history there were no dispute and conflict found in Banten. Evidence shows that the influence of King of Banten with his policy somehow has kept Banten in peace and well protected from any disturbances internally and externally.

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Psychologically and sociologically, the people in East Indies were humble and modest people, polite, and pay a great tribute on their values and norms as Asian. They’re very friendly and welcome to anyone even to strangers whom they just met, but their attitude and behaviour can be very easily change if they received such bad attitude, wrongly manner, being harmed, and mistreated by others. For Asian traders, as fellow Asian, they’re already familiar with these very typical customs. By recognizing and understanding the habits and customs of the society, it made them very easily to blend and gained the advantages for their trading activities. This is what the Portuguese, The British, and the Dutch couldn’t cope while they were first arrived in South East Asia.

The society system was still based on caste as a result of Hinduism influence. The society based on three levels of social classes; the upper, the middle, and the lower. The upper mostly filled by the Kings, the Royal family, the noble, and their descendants although sometime the Kings played double role as a leader of religious society or the preacher. The second class consist of preacher related to religious side, rich people or traders, and warriors. The lower or the lowest class are the common ordinary people or the “rakyat jelata”.

Special case on the kingdom that based on Islam such as Demak, Cirebon, and Banten, most of the kings or leaders were Moslem preachers which holds important role in the spread of Islam in the society, but they – most of them - were refused to be distinguished as a noble or figure of the high social class and chose to live their lives as a common ordinary people. Some of them even decided to exile themselves in the mountains or live as pilgrims from village to village to spread Islam to the society.

People still lives in a very traditional ways; hunting, food gathering, still a popular way to fulfil their daily needs. Villages were built on nearby the river, near the

40 volcanoes, or elsewhere suitable enough to live in peace and prosperity. Their knowledge of planting still limited, not yet acquire the knowledge of how to increase and produce the harvest in a mount of number they needed for certain purposes – trading – even in some parts of areas the knowledge of improved technique has already been discovered and implemented. In Bali for example, the irrigation system or the “Subak” already been established since . Another example, according to Ho-ling kingdom, a canal to prevent flood from the Gomati River was built on 5th century, a-21-kilometres-long canal, built just in 12 days.

Picture 7: Balinese Subak Irrigation system (Pic source: http://pustaka.pu.go.id/new/artikel-detail.asp?id=324)

In trading, before the arrival of the Europeans, the trading worlds in East Indies were done by the local traders involving the Indian, Chinese, and Middle East merchants’ and had been going on for centuries. Most of traders already know and trust each other very well. The trading relations shaped and formed between civilian traders – local kingdom traders – foreign kingdom traders. Kingdom traders usually played their parts as connectors or sellers instead of producers because mostly they bought the items and goods from the local farmers or local producers and then sold it to merchants currently docking looking for goods or to merchants overseas.

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Strategic places such as Tumasik, Banten, Jayakarta, Makasar, Ambon, and Malacca were being used as trading posts for the merchants and traders. The scope of the trading went bigger and bigger as the trading intensifies. The items and goods that were traded among the traders were nutmeg, gold, silver, cloves, crops, pepper, diamonds, ivory, sandalwood, etc. One interesting and undeniable fact about this trading condition before the arrival of the Europeans was; the custom and tax system was already introduced and implemented in several areas in East Indies. Kingdom such as Tarumanegara already had its own taxation system as early as 5th century.

Picture 8: Trade Routes of Southeast Asia (Credit to: Gunawan Kartapranata)

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As the trading sphere in Southeast Asia itself can described as follows42; from Malacca to east coast of Sumatra the trading consists of many items as the area is situated just side by side; gold, camphor, pepper, silk, benzoin and other wood resins, honey, etc. Slaves also included as an exchange for Indian textiles, trading junks were also purchased in Malacca. From Malacca to West Java, rather less compared to Sumatera; pepper, tamarind, slaves, gold, and daily needs. Malacca to Central Java and East Java basically the same with West Java only slight difference on slaves and textiles which were needed as trade-goods further east.

Java region mostly received items, on similar types, from Sumatera either East Coast or West Coast of Sumatera. From Java, the items received from Sumatera were being distributed further east to Bali, , and Sumbawa. In addition, Javanese textiles were also included. From Central part of East Indies, the items were exchanged in Moluccas for spices. Gold and Diamond were gained from in exchanged with Indian textiles and Javanese items. Makassar traded all items with many regions as the Bugis sailors freely move to many areas.

Conclusion

Before the arrival of the Europeans and the Dutch’s, the trading world in surrounding areas of East Indies was already existed and well established. The foreign traders sailed away from Middle East, China, India and other parts of the world to trade with the locals in Java, Moluccas, South Sulawesi, South Kalimantan, Banten, and along the Strait of Malacca. The foreign traders did not only just trading but they also sharing knowledge, spreading religion and believes, marriage and creating diplomatic relations with the kingdoms for mutual benefits. The acculturation and assimilation process went very smoothly as well as the trading relation. In particular extent, the condition of trading was almost without conflict especially during the

42 Ricklefs, M. C., A History of Modern Indonesia since c.1200, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan (2001) P-23 &24

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influence of Islam in certain areas such Banten, that’s why Banten became very famous. Economy was generated by the combination of trading and social relations.

In the social and political context, the arrival of Islam especially in Java started to change the cultural system in the society. The influence of Hinduism and Buddhism slowly but sure began to decreased as many Hinduism and Buddhism based kingdom started to fall and converted into Islamic based kingdom43. The conflict and the clash occurred on the land during the 15th and 16th century was due to this shift of influences from Hinduism and Buddhism to Islam; the fall of Majapahit was caused by the development of Demak Kingdom. In future terms, especially after the arrival of the Europeans, these Islamic based kingdoms played its role as an obstacle and main rival of the Europeans in South East Asia.

When the Portuguese came and conquered Malacca, things started to change as the conducive condition in trading swiftly transform into a tensed and hard situation than ever before. The conflict between Aceh kingdom, Johor kingdom, Portuguese and VOC had caused the traders to remove their focus of trading from Malacca to some other places such Java and Sumatera to avoid the Portuguese and the tension. As an side effect, trading centre situated along the northern-eastern coast of Sumatera became more crowded than before.

It’s almost impossible to compete on the trade sphere using the natural and ordinary ways of trading as the local traders had all of the advantages such better knowledge of the areas, already established network of trading which consist trading partner and commodities resources, suitable ships for archipelago trading, well knowledge of people behaviour and custom norms in the region, and more adaptable with the climate. In short, it almost impossible for the European to expand their influences and become a hegemonic power in East Indies due to cultural, historical, and environmental reasons.

43 There were at least 7 kingdom based on Hinduism and Buddhism before the arrival of Islam in East Indies.

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2. VOC - Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie

In this chapter we will describe about the Dutch’s trading company or the VOC itself. We will see the reason of the establishment of the company, the shape and the organization’s structure, system and method used, the military capability, and the conflicts occurred between the VOC and the local people, other traders from Asia, as well as the conflict with the other European.

2.1 Reason of Existence

Picture 9: 1651 The achievement of the VOC by Jeronimus Becx the Younger. (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam,. Cat. van schilderijen n° 2988)

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After De Houtman’s fleet returned to Netherland and showed that even with minimum preparation and lack of experience can bring profit to the Dutch, few years later several expedition was made; 22 ships from 5 different companies sailed to East Indies. The Dutch’s trio; Jacob van Neck, Van Waerwijk, and Van Heemskerck was the first to reach Moluccas. They gained profit of 400% when they returned to Netherland44. The success of these expeditions triggered more and more expedition the year after it, in 1601 fourteen different expedition sailed to Moluccas. This wild, uncontrolled, and unregulated expeditions circulating in all areas of East Indies; Banten, Moluccas, etc made the Dutch worried about the upcoming tension or clash that might occurred due to the competition among the Dutch traders.

The spice competition in East Indies had caused instability in spice prices both in Europe and in East Indies. In Europe the spice prices went down as the supply from the East Indies arriving in large numbers, meanwhile the spice prices in East Indies went up as the companies competing to obtain the spices from many areas in East Indies. In simple way, for the spice providers or sellers in East Indies, they would gained more profit but for the companies and for the owners of the companies, it was the opposite condition.

As for the Dutch in Netherland itself, in its consideration, it might be better if these different companies were merged together under one same flag with the same mutual purpose. In that way, the clash and unhealthy competition can be avoided, the spice price can be lowered in East Indies as the seller will have to deal with strong bargaining power, and the profit taken in Europe can be higher as the spices, the items, and the goods were sold from one strong company. Moreover, the competition with the other traders’ especially European traders will be more manageable with less risk.

44 Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia since c.1200, Hampshire, Palgrave, 2001. P-31

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After some moments of negotiation and consideration45, and through the efforts of Johan van Oldenbarneveldt, very famous figure, it was finally being decided to form a united company, merged from 6 different companies named VOC – Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie.

2.2 Design of Organization

The highest body of the VOC was the Heeren XVII or Hereen Seventeen or the Seventeen Gentleman. Meanwhile the body of the VOC itself consist of 6 Kamers or Chambers which represent each cities of the former Voor-Compagnieen. The six chambers were; Amsterdam, (Middleburg), Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Delft, and Rotterdam. Amsterdam was the largest and the strongest in terms of member and influence. Each of these chambers had its own board of directors and particular part of distribution with the following representation; Amsterdam one and a half, Zeeland a quarter, and the rest of the smaller chambers one-sixteenth of all46. Meanwhile the member of the Hereen XVII was taken from each of the 6 chambers. When VOC first founded, the member of each chambers can be mentioned as the following47;

The Chamber of Amsterdam by Gerrit Pieterszoon Bicker, Reynier Adriaenszoon Pauw, Pieter Dirxszoon Hasselaer, Jaques de Velaer, Johan Jansszoon Kaerel, Bernard Berrewijns, Johan Joppen, Hans Hunger, Hendrik Corneliszoon Buyk, Louis de le Beeque, Dirck van Os, François van Hove, Elbert Lucaszoon Helmer, Isaac Le

45 The Staten-Generaal agreed on the united company for two main reasons; it would be more profitable and better chance to fight against the Portuguese and Spanish in East Indies (Prakash, Bullion for Goods, 16.) on Gerstell, D. Administrative Adaptability: The Dutch East India Company and Its Rise to Power. Accessed May 10th, 2015. http://history.emory.edu/home/documents/endeavors/volume3/DanielGerstell.pdf 46 Gaastra, F.S., Chapter 1. Introduction to the Archives of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie. .(1992) http://www.gahetna.nl/sites/default/files/afbeeldingen/toegangen/NL- HaNA_1.04.02_introduction-VOC.pdf 47 The name and the regulation of changing board of the chambers was taken from; Reynders, & Gerritsen. A Translation of the Charter of the Dutch East India Company (Verenidge Oostindische Compagnie or VOC): Granted by The States General of The United , 20 March 1602. Australasian Hydrographic Society. Australian National University. Canberra.(2011).

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Maire, Syvert Pieterszoon Sem, Gerard Reynst, Marcus de Vogelaer, Johan Hermanszoon, Geurt Dirxszoon van Beuningen, Huybert Wachtmans, Leonaert Raey, Albert Symonszoon Joncheyn, and Arent ten Grotenhuys.

