History of Jakarta
The earliest historical record discovered in Jakarta is also one of the oldest inscription in Indonesian history. The coastal area around Jakarta was recognised as a port and the area was founded as a Hindu settlement around the 4th-century as part of the Indianized kingdom of Tarumanagara. The Tugu inscription, discovered in Tugu sub-district, North Jakarta, confirming that the area around vicinity of modern Jakarta was an ancient settlement back in 4th-century.After the power of Tarumanagara declined, its territories became part of the Kingdom of Sunda. According to the Chinese source, Chu-fan-chi, written by Chou Ju-kua in the early 13th Century, Srivijaya ruled Sumatra, the Malay peninsula, and western Java. The port of Sunda was described as strategic and thriving, with pepper from Sunda renowned for its supreme quality. The people of the area worked in agriculture and their houses were built on wooden piles.
One of the ports at the mouth of a river was renamed Sunda Kelapa, the capital of the Sunda Kingdom. By the fourteenth century, Sunda Kelapa became a major trading port for the kingdom.
In 1522, the Portuguese secured a politics and economic agreement with the Sunda Kingdom, the authority of the port. In exchange for military assistance against the threat of the rising Islamic Javan Sultanate of Demak, Prabu Surawisesa, king of Sunda at that time, granted them free access to the pepper trade. Portuguese who were in the service of the sovereign, made their homes in Sunda Kelapa.
To prevent Portuguese gaining foothold on Java, in 1527, Fatahillah, on behalf of the Demak attacked the Portuguese in Sunda Kelapa and succeeded in conquering the harbour on June 22, 1527, after which Sunda Kelapa was renamed Jayakarta. Later, the port became a part of the Banten Sultanate, located west from Jayakarta.
By the late 16th century, Jayakarta was under the rule of the Sultanate of Banten. Prince Jayawikarta, a follower of the Sultan of Banten, established a settlement on the west banks of the Ciliwung River, erecting a military post to control the port at the mouth of the river.
In 1595, merchants from Amsterdam embarked upon an expedition to the East Indies archipelago. Under the command of Cornelis de Houtman, the expedition arrived in Bantam and Jayakarta in 1596 with the intention of trading spices; similar to the intentions of the Portuguese.
Later, in 1602, the English East India Company's 1st voyage, commandeered by Sir James Lancaster, arrived in Aceh and sailed on to Bantam, the capital of the Sultanate of Banten; there he was allowed to build a trading post that became the centre of English trade in Indonesia until 1682.
In 1610, Dutch merchants were granted permission to build a wooden godown and houses opposite to Prince Jayawikarta's settlement on the east bank of the river. As the Dutch grew increasingly powerful, Jayawikarta allowed the British to erect houses on the West Bank of the Ciliwung River, as well as a fort close to his customs office post, to keep his strength equal to that of the Dutch. Jayawikarta supported the British because his palace was at threat from the Dutch cannons. In December 1618, the tense relationship between Prince Jayawikarta and the Dutch escalated; Jayawikarta's soldiers besieged the Dutch fortress that covered two strong godowns, namely Nassau and Mauritius. A British fleet, consisting of 15 ships, arrived under the leadership of Sir Thomas Dale, an English naval commander and former governor of the Colony of Virginia.
After the sea battle, the newly appointed Dutch governor, Jan Pieterszoon Coen, escaped to the Moluccas to seek support (the Dutch had already overtaken the 1st of the Portuguese forts there in 1605). Meanwhile, the commander of the Dutch army, Pieter van den Broecke, along with five other men, was arrested during the negotiations, as Jayawikarta believed that he had been deceived by the Dutch. Later, Jayawikarta and the British entered into a friendship agreement.
The Dutch army was on the verge of surrendering to the British when, in 1619, a sultan from Banten sent a group of soldiers to summon Prince Jayawikarta; a request was made for the establishment of a closed, exclusive relationship with the British, without prior approval from Banten authorities. The conflict between Banten and Prince Jayawikarta, as well as the tense relationship between Banten and the British, presented a new opportunity for the Dutch. Relieved by the change in the situation, the Dutch army, under the leadership of Coen, attacked and burned the city of Jayakarta, including its palace, on May 30, 1619, without any opposition; the population of Jayakarta was thereby expelled. Jayakarta was completely destroyed and only the remnants of the Padrxo of Sunda Kelapa remained; these were later discovered in 1918 during an excavation in the Kota area, on the corner of Cengkeh street and Nelayan Timur Street, and are stored at the National Museum in Jakarta. It is possible that the location of Jayakarta was in Pulau Gadung. Prince Jayawikarta retired to Tanara, the eventual place of his death, in the interior of Banten. The Dutch established a closer relationship with Banten and assumed control of the port, thus allowing the Dutch East Indies to rule the entire region.
