Aceh War, the Most Ferocious Dutch Colonial War Ever

London anno 1824, Netherlands, and Great Britain decided to ascertain their colonial dominions in Southeast Asia, drawing a boundary line dividing Malacca Strait from north to south in two territories. The western region included Sumatera island, excepted Aceh, would be ruled by Dutch East Indies while the eastern part which covered the whole Malay peninsula and Singapore Island by the United Kingdom. Both countries had to recognize the sovereignty of Aceh. The demarcation of those two territories was known as London Agreement 1824.

After a brief military intervention in 1834 and Indragiri in 1838, Jambi recognized Dutch sovereignty. However, Britain objected to the Dutch to carry out an expansion north of the Equator as, under the London treaty, the Dutch didn’t have a right to do so. In 1850, having experienced internal political struggles, the Siak Sultan appealed for Dutch protection costing the sultanate to hand over Deli, Langkat, Asahan, and Serdang territories to the Dutch. However, since Sultan Iskandar Muda, those areas were under the control of Aceh, and Aceh people considered that Siak Treaty was contrary to the London Agreement. Since then, being supported by Britain, they drowned Dutch ships passing through the Aceh sea waters.

Post of the opening of the Suez Canal, Britain and the Netherland again signed the London Treaty in 1871 to secure Aceh waters that became a vital sea-lane trading. Under the new treaty, Britain gave Dutch freedom to take action in Aceh to maintain the security of maritime traffic in the area.

On March 26, 1873, Dutch colonials declared war on Aceh, and 3,198 Dutch troops in which 168 were officers under the command of General Rudolf Köhler landed and immediately occupied the Great Mosque of Baiturrahman. Panglima Polim and Sultan Mahmud led Acehnese guerillas. Only two weeks after the war began, it was taken over by Acehnese. At the surprise of colonial troops, their high commander General Kohler was shot dead by an Acehnese sniper.

In 1874 General Jan van Swieten led the Dutch troops to occupy the Sultan’s palace, which they converted into their defending center. Sultan died in the same year, and Tuanku Muhammad Dawood replaced him taking the role to lead the war in cooperation with Teuku Umar and Panglima Polim. The capital of Aceh Sultanate was removed to Indrapuri and successively to other places in the hinterland.

In 1890, the Dutch East Indies government established marechaussee corps (local people spelled it as ‘marsose’), elite troops dedicated to counter-guerrilla operations against the Acehnese warriors. In the eyes of the Aceh warriors, this marsose was very hated, but also appreciated for their courage.

In 1893, Teuku Umar pretended to surrender to Deykerhooff, Dutch Governor in Kutaraja, and became Dutch military. He pretended to attack many Acehnese guerilla posts to convince the Dutch of his loyalty. Because of his outstanding achievements, the governor awarded Umar the title of Teuku Johan Pahlawan, which was a trick to draw Aceh people’s sympathy.

Three years later, Umar deserted from Dutch military carrying with him 800 rifles complete with bullets and ammunition and pretty amount of money. The Dutch Government immediately fired Deykerhooff and replaced him with General Vetter, who gave Umar a futile ultimatum to bring back all rifles and ammunition.

In 1899, Umar and his troops arrived at the peripheral area of Meulaboh, where he was suddenly surrounded and attacked by Van Heutsz and shot dead. The war went on, and his wife  Cut Nyak Dien took over the leader of guerillas. Her health condition, however, was worsened and eventually arrested by the Dutch, and she died in exile in 1908 in Sumedang.

After the death of Umar, the guerrilla war had no strong field commander with a directive strategy. The war practically ended in 1904, during which time the surrendered Aceh leaders had to sign the Short Tractate, where they had to recognize the Dutch Indies sovereignty upon their regions.

Lasting from 1873 to 1904, the cost that Dutch had to spend during the war was immense. Aceh war was fierce for Dutch colonials. The Acehnese fighters were courageous and unafraid to face any attack. They were in a deep love of freedom and so passionate about the battlefield.

To counter Acehnese warriors, Dutch military Aceh governor Van Heutz ordered Snouck Hurgronje, an Oriental Culture and Language scholar who spent two years to make an in-depth study about Aceh society during his living in Aceh (1889-1905). He suggested the governor put aside Sultan and his inner circle but continue fighting ulemas without holding a peaceful meeting with Acehnese warriors. To draw Acehnese people’s sympathy, the governor should help commoners constructing mosques, water irrigation for rice-paddy, and improve road conditions.

A retired infantryman Lieutenant Colonel G.B. Hooijer who had served in Aceh, wrote his overview on Aceh war in 1895:

“No Diponegoro or Sentot troops, either Padri’s fanatics or the entourage of Balinese or horsemen of Bone people, as the Acehnese fighters who were brave and fearlessly encountered an attack, who were highly self-confident, so persistently facing their fate, loved freedom, who were so fanatic as if they were born to their nation’s guerrillas. As such, the Dutch war in Aceh will remain to be a source of learning for our troops.

But of all our battle commanders who have fought in every corner of our archipelago, we heard that no tribe was so brave and passionate in warfare except the Acehnese; their women also had the courage and willingness to sacrifice much more than other women.”

Who really was the Champa Princess, the Moslem Wife of Brawijaya V?