The Chamber of Delft by Johan Janszoon Lodesteyn, Arent Jacobszoon Lodensteyn Dirck Bruynsssen van der Dussen, Gerrit Dircxszoon Meerman, Cornelis Adriaenszoon Bogaert, Michiel Janszoon Sasbout, Willem Joosten Dedel, Dirck Gerritszoon Meerman, Johan Raet, Jacob Sanderszoon Balbaien, Hendrick Otte and Jasper Meerman.

The Chamber of Enkhuysen by Lucas Gerritszoon, Willem Corneliszoon de Jong, Johan Pieterszoon Scram, Hendrik Gruytter, Johan Laurenszoon van Loosen, Dirck Dircxszoon Pelser, Gijsbrecht van Beerensteyn, Barthout Janszoon Steenhuysen, Jacob Jacobszoon Hinlopen, François du Gardijn, en Willem Brasser.

The Chamber of Hoorn, by Claes Jacobszoon Sijms, Cornelis Corneliszoon Veen, Willem Pieterszoon Krap, and Pieter Janszoon Liorne.

The Chamber of Rotterdam by Fop Pieterszoon van der Meyden, Franck, Gerrit Huygenzoon, Pieter Lenartszoon Busch, Johan van der Veken, Willem Janszoon van Loon, Johan Jacobszoon Mus, Adriaen Spierinck and Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge.

The Chamber of Zeeland by Adriaen Hendrickszoon ten Haeff, Jacob Boreel, Johan Lambrechtszoon Coolen, Jacob Pieters de Waert, Cornelis Municx, Adriaen Bommenée, Laurens Bacx, Everart Becker, Arnoult le Clerq, Arnout Verhoeve, Geraerdt van Schoonhoven, Nicolaes Pieterzoon, Bathazar van Vlierden and Balthasar de Moucheron.

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The same with the common ordinary board of an organization, there was a regulation regarding the changes of the member of the board. However the regulation somehow was quite strict as no changes can be made until it reached the minimum amount of each chamber. The minimum amount for Rotterdam, Delft, Enkhuysen, and Hoorn was 7 person, while chambers such Zeeland and Amsterdam had bigger minimum amount of limitation with 12 person and 20 person. So, in case any of the names listed above passed away or unable to carry his duty due to certain reason, no changes can be made whatsoever.

On the way how the VOC was being managed, the Hereen XVII had its own working procedure; they usually met three times per year, sometimes twice or four times depending on the situation, to discuss the matters and plans for future achievement. At later period the number of meeting was changed into twice a year. The time of the meeting was also already decided based on the season, importance, substance, and purpose.

The first meeting usually take place in autumn, after August, as it was consider as the first cycle of the annual meetings. On this autumn meeting, the board usually discussed about the auction or the number of the goods that should be sale and in what conditions, the number of ships and crew should be sent, the number of coins gold and silver, minted and bullion etc should be sent, the request or demand from the board for the VOC regarding what should be carried home on next shipment from Asia, the rank promotion for the VOC staff, and the most crucial thing is the Generale Missive or the general dispatch which contains the latest condition of commercial, political, and military in Asia. Some of the Generale Missive was able to be discussed and taken into conclusion and resolution, some other was sent for the other meeting in autumn.

On the second meeting in spring, usually dealt with the survey of the company’s ships present in Asia, which was prepared in Batavia, on this occasion everything

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regarding the VOC fleet was precisely calculated including the possibility of building new vessels which will be used for future activities48. Some other time during spring season, the meeting was also held but this one usually concerning the accounting of the company.

The third meeting, which usually take place on July, or before the arrival of the first ship from Asia and before the departure of the ship to Asia in September, all of the drafted decision taken on previous meeting and discussion was finalised and then later the decision was being made. On each meeting, the Hereen XVII also had committee meetings which consist of the following; a committee dealing with the balance sheet, keeping records, accounting, a specific committee with particular assignment of supervising the auctions, another one which was an inspection commission to check the chambers’ books, an administrative committee handling and processing all of the correspondence, documents received from Asia including drafting letters for the VOC administration in Asia.

Last but not least, secret committee with special and secret assignment to strategically created certain routes and signals which will be used for the fleet during the wartime49. Apart from the VOC highest body, on the chamber’s level, the chambers also had their own committee which dealt with many things ranging from audit office, reception committee, equipment committee, to warehouse masters.

During its administration, the Hereen XVII, was experiencing several difficulties for example, the amount of the member wasn’t enough to take any decision because sometimes it’s hard to gather the entire member during hard times such winter or far

48 Gaastra. F.S. Chapter 1. Introduction to the Archives of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie. The Hague.(1992). http://www.gahetna.nl/sites/default/files/afbeeldingen/toegangen/NL- HaNA_1.04.02_introduction-VOC.pdf 49 Gaastra. F.S. Chapter 1. Introduction to the Archives of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie. The Hague.(1992). http://www.gahetna.nl/sites/default/files/afbeeldingen/toegangen/NL- HaNA_1.04.02_introduction-VOC.pdf

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more worse, when some of the members or chambers were worried about the possibility of abuse of power that might occur when not all of the chamber’s members were able to present. Sometimes seniority also played a major factor on the board of Hereen XVII.

In future time, the condition in the Hereen XVII somehow become deteriorated as the Hereen XVII didn’t meet on its permanent sessions, the member of the board constantly changing, and the Hereen XVII had not any administrative staff in some period of time which of course looked very strange from administration perspective. As for the salary, an assistant writer received 16-24 guilders per month while General received 600-700 guilders per month50. Some other version stated, the monthly salaries paid in gulden in 1720 was; Councillors, 350; receiver general, 130; upper-merchants, 130; merchants, 60; under-merchants, 40; book-keepers, 30; assistants, 10 to 24.51

2.3 System and Mode of Operation

To support VOC activities, The VOC was granted the special rights by the Staten-Generaal in which included the following;

1. The right to build fortresses, 2. The right to enlist personnel on an oath of allegiance, 3. The right to declare a defensive war, 4. The right to make a treaty with local ruler.

There were some other interpretations regarding these VOC rights such the right to print or to circulate its own money, the right to monopoly, etc but basically it more less the same. With its special rights, or state-like status, VOC gained its own

50 Boxer, C.R. Jan Compagnie in War and Peace 1602-1799. Kuala Lumpur. Heinemann Asia. (1979)P-109 51 Day, Clive, The Dutch in Java, Kualalumpur, Oxford University Press,(1966). P-96

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autonomy to act and to decide its own policy. To support the autonomy and to deal with the unexpected, VOC was also equipped with military and has the right to use it in case needed.

The first fleet sent after 1602 was equipped with heavily armed than the previous fleets, the purpose of this action was very likely to cause more damage to the Portuguese currently stationed in Malacca, rather than to win a territory or to conduct territorial expansion52. A very reasonable action since the Portuguese was already well established when the Dutch came in Asia therefore it was necessary to inflict damage to the Portuguese or to the other competitors in the area.

When its first time established VOC had its centre of command in Amboina, Moluccas, and the first Governor General was Pieter Both. In 1609, the Governor General officially legitimated as the supreme command in Asia by the directors. The next step of the VOC operation in Asia and in East Indies was to gain more foot hold step by step and little by little because it’s impossible to make huge impact with small resources. After almost 2 decades of operational, gained more foothold in Moluccas and the area surrounding, and some battle with the British in Java, in 1619 the VOC command centre was moved to Jakarta or Batavia in Java.

The VOC itself, according to the 1650 Generale Instructive or the general orders53, and after experiencing many battles either in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and South Asia, the VOC directors was finally able to distinguish three ways in which the of political strategy to gain more foothold in Asia can be obtained;

1. The trade gained through conquest, for example the Banda Archipelago and Formosa (Taiwan) or in another places.

52 Gaastra. F.S. Chapter 1. Introduction to the Archives of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie. The Hague.(1992). http://www.gahetna.nl/sites/default/files/afbeeldingen/toegangen/NL- HaNA_1.04.02_introduction-VOC.pdf 53 Ibid (1992)

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2. The trade gained through exclusive contract from auspices, for example with the ruler of Ternate, Banten, Mataram, and in Amboina. 3. The last one was reserved for trade conducted by virtue of treaties.

The three ways stated above of course gave a clear sight of how the VOC system and mode of operation being determined and implemented, and was also considered as a pathway to avoid the same mistake done by the Portuguese54.

2.4. Military Capability

The VOC military capability in the early phase of its establishment wasn’t strong enough in number. They were lack of men when the company first established and had to make improvement by any means. One of the definite ways to improve the number of men was by bringing reinforcement either from Netherland or from other places, and the VOC did so despite each time the reinforcement came the number of the soldier were not in the same amount when it first sent. Some soldiers already died when the ship finally arrived usually due to illness, some other were hospitalized once they landed and unable to fulfil the duty given. Typhus, malaria, tiredness, and sea sick were the kind of illness the soldier’s were suffering from. The healthy one can be so easily sick due to the heat and the climate in which totally different with in Europe55. These conditions occurred due to the combination of various factors; bad organizations of logistics, different climate, bad strategy in sailing, and the low progress of health solution as well as improvement on ship design with better protection for the crew56.

54 Gerstell, D. Administrative Adaptability: The Dutch East India Company and Its Rise to Power. P-53. Accessed May 10th, 2015. http://history.emory.edu/home/documents/endeavors/volume3/DanielGerstell.pdf 55 The health state of the crew was one of the main problems during those periods as illness and disease can be very easily spread among the crew and soldiers. It took some time to solve this problem and it was a gradual step.(Black, Jeremy. War in the early modern world 1450-1815. London. Routledge. 1999) P-32. 56 Black, Jeremy. War in the early modern world 1450-1815. London. Routledge. (1999)P-33

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Despite of these obstacles, slowly but sure the VOC’s military personnel gradually increased by the reinforcement arrived. For example, in 1605, 200 soldiers were sent to reinforce the VOC military in which all of them were prepared for wider purpose which was for land war and by the year of 1609 the total number of the VOC soldiers and personnel reached around 600 soldiers in several stronghold and fortifications57. The numbers of the soldiers and military personnel showed the VOC’s intention to gain more footholds overseas. Furthermore, after the conquer of Portuguese in Malacca in 1643, at least 1000 soldiers were sent to the east, especially to Malacca and Batavia, to protect of what VOC had achieved, and by the end of 17th century the number of the soldiers were more or less between 8500 to 10.000 soldiers (Mostert, 2007).

The significant numbers of troops and military personnel was needed not only to seize the trading market but also to maintain what VOC already had or currently in its possessions which is sometimes far more difficult rather than capturing it from others. VOC did learn from the Mataram’s invasion in 1628 and 1629, when Batavia was under siege by Sultan Agung’s prajurit.

VOC also had another way to reinforce its military, which was by recruiting from the local people such the Mardijkers and Ommeladen. Mardijkers means “merdeka” or free people meanwhile Ommeladen means “surrounding lands”58. Naturally VOC would choose local people with strong physical and mentally brave, but if VOC couldn’t find those two prerequisite together, then bravery would be the decider instrument59. Some of the VOC warriors were taken from the Ambonese,

57 Mostert, Tristan. Chain of Command. The military system of the Dutch East India Company 1655-1663, Leiden, (2007). P-19 58 Ibid.(2007) P-23 59 On the battle ground, VOC mixed these ethnic warriors for certain purposes such to reduce the possibility of rebellion and to increased the strength of the legion as each ethnic groups or personnel had its own weakness and power. (Kemper, S. War-bands on Java: Military labour markets described in VOC sources. Leiden 2014)P-31

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Balinese, and Bandanese tribes60. In many occasion, VOC also hire mercenaries to do VOC’s work especially certain job such as to capture or to kill rebellion or resistance leader in which the VOC wasn’t capable of. On the case of Banda, the VOC made its first cooperation or partnership with another nation or in this particular with the Japanese to eliminate the resistance in Banda. VOC brought along 80 to 100 Japanese traders, some of them were Samurai warriors.

