A History of Islamic Societies

By the middle of the nineteenth century, the Muslim peoples of Southeast Asia were not yet part of a unified culture or empire, but were divided into many ethnic and linguistic populations and numerous states. Holland and Britain were in the process of consolidating their empires. The consolidation of Dutch control over Java (see Chapter 38) opened the way for the expansion of Dutch rule to other parts of the East Indies. On Java, in the wake of the defeated rebellion of Dipanegara, the Dutch governor, Graaf van Den Bosch, centralized political and economic control. The Dutch government was based on the support of the indigenous elites, but they no longer had independent political power and turned more and more to culture and ritual to distinguish their class. A Dutch controller supervised the local princes, or regents, whose position was made hereditary but was reduced in actual effectiveness. In the course of the century, the regents were reduced from independent princes to salaried local officials. They were deprived of their share of tax revenues. In 1867, their lands were confiscated, and in 1882 they were denied the labor and personal services once owed them by the peasants.

Between 1824 and 1858, the Dutch acquired much of Sumatra. Dutch expansion was motivated by interest in coffee, sugar, tobacco, pepper, and spice production and, after 1870, in tin and rubber. Dutch conservatives opposed the costs of military actions, but officials, soldiers, and traders favored a larger empire. Commercial and military expansion brought the Dutch into direct conflict with Aceh for control of the pepper ports of northern and western Sumatra. After two campaigns in 1871 and 1874, the Dutch declared the annexation of Aceh and the abolition of the sultanate, and demanded the unconditional surrender of the local district lords, the uleebalangs. The ʿulamaʾ, however, continued guerrilla resistance. In the end, Dutch control of the trade of north Sumatra, aggressive military action, and a religious policy that called for the suppression of militant Muslim opposition but the acceptance of pacific Muslim religious interests enabled the Dutch to divide the uleebalangs from the ʿulamaʾ, suppress guerrilla resistance, and dominate Aceh by 1908.