Nobody is aware that the historians who studied the downfall of Majapahit in around 1400 Saka year (1478 CE) have committed an unparalleled grave error. The problem originated from the failure on the identification of the Champa Princess, called Anarawati or Dwarawati (Darawati), a Muslim wife of Brawijaya V, the Majapahit King reigning in 1474-1478 CE. The Islamic tomb of the Princess of Champa was in Trowulan, near Mojokerto, the site of Majapahit imperial capital.

In Javanese, people spell Champa Princess as Putri “Cempa.” Most people included the prominent Dutch historians such as Snouck Hurgronje ^a), had all done wrong when they identify the princess as coming from Champa, part of what is now Cambodia-Vietnam. And the Indonesian historians have taken it for granted.

At that time,  the vast majority of Champa people were Buddhist, and barely Muslims lived there, not mentioned Muslim Kings and nobles. A lady who was eligible to be the bride of a mighty King such as that of Majapahit should come from the noble or high society family, which was, in fact, never there until 17th-century ^b).  However, if it was the case, there was not even a single record either in Champa or Majapahit on such an essential cross-border dynastic marriage tying royal families of two different sovereign countries.

The Javanese spelling of “Cempa” is more closely to Jeumpa rather than Champa.  Jeumpa was a coastal region near Samudra Pasai (now Bireun), one of the first Islamic cities in Aceh flourished from the around the 7th century. Stamford Raffles supported his geography interpretation of Cempa ^c) but surprisingly none from Indonesian historians.

Jeumpa, because of its very strategic site located at the northern tip of Sumatra island, had long become an important trading and transit port of ships that would set sail to open sea from China to India, Persia, or Arabic Peninsula and vise-versa.

Together with Barus, Fansur, and Lamuri ^d), Jeumpa has rare commodities such as kafur (mothballs) popularly called Kafur [from] Barus, identical with luxury enjoyed by the nobles people from civilized countries such as Arab, Persian, India, and China. Such a commodity catapulted the region as an integral part of civilization advancement.

Many Acehnese were the descendants of the inter-marriage between those foreign “immigrants” and the locals. During the glories of Pasai, the beauty and intelligence of Jeumpa women became a legend among people in Perlak, Pasai, Malacca, even in Java.

And Putri Cempa, named as Darawati, was one of the beautiful Jeumpa ladies whose Brawijaya V loved to marry. When the King met with the princess who came along with her entourage consisting of Maulana Malik Ibrahim ^e) and the nobles of Pasai, he was speechless because of her beauty.

In Hikayat (Chronicle) Banjar dan Kotawaringin ^f)   that the King of Majapahit ordered his minister to propose Putri Pasai (Jeumpa) bringing ten ships to Pasai carrying dowry [and indeed a lot of guard troupes]. As a leader of the Islamic Sultanate, Sultan Pasai reluctantly accepted the King proposal considering the risk and danger if he refused such a scheme.

Notes:

a. Snouck Hurgronje, being an Islamologist who studied Aceh, certainly knew about Jeumpa close to Samudra [Pasai] as the possible origin of Putri Cempa instead of Champa (Cambodia-Vietnam). Or didn’t he?

b. Champa (Cambodia-Vietnam) during that period (1360-1390) was under Che Bong Nga, known as The Red King, the last and most powerful King of Champa. No records that he was Muslim or related him or his royal families whatsoever with Islam.

c. It was true that Islam started making headway among the Cham people since the 10th century, which intensified after the 1471 invasion. However, only by the 17th century that the Royal families of Cham Lords began to turn to Islam. When the Vietnamese made their final annexation, the majority of the Cham people had converted to Islam.

d. Raffles knew well about Jeumpa and Samudra Pasai, the old flourished trading and transit ports in North Aceh, which he aimed to replace with Singapura (Singapore).

e. Under the reign of the Queen Tribuwanatunggadewi, Majapahit expanded its territory throughout Nusantara (the Archipelago). Adityawarman, his cousin, having the blood of Melayu, was sent to conquer the remaining of Sriwijaya and Melayu kingdoms. Later on, he became “uparaja” (vice King) of Majapahit in Sumatra. The territorial expansion was continued under the reign of Hayam Wuruk to include Lamury in the far West and Wanin in the East. Negarakertagama clearly stated that Samudra (Jeumpa), Lamuri, and Barus were under Majapahit’s jurisdiction.

f. He was the brother-in-law of Darawati, Putri Cempa, and the earliest of the Wali Songo (nine great Islamic preachers). He was born in Samarkand and lived for 13 years in Jeumpa, beginning in 1379. He married with a Jeumpa princess, Darawati’s sister, and had two sons, one of them was Raden Rahmat, then entitled Sunan Ampel. Arriving in Ampel (now Surabaya) in 1404, Maulana engaged in small business, treated sick people in the community, introduced a new technique in agriculture, and accepted lower castes people outcasted by Hinduism.

g. The texts, written in 1663, were also known as the Chronicle of Lambung Mangkurat The detail of the story related to Majapahit was not so accurate. Still, at least the story was in line with Raffles’ version that Princess Champa was from Pasai (Jeumpa), not from the region which is now Cambodia-Vietnam. One may believe in the authenticity of the story as Banjar writers were undoubtedly more objective than the Javanese writers (Babad Tanah Jawi, serat Kandha, and serat Darmogandul) who still had an emotional attachment with Majapahit’s glory.

References:

1. Atmadja N.B.:”Genealogi Keruntuhan Majapahit,” Pustaka Pelajar, Yogyakarta, 2010, p. 7.