In terms of ships or naval power, VOC ships were designed differently according to the function and which areas it will be operated. VOC ships operating in East Indies were basically heavier in firepower and capable of sailing in the shallow and muddy territory. The wild, vulnerable, unpredictable, and hostile environment in East Indies was the reason behind the different design of the VOC ships61. From many perspectives, the VOC ships was obviously far more advanced rather than any Asian ships, this was due to the experienced gained and during the battles improvements made during the 200 years of wars in Europe62. Several events that can be classified as an attempt of show off force by the VOC’s naval power were the blockade of Goa in 1636 in order to disrupt the Portuguese enterprise throughout the Indian Ocean, or the blockade of Surat63 and the confusing triangle-battle against the Portuguese fleets in Malacca strait64.

On the or Fortresses, VOC fortifications were considered to be one of the best among other European powers as it was better in designed and siege proven. During the whole entire VOC period, only two events in which VOC fortress

60 Mostert, Tristan. Chain of Command. The military system of the Dutch East India Company 1655-1663, Leiden, (2007)P-24 61 The type of the ship was gradually improved based on the needs and situations. (Black, Jeremy. War in the early modern world 1450-1815. London. Routledge. (1999)P-34 62 Mostert, Tristan. Chain of Command. The military system of the Dutch East India Company 1655-1663, Leiden, (2007) P-18 63 Ibid (2007) P-18 64 Overall, The Dutch won the naval battle at sea in East Indies. . (Black, Jeremy. War in the early modern world 1450-1815. London. Routledge. (1999)P-40

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eventually fell into enemy’s possessions; the first was in Formosa, in East Asia and the second in Rembang, northern part or northern coast Central Java not far from Demak and Jepara65. VOC fortifications in Java such Vredeburg in , Vastenburg in were the evidence of the advanced made during the Dutch’s VOC period.

In wider perspective, the fortifications in Batavia even showed that the VOC fortification was indestructible. During the consecutive Mataram attack in 1628 and 1629, the fortification in Batavia was able to hold up the 10.000-men attack conducted by the Mataram in 1628. The second attack in 1629 was much worse as the number of soldier attacking Batavia were doubled in number after eventually managed to gather other small kingdom and other local rulers in Java to join the attack on Batavia, but still the Batavia fortification managed to hold on.

On military supply or in this particular matter is gun powder, VOC at early periods was still depending on the supply from Netherland or from other places outside East Indies. They were unable to produce gun powders locally. However, VOC made an attempt to fulfil their need of gun powder. After several decades, they finally succeed in fulfilling their needs of gun powder.

In 1660, VOC was able to produce huge amounts of gun powder with 30.000 pounds of gun powder per month in Batavia66. Gun powder was one of the important elements of military warfare. Chinese was one of the sources of the gun powder distribution in Asia and also Southeast Asia. Other sources came from India as the usage of cannon, and firearms was already known in that area67.

65 Mostert, Tristan. Chain of Command. The military system of the Dutch East India Company 1655-1663, Leiden, (2007)P-28 66 Ibid.(2007)P-35 67 . (Black, Jeremy. War in the early modern world 1450-1815. London. Routledge. (1999)P-113

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2.5 Conflicts

During the reign of VOC, many areas struggled for freedom or tried to escape from the misery and unfair condition caused by the VOC. Sumatera, Java, up to Moluccas, all tried to revolt against the VOC. Many of these attempts ended in conflict and battle. The conflict not only occurred between VOC and the locals but also VOC against the other European. The conflict can also be described as the VOC’s attempt to gain more hegemony in their campaign of establishing monopoly of trade in East Indies.

2.5.1 Banda

Banda was one of the Islands conquered by the VOC to gain the spice monopoly or the nutmegs monopoly. The assault on Banda was done by killing the leaders of the society in Banda. By eliminating the leaders of the society, it means the resistance or any kind of rebellion towards the VOC will automatically vanished or disappeared without any huge effort to defeat it. The assault was conducted in 1621, one big group of VOC armada sailed from Batavia carrying 1655 personnel consist of Vrijburger or out of contract personnel, mardjikers or the free people, musketiers or the volunteers, and dozens of Japanese Samurai68. This strong army was carried by 13 big ships, supposed to be 14 ships but one of the ships sunk on the way to Banda, three ships of equipment as well as 36 small ships and will join the 250 personnel already stationed in Banda69.

After arriving in Banda, the VOC commenced the assault against the people in Banda, Eight leaders were captured, taken as prisoners and brutally executed by the samurai. The rest of Banda leader were also executed right after it. The body of the

68 Hutagalung, Batara. "VOC (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie)". Accessed May 1rst, 2015. http://batarahutagalung.blogspot.cz/2006_10_01_archive.html 69 Ibid.

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leaders was shown to the society to weaken the morale of the people and used as a lesson for any kind attempt of resistance. Banda was conquered within days without any difficulties. The resistance was very easily defeated. Those who survived was captured, the other who refused to surrender committed suicide by jumping off the cliff70. At least 6000 died during the assault of Banda, almost all of them were the people of Banda.

Picture 10: The name of the 40 Banda Leaders executed by the VOC (Credit to: Julian Soplanit)

The rest of the people; the loyal of the Banda leaders, and the leaders’ families was taken by VOC to Batavia. The number of the Banda people being taken approximately around 883 people, 287 of them was men, 356 women, and 240 children. During the migration process many of them died due to illness, hunger, diseases, and torture. Some 1700 of the Banda people managed to survive from the VOC by hiding in the surrounding areas and island such Seram Islam, Banda Eli, etc.

70 Ibid.

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The conquest of Banda, was undoubtedly, one of the example of the full use of VOC’s military on its attempt to monopoly the trade in Banda and to larger purpose to gain total dominance in Central and Eastern part of East Indies. The trade in Banda was gained by VOC by conquest using its own military capability without any auspices involved in the process.

2.5.2 Mataram

One of the most fierce and biggest battles in Java recorded in the VOC history was the battle with the Mataram kingdom. In Java, especially in Central Java, Mataram is a big kingdom with huge influence. Mataram kingdom reached its golden age under Sultan Agung Hanyakrakusuma (1613 – 1645). Sultan Agung was a great king with huge desire to unite the whole Java Island under Mataram’s influence71.

During early period of 1600, VOC and Mataram already made a treaty that resulted to the establishment of VOC’s trading post in Jepara, and for return VOC was supposed to help Mataram to conquer Surabaya. At that time, Mataram was still unable to conquer Surabaya and Banten, two main obstacles on Mataram’s campaign to unite the whole Java. VOC itself had a big interest in Mataram, as the VOC wanted bigger authority in trading in Java especially in Mataram’s area which was well known for its fertile soil derived from the volcanic eruption in the area.

When Mataram asked for a favour from the VOC to conquer Surabaya72, VOC refused to help because VOC was still focusing in another part such Moluccas, and Jakarta. Following the refusal of VOC, Mataram reacted and retaliated by burning

71 The desire to unite the whole Java can be seen from the amount of army Mataram had in which around 150.000 to 300.000 men on 1650. Van Goens claimed it can reached 920.000 men. (Kemper, S. War-bands on Java: Military labour markets described in VOC sources. Leiden 2014)P-25 72 Mataram was somehow lack of sea man but had the capability to construct ships, that’s why Mataram demanded the VOC to attack Surabaya from the sea. (Kemper, S. War-bands on Java: Military labour markets described in VOC sources. Leiden 2014)P-29

59 down the VOC trade post in Jepara. Because of this incident, the relation between Mataram and VOC decreased at its lowest point and went worse as the VOC’s naval power started to assault Mataram’s naval armada in Java sea. Mataram finally managed to conquer Surabaya in 1625, after successfully conquering Gresik in 1613, Tuban in 1616, and Madura in 1624.

Meanwhile the VOC itself in 1618 managed to defeat the British in Jakarta and moved its central administration from Amboina to Jakarta. VOC also officially used Batavia as the name of the area situated side by side to Banten. The dynamic situation caused by political movements somehow caused more tension in Java, after Surabaya conquered; Mataram’s goal to unite the whole Java was just one step away. Mataram’s had only one more enemy to defeat which is Banten, but as the VOC had managed to establish their central administration in Jakarta, it means Mataram had to defeat VOC first before aimed its cannon for Banten.

Picture 11: Mataram’s Sultanate under Sultan Agung (Credit to: Gunawan Kartapranata)

Sultan Agung’s desire to unite the whole Java and to defeat Banten and VOC was so huge. It was huge enough for him to send troops on a long journey to Batavia

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to conquer VOC on its main base. There was no kingdom in East Indies brave enough, not even just to try, to attack VOC’s fortification on its main base, but Mataram did made the assault to Batavia, and not only once but twice; in 1628 and 1629.

On August, 1628, Batavia was under attack by Mataram both from the sea and land. Several VOC fortifications were attacked by 10.000 men and 97 Mataram’s ships73. Mataram attack was led by Tumenggung Baureksa and Dipati Ukur. Despite the attack, VOC still managed to hold on. Several months later, VOC made the counter attack and inflicted heavy casualties towards Mataram.

Picture 12: Illustration of Mataram’s attack to Batavia (Pic source: Atlas of Mutual Heritage and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the Dutch National Library)

73 Mataram was lack of naval power after losing too many sailor during the conquer of Surabaya, Gresik, Tuban, Madura, and Sukadana. (Kemper, S. War-bands on Java: Military labour markets described in VOC sources. Leiden 2014)P-29

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On September, 1629, Mataram sent another massive attack to Batavia. This time Mataram doubled the attacking power and besiege several VOC forts. Casualties on VOC’s side were enormous including VOC’s Governor General, Jan Pieterzoon Coen. Dutch’s version Coen’s death was due to illness.

From military perspective, Mataram’s second attack was considered to be a failure as Mataram’s the logistic and supply kept in , Cirebon, and Karawang was burned down by VOC’s accomplice. The supply and logistics hold an important role for Mataram during the attack to Batavia. Mataram needed the supply and logistics very badly as their prajurit or soldier had to make a long journey from Central Java to Batavia or around 500 kilometres with the current measure scale. As for the VOC, their success in defending incoming attack from Mataram in 1628 and 1629 had boosted their morale and confidence especially to their military personnel. This was a good moral addition to further expansion for monopoly and hegemony especially for their campaign in conquering the whole Java.

2.5.3 Banten

Banten was already a very crowded and developed area of trade long before the Dutch and VOC arrived in the area. It had a wide influence in West Java especially when Banten was under the reign of Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa (1651 – 1682). During the reign of Sultan Ageng, Banten successfully transformed itself into a International trading port and agriculture area as well as a main rival of Batavia as a main trading port74. During 1663 to 1677, agriculture was Banten’s main priority as many improvements were made to support the plan, around 30.000 hectares or rice lands and thousands of hectares of palm plantations were established75.

74 Knaap, G. All About the Money: Maritime Trade in Makassar and West Java Around 1775. Journal of the Economic & Social History of the Orient. Leiden. (2006)P-499 75 Ricklefs, M. C., A History of Modern Indonesia since c.1200, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan (2001) P- 101

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The development of Banten into a mighty, powerful, and wealthy kingdom made VOC worried as the distance between Banten and Batavia was less than 100 kilometres. Before Sultan Ageng came into thrown, Banten and VOC were already involved in many disputes of which some ended in treaty such peace settlement. When Sultan Ageng came on thrown, Banten and VOC went worse and disputed. The VOC had been tried to defeat Banten for total hegemony and monopoly in West Java especially on pepper monopoly. Batavia and Banten was basically on the same area situated next to and Java Sea which made both areas strategically important.

Picture 13: (Credit: Gunawan Kartapranata)

VOC had been trying to find a way to conquer Banten for many years, and when Sultan Ageng came into thrown and placed both of his sons as his trusted man, the

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VOC saw this as an opportunity to conquer Banten. On Banten’s case, Sultan Haji was on internal affairs and Pangeran76 Purboyo was on external affairs. After managed to persuade Sultan Haji to commit an act of rebellion, a coup against his father, in 1680, VOC and Banten clashed into battle. VOC’s devide et impera strategy once again successfully implemented.

In this battle, Sultan Ageng was on the same side with his son, Pangeran Purboyo, meanwhile his other son, Sultan Haji was on the other side with VOC. VOC’s power was much stronger or even can be said at its strongest point at these current time especially after VOC moved its central administration which means most of its military power was in Batavia and VOC was on its self sufficient condition on armoury as the production of gun powder reached its maximum points in Batavia77. The result of the battle between VOC and Banten can be predicted; Sultan Ageng was lost and captured. Meanwhile Pangeran Purboyo ran away to Priangan. Many of Sultan Ageng’s men was scattered away all over West Java. One of Sultan Ageng’s allied even captured and then exiled in Cape of Hope. For Sultan Haji itself, the battle ended with a thrown of the Banten Sultanante for him as a consequence of alliance with the VOC. In 1682, Sultan Haji, the new ruler of Banten Sultanate, was forced by VOC to sign a treaty with contains the following agreement;

 VOC granted a monopoly on Banten’s area  Cirebon given to VOC78  Banten had no right to trade in Moluccas  New border between Banten and VOC had been made

76 Pangeran literally means Prince, Haji is a tittle gained after the pilgrimage. Sultan Haji’s real name was Abu Nashar Abdul Qahar 77 Mostert, Tristan. Chain of Command. The military system of the Dutch East India Company 1655-1663, Leiden, (2007) P-35 78 Cirebon was basically on the same level with Banten in terms of trading, the difference was only Banten was Internationally recognized while Cirebon was more domestically recognized. (Knaap, G. All About the Money: Maritime Trade in Makassar and West Java Around 1775. Journal of the Economic & Social History of the Orient. Leiden. (2006)P-502

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With this treaty, VOC officially gained a wider hegemony in Java and monopoly on pepper in Banten and the surrounding areas.

2.5.4 Muara Angke

During the decade of 1630, many Chinese traders settled down in Batavia for trading purposes. Batavia was already under Dutch VOC administration at that moment and the VOC made a decision to give the Chinese traders a chance to develop or to do more in trading activities. The VOC was very kind to the Chinese traders as those Chinese traders was considered to be a master in trading, far better than any other traders, and therefore it made them very a good tax object for the VOC. Some of the very rich Chinese traders were allowed to stay inside the wall of Batavia79, of course with higher tribute paid to the VOC.

The kindness and easiness given by the VOC to the Chinese traders, indeed had made a significant impact resulted in the growing population of the Chinese in Batavia. From economic perspective, this also means significant improvement in the Chinese trading sphere in Batavia. The VOC, as a business company, considered this as a threat to the company itself and action must be taken to limit and to suppress the Chinese activities80. In, May 21rst, 1690, VOC applied the regulation to limit the Chinese development. In, 1706, the regulation was loosened until 1727 when it tightened again. The regulation was called Wijkenstelsel and Passenstelsel81. The

79 Juffrouw on Review Buku “Persekutuan Aneh: Pemukim Cina, Wanita Peranakan, dan Belanda di Batavia VOC” Karya Leonard Blusse. Accessed May 1rst, 2015. http://media.kompasiana.com/buku/2014/08/19/review-buku-persekutuan-aneh-pemukim-cina-wanita- peranakan-dan-belanda-di-batavia-voc-karya-leonard-blusse-681169.html 80 Ibid. 81 Wijkenstelsel was applied several times in 19th century. Both regulation aimed to limit the Chinese activities Chinese (Darini, R. Kebijakan Negara dan Sentimen Anti-China: Perspektif Historis). Accessed April 25th, 2015.

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constantly changing regulation made the Chinese felt they had been mistreated by the VOC and even worsen as the Chinese also received blackmail and being abused on administration.

VOC actually was trying very hard to limit the Chinese population but it didn’t work because some traders in Batavia constantly recruited Chinese labour from overseas by bribing the corrupt VOC staff. As for VOC itself, they also gained benefits from this Chinese labour because they were cheaper, hard worker, and obedient compared to the native labour82. During the early decade of 18th century, the number of Chinese population in Batavia reached around 10.000 people and almost half of that number was unemployed or without any job. One of the reasons that caused this unemployment was the bankruptcy of the sugar traders in Batavia due to the incoming sugar competition from Brazil83.

Around the same time, legalization of opium also took its place. Economy started to decline and criminality started to increase, while on the other hand the VOC itself also started to lose its grip due to the vastly improved EIC. To overcome this condition, VOC took the easiest policy by increasing the tax rate in Batavia but with distinguishing the tax rate between the Chinese and the pribumi or the local people. The Chinese had pay to more and higher tax compared to the locals as they’re consider more capable economically but in terms of administration and law, they’re treated the same as the locals by the VOC. The Chinese felt that they had been discriminated and unfairly treated84.

http://staff.uny.ac.id/system/files/penelitian/Ririn%20Darini,%20SS.,M.Hum./kebijk%20neg%20thd%20et nis%20tiong-ISTORIA.pdf 82 Hutagalung, Batara. "VOC (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie)". Accessed May 1rst, 2015. http://batarahutagalung.blogspot.cz/2006_10_01_archive.html 83 Ibid. 84 Juffrouw on Review Buku “Persekutuan Aneh: Pemukim Cina, Wanita Peranakan, dan Belanda di Batavia VOC” Karya Leonard Blusse. Accessed May 1rst, 2015. http://media.kompasiana.com/buku/2014/08/19/review-buku-persekutuan-aneh-pemukim-cina-wanita- peranakan-dan-belanda-di-batavia-voc-karya-leonard-blusse-681169.html

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Robbery, theft, and looting occurred more and more in Batavia as the condition deteriorates and become hostile. The racial issue also increased as the locals and the Chinese were involved in arguments and sometimes escalated into physical contact. In July 1740, the VOC tried to gather the illegal immigrants and unwanted people in Batavia with the purpose to transport them to Ceylon or Cape of Hope85.

Valckenier, the VOC Governor General at that time, finally made the decision to regain control of the situation at any cost86. The event occurred on October 1740, during the event that lasted for 8 days, many of Chinese lost their lives87 meanwhile the other managed to escape and ran into other areas such and Semarang. Following the incident, the Chinese in Semarang made their attempt to retaliate which was later known as the Yellow Battle. The Battle in Lasem was also considered to be an act of retaliation against the VOC. The name Muara Angke or Kali Angke itself was used to memorize the event, Ang means red and Muara or Kali means river88. The VOC Governor General, Valckenier, and his deputy, Baron von Imhoff, were blaming each other for the incident. Following the incident, Valckenier itself later was being recalled in 174189.

Several decades after the Muara Angke incidents, the number of Chinese vessels harboured in Batavia decreased significantly as they were just by-passing Batavia into

85 Boxer, C.R., Jan Compagnie in War and Peace 1602 – 1799. Kuala Lumpur. (1979)P-101 86 VOC was affraid of the Chinese developtment in Batavia and tried to avoid being economically overwhelmed by the Chinese 87 The number of casualties was around 10.000 Chinese (Darini, R. Kebijakan Negara dan Sentimen Anti- China: Perspektif Historis). Accessed April 25th, 2015. http://staff.uny.ac.id/system/files/penelitian/Ririn%20Darini,%20SS.,M.Hum./kebijk%20neg%20thd%20et nis%20tiong-ISTORIA.pdf 88 Juffrouw on Review Buku “Persekutuan Aneh: Pemukim Cina, Wanita Peranakan, dan Belanda di Batavia VOC” Karya Leonard Blusse. Accessed May 1rst, 2015. http://media.kompasiana.com/buku/2014/08/19/review-buku-persekutuan-aneh-pemukim-cina-wanita- peranakan-dan-belanda-di-batavia-voc-karya-leonard-blusse-681169.html 89 Hutagalung, Batara. "VOC (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie)". Accessed May 1rst, 2015.

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some other areas such Banjarmasin, Makassar, , Java and Malacca90. Presumably it was related to this incident or any other reasons.

2.6 Conflicts with Other European

During the campaign to gain economic hegemony in Southeast Asia, VOC also involved in clashes and conflicts with the other European. The motives or the reasons behind the conflict were more less the same. The conflict with the Portuguese happened many times and more often than the conflict with the British. Moluccas and Malacca were the area where the conflict between the VOC and the Portuguese occurred. Meanwhile the conflict with the British occurred in many areas but with smaller size of conflicts and in the different period with the Portuguese.

2.6.1 Portuguese

The conflict between the VOC and the Portuguese generally occurred in 2 places; in Moluccas and in Malacca. After the Portuguese managed to conquer Malacca in 1511, Moluccas was the next destination for the Portuguese. In 1522, the Portuguese reached Moluccas and managed to establish a fort. The competition between the VOC and the Portuguese occurred for around 40 years.

The competition in Moluccas was just the beginning and easier to understand while the competition and conflict in Malacca and surrounding areas somehow more complicated and confusing as the Aceh kingdom and Pahang kingdom were battling each other for bigger and wider hegemony. In 1606, the Portuguese was trying to defeat Aceh kingdom by sending troops and army from their strong base in Goa but this attempt was stopped by the VOC as VOC fleet consist of 11 ships under Cornelis

90 Knaap, G. All About the Money: Maritime Trade in Makassar and West Java Around 1775. Journal of the Economic & Social History of the Orient. Leiden.( 2006)P-493

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Matelieff de Jonge arrived to attack the Portuguese in Malacca. Unfortunately, Cornelis Matelieff attempt to defeat the Portuguese was failed despite he managed to inflict severe damages on the Portuguese naval machine91.

Two years after it, in 1608, VOC made another attempt to conquer Malacca, only this time VOC tried to cooperate with the Johor Kingdom. A large VOC fleet under Verhoeff was sent to conquer the Portuguese but once again it failed. The Portuguese retaliated by blockading the water territory of Johor Kingdom and forced the Johor Kingdom to sign a treaty in 161092

Between 1611 and 1626, the political constellation in Malacca and Sumatera was actively drawn by the aggressive stance taken by the Aceh Kingdom’s most famous Sultan, Iskandar Muda. Aceh kingdom was very active in expanding areas as well as harassing the Portuguese trade route in Malacca strait. Meanwhile the VOC were still busy in their campaign in Moluccas and almost done nothing correspond to the situation in Malacca. VOC tried to make alliance with both Johor and Aceh to defeat Portuguese, but the Aceh had its own agenda to conquer Johor and Portuguese.

VOC was on an alliance with Aceh but the alliance was somehow deteriorated due to Johor’s relation with VOC. Johor and Portuguese both had the same enemy in Sumatera which was Aceh. Johor consider Portuguese and Aceh as a threat and tried to make an alliance with VOC to defeat Portuguese. For the Portuguese, situation in Malacca was still manageable as long as they can force the local kingdoms to sign treaties for their advantages. The situation in the region was somehow very dynamic and confusing on the same time, even for the VOC who had the ability to move freely rather than the Portuguese, the owner of the area. When Aceh launched a full scale attack to Portuguese in 1629, the VOC was totally confused and hesitated either to join

91 Mitrasing, Inggrid S. Negotiating a New Order in the Straits of Malacca (1500–1700). Kemanusiaan Vol. 21, No. 2, (2014), 55–77 92 Ibid. (2014)

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the attack, or stood still and watched the defeat of the mighty Aceh naval fleets. Many of Aceh ships93 were either destroyed or seized by the join forces of Portuguese Goa, Johor, and Patani94.

After several attempts, VOC finally carefully plan the attack by learning from previous mistakes. Several actions was made to reduce Portuguese’s activities including blockading Portuguese port in Goa and Surat with the purpose to divert Portuguese trading route and to limit Portuguese naval warfare. Under Antonio van Diemen, the new Governor General, VOC initiated the high-level diplomacy to conquer the Portuguese95. The diplomacy lasted for 4 years which occurred between Aceh and Batavia before it ended up in nothing due to the refusal of Aceh to join the combined assault for specific reason; Johor Kingdom. VOC eventually attacked the Portuguese with the help from Johor and Patani. After several months of siege, on February 1641, the 90-years of Portuguese reign in Malacca had finally been over.

2.6.2 British

Conflict between the Dutch and the British was totally in different period compared to the conflict between the Dutch and the Portuguese. The conflict between the British and the Dutch occurred mostly during the edge of the VOC collapsed or in particular, it was the rise of the British EIC which caused the collapsed of the VOC. The British EIC was currently on its course on the 18th century especially after the unification of the several British-private trading companies. During the first period of the 17th century, the VOC was more focused on the Portuguese rather than the British.

93 Including the “terror of the world”, the Cakra Dunya. (Ibid). 94 Ibid. 95 Mitrasing, Inggrid S. Negotiating a New Order in the Straits of Malacca (1500–1700). Kemanusiaan Vol. 21, No. 2, (2014), 55–77

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However, the British was once tried to attack the VOC in Jakarta, in 1618 in an alliance with Banten with the purpose to drive the VOC out from Jakarta, but the attack failed96. The culmination of the conflict between the Dutch and the British happened in 1781 during the Anglo-Dutch war, and in particular when the Dutch was lost in the Dodgerbank and subsequently resulted in the British expansion in East Indies.

The conflict between the British and the Dutch was also one of the cause of the dissolution of the VOC as the war itself resulted in the huge lost of VOC’s ships, more than 60%, and with the remaining ships it’s obvious that the VOC was unable to continue its operation in East Indies and elsewhere despite VOC’s attempt to hire ships from private Dutch company or from other companies available97. The conflict between the Dutch and the British continued after the dissolution of the VOC. The British attacked Dutch’s strong position in Batavia, despite Java was already being prepared to defeat the British invasion by Daendels98, but eventually it was the British who claimed the victory. The British campaign to conquer Java lasted for 45 days which include conquering the indigenous sovereignty of the Yogyakarta Kingdom in 1825. From 1811 to 1816, Java fell on British occupation but in 1816 the Dutch managed to return to Java.

2.7 The fall of the Company

After went through a long journey and managed to reach its glory on its first-half century of the 17th century, the Dutch’s VOC started to decrease on 18th century. The decrease which eventually ended up in the dissolution of the company was caused by several internal and external factors.

96 Day, Clive, The Dutch in Java, Kualalumpur, Oxford University Press,(1966) P-43 97 The cost to hire ships somehow added more woes to the VOC’s budget deficit as a result of the Anglo- Dutch war and competition with the EIC. 98 Daendels was moved back to Europe to lead a division during Napoleon’s invasion to Russia.

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The internal factors that caused the collapsed of the VOC were corruption, greed, bad recruitment system of its personnel, lack quality of the staff, and pay too much dividend. The lack of market for certain kind of commodities also contributed to the VOC’s budget deficit in which eventually led to the failure of the monopoly system. The corruption that occurred inside the company was due to the minimum wage and salary they received from the company. For example, in 1785, after the death of the chief cashier, there had been a shortage of money at the company amounted one million gulden and no action either punishment or attempt to recover the losses had been made following the case99.

Bad administration or bad book keeping also the cause of the collapsed of the company, the method of keeping were so poor and made it impossible to see what’s the advantages and disadvantages of the company100. Every attempt of control and audit was a failure due to the bribery. Some of them even misused the facility and privilege given by the company by loading the personal items in excessive amount into the ship scheduled to depart home. These goods were for their family or relative and for their personal interest rather than VOC’s interest. Some of the staff even involved in smuggling activities cooperating with the local traders or Asian traders with the purpose of getting more money for themselves.

Moreover, many of the VOC staff were lack of ability or had a bad quality due to the bad recruitment. As a result of the bad recruit, VOC staff often involved in trouble and conflict which in the end had bad implication towards the VOC as a company. Some of the conflict that occurred during the period of VOC was initially caused by the small silly things caused by the bad behaviour of the VOC staff. The VOC itself was considered to be a place of exile for unwanted family member; some family sent

99 Day, Clive, The Dutch in Java, Kualalumpur, Oxford University Press,(1966) P-103 100 Ibid. P-106

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their unwanted family member to VOC as sailor with the hope that they would never come back again to the family or die in the sea

Meanwhile the external factors that caused the dissolution of the VOC were wars and competitions with the rival. During its period, VOC was involved in many battle, war, conflict, dispute, and rebellion as well as involved in intra Asian trading such as in Formosa, India, Japan, and or nowadays New York. Such wide coverage of course had some serious implication on VOC; it drained company’s money and burdened the company with lots of debt. The war occurred in Europe - Dutch-Anglo war, as well as the war occurred in East Indies were the primary source of the VOC deficit. The rise of the EIC, or the British trading company, was also primary external cause of the VOC collapse.

VOC eventually declared as bankrupt and dissolved on 1799, all of its wealth and debt as well as its asset such fortification, military warfare, ships, personnel, etc were taken over by the Dutch Government and VOC’s participation on the world of trading was finally over.

Conclusion

VOC or Veereenidge OostIndische Compagnie was the Dutch’s trading company established in Moluccas on in 1602. Due to strategic reasons, VOC headquarter in Amboina was later moved to Jayakarta or Jacatra. It was a joint company created from six different companies. VOC was considered to be the first multinational company. It had unique rights to create a treaty with local rulers, engage in a war, and build fortresses. As it had the right to engage in a war, it owned the military and somehow made the company to be more state-like rather than a company itself101. The purpose of the establishment of the VOC was to prevent the unhealthy competition that might

101 The VOC was given huge space by the Hereen XVII to achieve its target.

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occur among the Dutch merchants and traders as well as to win the trade competition in Southeast Asia in general and East Indies in particular.

The military capability owned by the VOC was used maximally by the VOC to support its trading activities. Its military personnel and military warfare were also better than all of its competitors in East Indies102. The VOC military gradually improved by recruiting local people as soldiers, reinforcement from Netherlands and other places available, as well as using mercenaries to smoothen VOC’s businesses. During recruitment, specific ethnic group had more preference on VOC’s perspective due to its physical and mental ability which to some degree was better and fit to be recruited as soldier.

The conflicts that occurred during the VOC period, which usually ended after VOC’s military involved, were an implication of VOC’s cruel and harsh method on implementing its brutal method in trading. In this matter it can be assumed that VOC was unable to compete fairly and squarely with the other traders on trading due to territorial factor. Other things that somehow very interesting that needs to be underlined was the VOC tendency to get involved in local political world, or in the indigenous sovereignty sphere, with the implementation of devide et impera with the purpose of gaining more advantages in trading in the area of that particular indigenous sovereignty located. VOC usually will gave military support in certain amount of personnel, cannons, gun powders, and weapons, to one of the side currently in conflict - usually the weaker side - with the hope if the weaker side is winning, the VOC will received its rewards either a monopoly right in the area or permission to establish a fortification or watch tower or any strategic building in which of course will have a significant impact for the VOC. This is the trademark of the VOC in East Indies.

102 Only two fortifications lost, in Formosa and Rembang, managed to defeat the Portuguese in Moluccas and Malacca, succeed in defending Batavia from two consecutives assault made by Mataram, and total domination of naval power were the evidence of VOC’s military strength.

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VOC officially dissolved in 1799 after 200 years of reign in Southeast Asia and East Indies. Its glorious culmination ages occurred in the first 50 years after the establishment. On the 18th century, the company started to decrease until it eventually being dissolved for many reasons; corruption, huge debt, too much paying dividend, lack ability of its staff etc. Some argument stated that VOC collapsed because of VOC was focusing too much on politics rather than trading and having difficulties in separating the business and non-business matters. Other argument stated that the amount of the conflicts and battles VOC had during its period was just too much and eventually brought VOC into its collapsed. VOC had to pay a lot of money to fund the war and to put out the rebellion that occurred.

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3. The effectiveness of VOC operations from economic perspective

On In this chapter we will analyze the VOC’s trade effectiveness from the economic perspective by analyzing the system and method of the VOC, the political method being used that had binding consequences towards indigenous sovereignty and military implications, as well as the plantation and cultivation system implemented by VOC; the contingenten stelsel, verlichte leverantie, and extirpation system working systematically and resulted in bringing profit for VOC

3.1 Analysis

If we look at and analyze VOC’s activities during the period from 17th to 19th century and connect it with their success in trading, we have to agree that the VOC did manage to gain their success in the trading world especially in the . Along with the systems, methods, techniques, and tactics they used, they managed to reach the golden period and outperformed all other merchants rivals from Europe, India, Middle East and China103.

They preformed effective trade by mixing trading with politics and balancing both as required. On one hand they were successful in bringing benefits to them through political influence and continue using the trade mechanisms to control the local authorities in the East Indies and told them to do what the VOC wanted to do, and on the other hand it caused a great disturbance on the trading with its implication on the military sphere. Rebellion, resistance, and battle were the cost that the VOC had to accept. The large number of movement and resistance against the VOC was caused by the cruelty and oppression that the VOC did to the local people, indigenous communities, and other traders from various ethnic groups, and also to other European forces. Despite the prevention taken by the VOC by preparing the military force they had to put out any resistance movement that emerged, either by bringing in

103 The final blow occurred when VOC managed to conquer Makassar in 1663, the last trading post controlled by non-Europeans, in East Indies.

76 reinforcements from the Netherlands and from other places as well as recruiting military personnel from among local people, but the burden and impediment which VOC had to bear, especially on the cost, were very huge and heavy.

The system they used worked very perfectly, the “devide at impera” strategy had brought the VOC into total hegemony, unrivalled and unchallenged, in East Indies. Through a very carefully and detail plan, they managed to overthrown the already established Portuguese from their trading heaven in Moluccas and Malacca. The VOC even managed to block the British from spreading their hegemony and influence in Southeast Asia for more than a century.

The local traders, the Indians, Middle East traders and The Chinese obviously not a challenger for VOC military capability, civilian traders with pure profit taking motives and no desire to rule or more further to colonize a territory was certainly something that we cannot compare with the VOC. These civilian traders will automatically left an area if something which included violence happened in the area. They will obviously wanted a peaceful and comfort place to do trading. For these traders, a calm, peace, and conducive situation is a perfect place enabling fair and profitable trading.

During Portuguese rule in Malacca, many traders moved their trading route to other places such Sumatera and Banten in Java. They felt unsafe and uncomfortable to trade in Malacca. The same thing also happened during VOC reign in East Indies, many traders especially the Chinese felt uncomforted with the treatment and discriminative behaviour they received from the VOC. The Chinese traders were nothing but a profitable tax object for the VOC. They were burdened by the high tax, higher than any other traders. The discrimination they received also can be seen from the constantly changing regulation applied to them and it made them felt that they had been mistreated by the VOC. They already paid a very high tax, and it was supposed

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to made them more comfort in doing trading by receiving full support in any forms and of course won’t made them discriminated from other traders.

The plantation system during VOC also didn’t leave any space to breath for the farmers, workers, and landlords as everything were tightly controlled, repressive, cruel, and merciless. Many farmers suffered due to the heavy burden and inhumanly behaviour that they received from the VOC. The Contingenten and the Verlichte Leverantie cornered the farmer, worker, and the landlord.

The Contingenten system applied by the VOC forced the farmer to hand over their harvest to the VOC, with no further and adequate knowledge of farming and trading, those farmers had no choice but to follow VOC’s instructions. Agree or not, they will just have to sell their harvest to the VOC with very low and fixed price, the VOC price. They also still have to pay for the taxes, or the Verlichte Leverantie, a tax system developed by the VOC with the purpose to gain more crop harvest form the plantation. The amount of the tax is fixed and cannot be bargained. Any violation against these two regulations could cause fatal implication.

The misery for the farmers not yet over, on the contrary everything’s getting worse with the implementation of extirpation104 or the eradication of the over production goods. This regulation was implemented with the purpose to keep the price in a stable condition or to keep the price high. Moderately, the implementation of this system in reality can be applied through delay in commodity selling. The harvest result will be kept for certain amount of time during low price and will be sold once the price returned to normal. In radical implementation, this regulation can be done by eliminating or eradicating all of the available current stock either both already

104 According to the VOC’s record, from December,10th 1728 to December 17th 1729, 96.000 spices trees had been destroyed and from July 14th, 1731 to Juli 27th ,1732, 117.000 spices trees had been destroyed from these islands; Makian, Moti, Weda, Maba, and Ternate. (Hutagalung, Batara. "VOC (Verenigde Oost- Indische Compagnie)"). Accessed May 1rst, 2015. http://batarahutagalung.blogspot.cz/2006_10_01_archive.html

78 harvested and kept in the storage, barn, or keeping places, or by destroying the commodities while it’s still on the plantation or not yet being harvested. By doing this, the VOC will have the price stability they wanted and the profit they received will remain high and stable. The policy based profit such this regulation definitely very effective in bringing huge profit for the company.

The resistance against this cruel system implemented by the VOC is almost impossible for any perspective. Farmers, workers, and landlords, obviously not a match for the VOC who owned military capability, they were just civilian tried to make a living from the plantation. Their life’s depending on the plantation, on the field they were working on, and on the harvest result they had been waiting for. Even the landlord who’s basically economically more capable, they were also hopeless under the threat of guns, firearms, and cannon. The only possible way is by asking for help from the Sultan, King, or local ruler who possessed power and military capability or able to fight against the arrogant VOC.

Unfortunately, the only possible way or the only possible chance was already being closed by the VOC. The Octrooi rights, in this matter the right to create or make a treaty with the local rulers, had locked these Sultan, King, and local ruler. Most of the local rulers already being conquered with these rights, there’s no place to move for the local rulers. VOC made them powerless and harmless; they were unable to help themselves or to help their people. In case any Sultan or King tried to revolt against the VOC, then the Sultan or King would be destroyed. Their kingdom would be flattened to ground without any hesitation. If the Sultan or King possessed strong military capability, VOC with it devide et impera would bring the Sultan down. Even if those kingdoms indeed possessed power and military capability, usually their just too weak to fight against the slick and tricky VOC.

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Another example was the Mataram Kingdom, a very powerful and strong kingdom in Java. One of the bravest kingdoms ever recorded as they’re the only kingdom dare to attack the VOC’s strong position in Batavia, and they did it not only once but twice and even the second attempt was somehow falling apart in its process. When the Mataram Kingdom attacked the VOC in Batavia for the second time, they were able to siege the VOC in their fortification and caused many casualties that included VOC Governor General, Jan Pieterzoon Coen. In the second attempt, they were more prepared than the first one, but unfortunately VOC were trickier and smarter than the Mataram. VOC through their accomplice burnt down the Mataram supplies and logistics along the route from Mataram to Batavia. This action resulted in a weak attack on VOC position in Batavia

Other case which was happened very often, VOC used treaty as a method to capture the leader of the resistances to put out the whole resistance down or the famous one, the devide et impera, which was used by VOC on Banten. Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa was a very unfriendly figure for the VOC and never wanted to cooperate with the VOC. As an enemy for the VOC, the VOC would try all possible approach to bring Ageng Tirtayasa down from his thrown. One of the attempts was by confronting him with his son, Sultan Haji. This confrontation ended up with the defeat of Sultan Ageng as Sultan Haji was gaining military help from the VOC.

To the other European, VOC also applied the same thing on them, no mercy was shown. VOC ambushed 4 British ships trading across VOC territory resulting to complete destruction of one ship and control over three others. VOC wasn’t eager to see other European conducting spice trading within the VOC territory especially in East Indies. They wanted to ensure the spice heaven they completely under their control. After the Portuguese gone out of sight, the only rival for the VOC was the EIC or the British trading company. Despite EIC was situated in Surat, India, its activities were considered to be a threat for the VOC and from VOC point of view, all kind of threat towards the company must have been neutralized for the sake of the company

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To be able to secure and neutralize the threat that may occur, VOC had its own method; a secret committee was assembled for this matter. The trading distribution route where the ships will be sailing with the goods were decided and for some occasions VOC’s shipment route took longer time and route to avoid clash with British. For the security of the shipping, the VOC always sent its ships in fleets. Each fleet for VOC usually comprises of 6 to 7 ships, unlike the British who usually just uses 4 or 5 ships, and of course VOC ships were always equipped with heavy cannons and full firepower.

The Hongi tochten or the trading supervision system conducted by the VOC had made the water territory in East Indies very terrifying for the traders despite the result of this method was also being questioned as the numbers of smuggling still far from what its expected because it turned out that many of the VOC staff and personnel were also smuggling goods and items for their own advantages. Another advantage factor for the VOC was, the East Indies was so rich in natural resources. Abundant supplies of natural resources available in area, either in the land or sea, waiting to be harvested. VOC did manage to harvest many natural resources in several places; from Moluccas to Aceh and Palembang in Sumatera. It’s quite understandable if the VOC wanted full domination economically and politically for the whole area from Irian Jaya or Papua in the east to Aceh in the west.

What about the effectiveness of the local kingdom? Well if we look on the civilization, for example Ancient Mataram in 8th century105, the civilization shaped by the trading sphere to some degree did represent the level of effectiveness in trading. The market during the Ancient Mataram was based on integrated market system which consists of rotation, transaction, distribution, production, and transportation. Each of those variables closely related and cannot be separated. The kingdom assigns certain officer or kingdom staff to handle the trading, usually related to the taxes and control

105 Ancient Mataram in Indonesian terminology also called Medang Kingdom or Mataram Hindu because it was influenced by Hindhuism during 8th – 11th century.

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the market to see the condition of the kingdom’s wealth. The items and goods sold in the market usually used as indicator to see the result of the plantation or cultivation in which to larger extend represents the kingdom’s prosperity.

Meanwhile the merchant or the traders also divided into several type based on the scope of the trading, small local merchant, wholesale merchant, and international trader. The goods and commodities were sold based on its typology and local system of calendar106, differentiation of profession, the distribution of the goods was derived from the needs in the areas107, and money in the form of gold and silver was used as means of exchange although only for huge transaction such land ownership, precious items, and big amount of trading while for smaller transaction, swap was more preferred.

Taxation was also being customised, only certain type of commodities and above the certain level can be classified as tax object, for example rice and other daily needs were freed from tax as these goods were mostly came from farmers and rakyat jelata108. Animals such buffalo and cows also can be freed from tax if the amount were fewer than 30 for buffalo and 40 for cows. As for foreigners, they had to pay higher taxes as they were considered economically stronger than the local merchants. However, despite the integrated market system on the kingdom, but the record on the tax and profit gained during the period of the kingdom unlikely to be existed as there

106 There were 4 types of items; daily needs and ingredients, general equipments, clothes and textiles, and animal. These items were sold on certain item and place for certain strategic purposes; control the prices, profit, stabilize the economy, and generates tax for kingdom. This condition represents the harmonization of the kingdom. (Nurhidayati, Shofa. Epigrafi Indonesia Kuno "Perdagangan Masa Mataram Jawa Tengah Abad 8 - 10 M". 2014) Accessed May 5th,2015. http://www.academia.edu/6950873/Perdagangan_Masa_Mataram_Kuno 107 The people lives in the mountain also need fishes, either fresh or dry, and to transport the fishes into the mountain, river was used up to some point or market and then continued by land either with carriage or by people to the mountain. To ensure the sustainability of the river transportation, the people and the area along the river were freed from the tax obligation. (Nurhidayati, Shofa. Epigrafi Indonesia Kuno "Perdagangan Masa Mataram Jawa Tengah Abad 8 - 10 M". 2014) Accessed May 5th,2015. http://www.academia.edu/6950873/Perdagangan_Masa_Mataram_Kuno 108 This policy played significant role in the kingdom’s sustainability which resulted in low level of rebellion and high level of obedience.

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was only evidence which stated the maximum amount of the item and good that can be classified as tax object109. This was the common condition happened during the kingdom period in Southeast Asia especially in East Indies.

Picture 14: Ancient Mataram Kingdom

(Credit to: Gunawan Kartapranata) From the effectiveness perspective, the trading sphere in Ancient Mataram to some degree it can be said had higher level of efficiency rather than the VOC as they’re able to organize the trading activities with an integrated system of trading, less military aggression, and less political movement in very large areas and the most important thing was applying and preserving the local wisdom and harmonization110.

109 Lingasutan inscription dated year 929.(Nurhidayati.2014) Accessed May 5th,2015. http://www.academia.edu/6950873/Perdagangan_Masa_Mataram_Kuno 110 The central part of the kingdom was situated far away from the sea and only utilizes rivers, mountains, and surrounding areas to develop its kingdom. Despite less activity on sea territory but it managed to maximize all of its resources into maximum results and generates the kingdom’s economic sphere.

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Conclusion

The monopoly system implemented by the VOC was indeed very massive, well structured, and very effective as it brought huge profit for the company. The plantation and trading system planned and designed in such manner, combined with very dynamic political manoeuvres and backed up with a very responsive and aggressive military has made the VOC unrivalled in the region. It left almost no space for other competitors, neither for the Asian, locals, and nor for the other European, to be able to enter the competition and show more of what they’re able of. Not even the smugglers could smuggle freely as the Hongi tochten or the trade patrol system was implemented by the Dutch. Smugglers, either local or other Asian, could only be operational if they cooperate with corrupt VOC staff

The effectiveness of VOC system really brings tremendous advantages for VOC that cannot be rivalled by other merchants for decades. Even if there were some kingdoms which had the same integrated trade method as the VOC and the same or even higher level of efficiency, such the case of Ancient Mataram on 8th century, and Banten during Sultan Ageng’s111, they would have definitely being destroyed by VOC’s political action, technological gap, and military power.

111 Under Sultan Ageng’s reign, Banten’s economy were massively strong with excellent cultivation system, 150.000 inhabitants, 30 km’s of irrigation canals, 30.000 hectares of rice fields, and around 30.000 agriculturalist. (Ricklefs. 2001)P-101

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4. The impact of VOC activities to South East Asia

In this last part we will see the impact of the VOC activities to South East Asia and East Indies in particular. The impact of the VOC can be divided into two terms of impact;

 Short term impact and  Long term impact.

Short term impact is the direct impact that can be seen and felt instantly right after the VOC took control of the area and after the dissolution of the company meanwhile longer term impact is the impact during the Dutch’s second period112 in East Indies after the dissolution of VOC and after the defeat of the Dutch by the British or in another word the colonialism and occupation of the Dutch in East Indies in early 19th century until the second world war and of course each term will be viewed from positive and negative side.

4.1 Short Term Impact

If we look from some perspective, for example from the social and political perspectives, VOC will be viewed as a institution who had brought many misery, pain, agony, destruction, and poverty in East Indies. What VOC had done for hundreds of years in East Indies were indeed a bitter reality and undeniable fact for everyone. All of the damages, lost, and catastrophe caused by the VOC during its operation will always be remembered and written in the history of mankind. The legacy, the corruption, left by the VOC has become a nightmare for the Indonesian. But if we look from other perspective, for example from the economic view, especially from the agriculture and trading, we will see several positive things that have a significant effect towards the economy of Southeast Asia.

112 Dutch second period of occupation was the terminology used by the Indonesian which refers to the of the Dutch after the dissolution of the VOC and after the British left East Indies in 1816.

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As i have already mentioned in the first chapter, some of the areas in East Indies to some degree has already developed into more advanced society. Some areas already implemented a good irrigation system for its rice field and plantation such as Bali with its irrigation system called the “Subak”, Tarumanegara, Ho-ling, and Ancient Mataram already implemented its taxation system and able to built a canal to prevent floods that might threaten their civilization. Others already had the capability to create an integrated trading system from producer to consumer and from upstream to downstream.

During and after the period of VOC in East Indies, the society had gained few new things that they didn’t even know before, or they already knew but more improved after VOC arrived. Some of them were;

 The knowledge of the plantation increased as they become more knowledge able especially on commodity plants valuable in the world market.  Farmers gained the knowledge on how to plant in productive ways  The whole knowledge of harvesting, and its process until shipping definitely improved  A better knowledge of trading system or advance trading

During the VOC, the farmers and the workers were asked to give some of the harvest they gained from the plantation to the VOC in which later the VOC will buy the harvest given with a very cheap price, and they also had to pay for the tax, in a form of harvest, to the VOC. From these activities, the local farmers and workers became familiar with the certain typical plants being asked or requested by the VOC and more further able to see the reason behind this cruel system. The farmers, the workers, and the landlords eventually were able to identify valuable commodities for the market. Other benefits gained on the scope of trading, as the extirpation system introduced, they learn the knowledge of how to control the fluctuation price or how to make the price stable in the market. Packaging and shipping effectively were also studied as it would bring more profit to the company.

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The usage of the coins money as a means of exchange was also improving; the usage of coins during the VOC had brought more colours into the trading sphere in Southeast Asia. Before the usage of VOC coins, the money used as means of exchange in East Indies were very simple and probably will sparks curiosity for people who see it for the first time as it was really simple and deceiving113. VOC coins were much better in design and definitely more recognizable with its huge VOC sign on its side.

Meanwhile in the world of military, there were some things that can be classified as improvement especially towards the kingdom’s military capability;

 The usage of gun powder and other military equipments  Improvement in combat’s tactic and strategy  Improvement in military warfare such fortification and warships

The number of conflict during the VOC reign was enormous; rebellion, battle, wars, and resistance towards the VOC were countless. The usage of new technique in battle as well as equipments were introduced, some of them already known and becoming more familiar among the people in South East Asia. One of them was the usage of gunpowder. VOC uses the gunpowder for their military equipment, in many occasions VOC supplied the gunpowder for its local allies. In this matter, VOC wasn’t the only supplier of gun powder as the Chinese was also selling and supplying gunpowder into the area. Another improvement in terms of military was the combat method, the local kingdoms’ military were able to adapt and copy the battle and fighting method of the VOC’s military personnel114. The combat method and strategy used by VOC military personnel were being copied by the locals despite it had some weakness on jungle combat115.

113 The usage of money as means of exchange was already being implemented far before the arrival of the Europeans in East Indies. The evidence of the first and origin of money in East Indies can be seen at the Indonesian Central Bank Museum. 114 Mostert, Tristan. Chain of Command. The military system of the Dutch East India Company 1655-1663, Leiden, (2007) P-18 115 Ibid.(2007) P-22

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In terms of strategy or in particular the logistic and support, there were some lessons learned in a hard way. After the failure of the Mataram Kingdom assault on Batavia, the logistic and supply had became another vital attention for the kingdoms during battle. Demak’s failure when they were attacking the Portuguese in Malacca was another lesson learned in hard way.

Another impact that rose from the VOC activities were the emergence of nationalism, the spirit to struggle together derived from the same misery caused by the VOC activities, the idea of having the same common enemy. The fight and resistance against the VOC was no longer being done alone and separately, the locals have already started to create alliance as the alliance between kingdoms and territories slowly but sure began to shape. One of the examples of the alliance was the support given to the Mataram during the long rally attack from central java into Batavia in west part of Java. During the 500 kilometers route, many areas passed by the Mataram kingdom were providing supplies for the armada, despite in the end the supply and logistics provided and prepared was burnt to the ground by the VOC accomplice.

In the world of overseas voyage, there was some improvement gained from the sea battle against the VOC navy armada, some of them were in the capability of sea battle and in sea navigation in particular in creation of better warship. The VOC naval armada inspired the local ruler to build a better ship with a better capability in firepower and ship design. VOC itself was also making an adaption on navy capability by using small and fast ship loaded with guns and personnel to conduct a trade patrol in the swamp and water territory. VOC realized their weakness in their ships especially on its manoeuvre capability and speed due to the environment in East Indies.VOC ships were slow and unable to cruise on small and shallow straits in the archipelago.

Meanwhile the negative impact of VOC activities, after VOC was declared bankrupt and then dissolved, the first effect could be felt straight by the farmers and workers as they lost their jobs and didn’t know what to do with their crops and

88 plantations. They only knew how to plant and harvest, to some extend how to pack and load into the ship without having the network or market or how to make a contact directly with the buyers as basically they just work for VOC. The VOC wouldn't let them to make the trade with the buyer. They were subordinated by the VOC and this situation was extremely depressing because they were the ones who suffered most.

Even though for instance, the farmers and the workers were able to plant and harvest the commodities by themselves, their knowledge of trading was still limited. More knowledge was definitely required to market the items and goods into the correct market. This condition occurred because the VOC didn’t educate the society in which they’re ruling and this was also the difference between VOC and EIC or the Dutch and the British. VOC basically just exploiting the natural resources in the areas and creating slavery for the own interest, meanwhile the EIC was totally different, they educated the people in the areas where they reigned for future purposes ; so that they could create a market for themselves in the future and gained more advantages in a longer time.

4.2 Long Term Impact

After VOC went bankrupt and dissolved, all of VOC’s wealth and debt were taken over by the Dutch Government. Despite VOC was history and no longer existed, but the Dutch refused to leave from East Indies. The Dutch was very aware that they have found a jewel which they won’t find in other places proven by the profit and benefit they gained during the reign of VOC. Even if they were forced to leave East Indies from their hand, they wouldn’t leave without a fight.

During the early year of 19th century, The Dutch were more focusing on the defence rather than offence. They focused themselves in building defence line, strengthened the garrison, fortifications, including creating all supporting factors needed for the defensive purposes. The Dutch done this as a preparation for the upcoming attack from one of their European rival; the British which that time were

89 much better and stronger rather than the Dutch. This condition was due to the shift on the political constellation in Europe. After the collapsed of VOC, The British’s way to conquer East Indies was widely open as they’re getting stronger and stronger while the Dutch getting weaker and weaker.

The Dutch ruler in East Indies at that current time was Daendels, a very hard figure, for the people in East Indies, but a very promising one for the Dutch. Realizing the potential danger in future, Daendels decided to prepare the Dutch for the defence. He built a defence line along the northern coast of Java, from in the west up to Panarukan in the east, stretches around 1000 kilometres. An outstanding road for the Dutch, but in the other hand it was a death road for the slaves.

Picture 15: Java

(Credit to: Gunawan Kartapranata) Despite the Dutch had already been prepared everything for years for the upcoming attack from the British, the Dutch were still unable to hold the British. In 1811, Java fell under the reign of the British, the Dutch eventually conquered by the British. The British stayed in East Indies until 1816 before the Paris treaty forced the British to handed over East Indies to the Dutch and once again East Indies under the reign of the Dutch.

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After once again taking control in East Indies, the Dutch obviously wanted to repeat the glorious era they once ever had. We can see this from the implementation of Culturstelsel, Agrarische Wet, Koeli Ordonnantie, and Poenale Sanctie which was a continuation or repetition of the system implemented during the VOC. The reason behind this repetition was during that time the Dutch’s were running out of money as a result of the war in Europe.

Culturstelsel is a cultivation system implemented during the Dutch period under Van Den Bosch. This cultivation system forced the farmer and the land owner to plant certain typical plants, mostly commodities or in this period were coffee, sugar, and indigo, which in the end of course will bring benefits to the Dutch. In West Java, the people were forces to plant coffee and particularly were called Preanger Stelsel. In wider extend, the cultivation system also implemented in certain areas with certain plants such in Deli, North Sumatera, etc. This cultivation system only lasted for 40 years as it caused trouble and protest and later being replaced by the Agrarian law or the privatization in plantation.

Similarly during the VOC, the repression carried out by the Dutch had an impact on the emergence of resistance and rebellion against the Dutch that occurred in all areas in the East Indies. The great Aceh War in Aceh, in West Sumatera, War in Mataram Central Java, and Bali war in Bali, also occurred in this period. If accumulated, the conflict that occurred in the second period of the Dutch occupation was actually much higher in frequency than what happened during the VOC period.

4.2.1 Infrastructure

The Dutch also built many infrastructures during this colonization, but it mostly built for the Dutch interest and purposes rather than for the people of East Indies. On Java Island itself, during the 20th century there were at least 800 sugar built by the Dutch which represent the superiority of the sugar commodity industry in Java.

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This amount excluded the other sugar production factory in other island also other factories built for other commodities. Most of these sugar factories were centralized in Central Java region as the areas were very suitable for sugar cane plants.

In particular case, for example in the region of Special Territory of Yogyakarta, there were 17 Sugar factories in such small region; Randugunting, Tanjungtirto, Kedaton Pleret, Wonocatur, Padokan, Bantul, Barongan, Galur, Gondanglipuro, Pundong, Gesikan, Rewulu, Demakijo, Cebongan, Beran, Medari, and Sendangpitu116. Those 17 sugar factories were able to produce 3 million tons sugar per year which was quite magnificent

Picture 16: Sugar Factory in Yogyakarta

(Pic source: PT Madubaru) Some of the sugar factories built by the Dutch are still running at the moment; the Gondang sugar factory in Klaten Central Java, Madukismo sugar factory in Yogyakarta, Mojo sugar factory in Sragen Central Java, Rejo Agung sugar factory in East Java and many others. Unfortunately, these sugar factories were also

116 Madubaru Sugar Company Historical Profile. Accessed May 1rst, 2015. http://madubaru.comyr.com/sejarah/sejarah1.html

92 being destroyed by the people during the Indonesian war as it was considered to be a representation of the Dutch colonization, or a symbol of tyranny, a Dutch’s legacy that must be destroyed without hesitation. If only these factories were being taking care of and used for better purposes, then it will most certain bring benefits towards the people and the state.

To support this sugar industry, the Dutch built railways as a means to transport the sugar cane from the plantation to the factories and to transport the sugar from factories to warehouses and storages which later will be sent to the port and harbour for overseas shipping. Railway stations such Bedono, Ambarawa, and a number of old railway station in central Java region attest to the rapid advancement of the sugar industry at that time. Railway lines and stations in the area of Semarang, Central Java, was the earliest to be built by the Dutch in those days to transport sugar and other crops from the field or from the factory and then subsequently taken to the port and shipped to the Netherlands.

Picture 17: Java transportation network

(Credit to: Gunawan Kartapranata)

In other areas of East Indies, the Dutch also built several railways with the same purposes as the one built in Java. The railways in West Sumatera for example, it was

93 built to transport coal from the mines. Several railways built in Irian Jaya or nowadays West Papua, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi were gone after being destroyed, scrapped, or heavily damaged due to natural disasters. Most of these railways can only be found in Sumatera and Java because it’s still being used as a railroad for daily transportation.

The Dutch also built harbours and trading ports as well as pioneering the new routes of shipping and sea voyage to support their attempt in the shipping business in East Indies. Some of the current Indonesian national company were originated from the Dutch companies.

Meanwhile fortifications, dams, water reservoir, and irrigation some of them still can be found in good condition and fully functional despite its original function was already being diverted of modified into other forms of function such tourist attraction. Some of these Dutch’s legacy dams are Pacal dam in Bojonegoro, East Java, Katulampa dam in , West Java, Jagir dam in Surabaya, East Java, Van Der wijck irrigation in Yogyakarta. All of them were used as irrigation to support the plantation developed by the Dutch. Colonial rule had a real impact on Southeast Asia. Colonial powers did earn huge profits from natural resources and large markets of South East Asia but they also developed this region with different level of development. Agriculture, mining, and export based economy developed rapidly in this period.

The highly increased on labour demand resulted in massive migration, especially from India and China, which of course made some changes on the demography in Southeast Asia. The development of the area combined with the arrival of immigrants speed up the economy in Southeast Asia and in Subsequent developments, it also pays some contribution towards the development of nationalism as the nations started to grow.

Nowadays, the areas in Southeast Asia especially around the Malaysian peninsula and the Malacca straits have become a very important and very strategic place in the context of modern world trading. The Malacca strait as the world’s busiest

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strait holds a key role in modern world business as many ships passes by everyday with East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Australia as its destinations. So, it can be concluded that to some degree, it’s a fact that the Dutch and the VOC did have made a contribution in Southeast Asia especially from the economic perspective as the Dutch and the VOC made a backbone foundation of what nowadays called Southeast Asia.

Conclusion

During the period of VOC, there were several things can be seen as a result of VOC activities on its attempt to implement monopoly trading in East Indies. The impact of VOC activities can be seen from positive and negative as well as from the scope of duration; short term and longer term.

In short term, VOC had caused many misery and agony for the farmers, workers, and landlords with the implementation of its cruel plantation and trading system117. From the political perspective, VOC also had gone too far by intervene on internal matters of the indigenous sovereignty despite VOC had its own reason for its action. From another perspective, the farmers, workers and landlords to some degree were able to gain knowledge on the commodities plants and further processes after harvest.

From the military perspective, the kingdom’s soldier learned how to fight in combat in more effective way by imitating and duplicating the VOC’s military personnel during the battle. Moreover, from the military support and strategy, the knowledge of battle was also improving especially on logistic and supply, as the kingdoms were also learning from previous battles.

In longer term, the impact of VOC was very obvious had a very bad implication for East Indies as the hugely amount of VOC’s profit gained from its 200-years of reign would definitely become a very strong reason for the Dutch to stay longer in East Indies and colonize the whole region for the interest of the Dutch’s. In reality the

117 For region such Java, many people were used as slaves and transported into some other parts of the world such to support the Dutch’s colonization.

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Dutch’s second period of occupation lasted for another 150 years which means another long misery for the people living in the region. Even though it can’t be denied that the Dutch’s to some extend were also building a foundation for the future development of the Southeast Asia.

The infrastructure built by the Dutch during its colonization, which was built for Dutch’s purposes, also had some advantages for the people in Southeast Asia especially after the Dutch left the region and most states in Asia gained its freedom. Factories, warehouses, plantations, harbours, companies, railways, and other facilities built during the Dutch colonization were being used for the benefits of the people in the areas.

Other impact of the VOC and Dutch’s colonialism was the emergence of the nationalism for the people living under the suppression of the Dutch’s118. The region previously known for its brutal and wild territory was turning into a region full of togetherness and the spirit of struggle to overcome and conquer the colonization; kingdoms no longer fight each other, and alliances were built to fight common enemy119.

In the wider and broader context, for the Southeast Asia, with the history record of the trading activities in the past and the history of domination and conquest of the Malaysian peninsula have turned the area into a very strategic area of modern trading. Singapore, , and the areas surrounding the Malacca strait has become a vital part of the world trading nowadays.

118 The Indonesia’s first national organization, which also a youth movement, was built in 1908 named Boedi Oetomo (Ricklefs, M. C., A History of Modern Indonesia since c.1200, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan (2001))P-209. 119 Some alliances were made based on the foundation of religion or believes such Banten-Cirebon- Demak, and Aceh-Demak-Ternate on 16th century.

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5. Conclusion

Before the arrival of the Europeans in South East Asia, many traders already came to the area to trade with the local, with the other Asian merchant, and with the kingdom traders. The area in East Indies at that time was an area full of conflict due to the highly amount of war expedition conducted by the kingdoms spreads all over the areas. Shifts or power occurred very often due to rebellion, treachery, annexation, and conquest. It was a brutal as well as dynamic age for everyone even for the smallest local kingdoms or for the people living in a very small village far away from the civilization.

The trading condition was also very dynamics, traders and merchants met and trade for the items and goods they needed. Many areas located next to the river or side by side the strait and the sea developed into trading ports and trading hubs, areas such Tumasek, Malacca, Banten, and many others.

After the arrival of the Portuguese, situation changed drastically, it became more tensed economically and politically. Conflicts intensified and trading shifted into several areas away from the conflict areas. When the Dutch arrived, they soon realized that the condition was very dynamic and they eventually decided to join the race trading by founding their own trading company, VOC, the first multinational company. However, the dynamic condition in East Indies had caused difficulties towards the Dutch VOC’s trading condition and created a boundary and obstacles for them. They were unable to compete fairly or moreover to balance the Asian traders. Meanwhile, everything seemed to be friendlier to the local and Asian traders in the area. They were much better and experienced trader rather than the VOC due to their capabilities in territorial recognition, already established network of trading, and including the social and physiological bound among the Asian traders.

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The condition in East Indies, eventually forced them to use all means the can including military capability120. Mixed and combined with their political movements, their military capability energized their attempt to monopolize the trading in Southeast Asia. To some wider extend, it even stimulate the Dutch to reign and rule for another centuries even though the VOC, the company who brought the glory, was declared bankrupt and dissolved by the end of 18th century.

The trading method the VOC using turned out had caused many reactions and protests in many areas. Pain and misery were the implications of the trading monopoly in which later triggered the resistance and rebellion attempt. Military once again became a simple and effective solution for the VOC to overcome the impact of the monopoly trading. The Dutch’s VOC also used military to bury the hope of the other Europeans traders attempting to gain a fortune from East Indies.

In time of peace without any battle and war within East Indies or in some other part of the areas or even in Europe, VOC was able to keep its military expenditure below the company’s budget limit or never exceeded its commercial performance121. Military was only being used to maintain the stability and security. Military usage would only be intensified as the company’s tried to improve the trade areas to gain more commodities and profits or for trading purposes. This was the ideal condition of a company, profits stayed above the total costs, which would guarantee the sustainability of the company. On the contrary, there was also some event in which the military usage was above the normal expenditure such as during the war or conflict either it’s related to trading or not.

On the VOC case, what happened in Europe or the shift of power within the continent had forced VOC to engage in numerous battle and wars especially with the

120 According to van Leur, the indigenous world in Southeast Asia had been economically undermined and politically second-rate due to monopolies, unequal treaties, and blockades (Van Leur 1955, 270, 276, 279-280, 283) on Knaap, G. All About the Money: Maritime Trade in Makassar and West Java Around 1775. Journal of the Economic & Social History of the Orient. Leiden. (2006)P-506 121 Nierstrasz, J.C., In the shadow of the company : the VOC (Dutch East India Company) and its servants in the period of its decline (1740-1796). Leiden.(2008)P-256.

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British122. This condition drained VOC’s budget and destroyed the company’s asset. When the intra-Asian trade fell and decline, VOC’s military weakened and resulted in losing grip on its trade and areas as well as losing profits from the trade due to unable to peddle the trade123.

From the short description above, it can be concluded that the function of the military on the VOC trading activities were the following:

 The military usage proved to be effective in covering the weakness of VOC and its trading capabilities. The Asian and the local traders were far more capable in trading rather than the Dutch.  The military usage indeed played significant role for VOC to gain their triumph as well as to help them in defending VOC existence until it dissolved in 1799.  Political strategy by placing military as a main weapon had become a trademark of the VOC and proven to be effective in defeating their trading rivals.  The Military aspect used by the VOC was an important and decisive factor for the VOC and also a supporting factor for the Dutch to colonize East Indies after the dissolution of the VOC.  Military usage was needed to maintain and to improve the VOC trading which will lead to profit for the company. However, excessive amount of military activities definitely had bad impact on the company’s expenditure.

122 The Fourth Anglo-Dutch war ended with the VOC lost its dominance in East Indies by treaty of Paris. 123 Nierstrasz, J.C., In the shadow of the company : the VOC (Dutch East India Company) and its servants in the period of its decline (1740-1796). Leiden.(2008)P-256.

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List of Pictures

Picture 1: Map of Moluccas ...... 17

Picture 2: Sriwijaya Empire...... 22

Picture 3: Majapahit Empire...... 23

Picture 4: Illustration of Battle Demak vs Portuguese ...... 30

Picture 5: Aceh Kingdom...... 31

Picture 6: Itinerario ...... 33

Picture 7: Balinese Subak Irrigation system ...... 41

Picture 8: Trade Routes of Southeast Asia ...... 42

Picture 9: 1651 The achievement of the VOC...... 45

Picture 10: The name of the 40 Banda Leaders executed by the VOC ...... 58

Picture 11: Mataram’s Sultanate under Sultan Agung...... 60

Picture 12: Illustration of Mataram’s attack to Batavia...... 61

Picture 13: Banten Sultanate ...... 63

Picture 14: Ancient Mataram Kingdom ...... 83

Picture 15: Java Great Post Road...... 90

Picture 16: Sugar Factory in Yogyakarta ...... 92

Picture 17: Java Transportation Network ...... 93

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