The Dutch fortress garrison, along with hired soldiers from Japan, Germany, Scotia, Denmark and Belgium, celebrated its triumph, while the godowns of Nassau and Mauritius were expanded with the erection of a new fort extension to the east on March 12, 1619, overseen by Commander Van Raay. Coen wished to name the new settlement "Nieuw-Hoorn", but was prevented from doing so by the central government of the Netherlands East Indies, the Heeren XVII; instead, Batavia, became the new name for the fort and settlement. The name was derived from the Germanic tribe of the Batavi and it was believed that the tribe's members were the ancestors of the Dutch people during that time. Jayakarta was then called "Batavia" for more than 300 years.
The Javanese people were made to feel unwelcome in Batavia from the time of its foundation in 1619, as the Dutch feared an insurrection. Coen asked Willem Ysbrandtszoon Bontekoe, a skipper for the Dutch East India Company, to bring 1000 Chinese people to Batavia from Macao; however, only a small segment of the 1000 survived the trip. In 1621, another attempt was initiated and 15,000 people were deported from the Banda Islands to Batavia; on this occasion, only 600 survived the trip.
On August 27, 1628, Sultan Agung, king of the Mataram Sultanate, launched his 1st offensive on Batavia. He suffered heavy losses, retreated, and launched a 2nd offensive in 1629. The Dutch fleet destroyed both his supplies and ships, located in the harbours of Cirebon and Tegal. Mataram troops, starving and decimated by illness, retreated again. Later, Sultan Agung pursued his conquering ambitions in an eastward direction and attacked Blitar, Panarukan and the Blambangan principality in Eastern Java, a vassal of the Balinese kingdom of Gelgel.
Following the siege, it was decided that Batavia would need a stronger defense system. Simon Stevin, a Flemish mathematician and military engineer, was employed to design a walled city. Stevin responded with a design representative of a typical Dutch city, criss-crossed with canals that straightened the flow of the river Ciliwung. Jacques Specx developed the design further, by creating a moat and city wall that surrounded the city; extensions of the city walls appeared to the west of Batavia and the city became completely enclosed. Only the Chinese people and the Mardijkers were allowed to settle within the walled city of Batavia.
In 1656, due to a conflict with Banten, the Javanese were not allowed to reside within the city walls and consequently settled outside Batavia. In 1659, a temporary peace with Banten enabled the city to grow and, during this period, more bamboo shacks appeared in Batavia. From 1667, bamboo houses, as well as the keeping of livestock, were banned within the city. Meanwhile, the city progressively became an attraction for many people and suburbs began to develop outside the city walls.
The area outside the walls was considered unsafe for the non-native inhabitants of Batavia. The marsh area around Batavia could only be fully cultivated when a new peace treaty was signed with Banten in 1684 and country houses were subsequently established outside the city walls. The Chinese people began with the cultivation of sugarcane and tuak, with coffee a later addition.
The large-scale cultivation caused destruction to the environment, in addition to coastal erosion in the northern area of Batavia. Maintenance of the canal was extensive due to frequent closures and the continuous dredging that was required. In the 18th century, Batavia became increasingly affected by malaria epidemics, as the marsh areas were breeding grounds for mosquitos. The disease killed many Europeans, resulting in Batavia receiving the nickname, "Het kerkhof der Europeanen". Wealthier European settlers, who could afford relocation, moved to southern areas of higher elevation. Eventually, the old city was dismantled in 1810.
Batavia was founded as a trade and administrative center of the Dutch East India Company; it was never intended to be a settlement for the Dutch people. Coen founded Batavia as a trading company, whereby a city's inhabitants would take care of the production and supply of food. As a result, there was no migration of Dutch families and, instead, a mixed society was formed.
There were few Dutch women in Batavia. Relationships between Dutch men and Asian women didn't usually result in marriage, as the women could not return to the Dutch Republic. This societal pattern created a mixed group of mestizo descendants in Batavia. The sons of this mixed group often travelled to Europe to study, while the daughters were forced to remain in Batavia, with the latter often marrying VOC officials at a very young age. The women's position in Batavia developed into an important feature of the social network of Batavia; they were accustomed to dealing with slaves and spoke the same language, mostly Portuguese and Malay. Eventually, many of these women effectively became widows, as their husbands left Batavia to return to the Netherlands, and their children were often removed as well. These women were known as snaar.
As the VOC preferred to maintain complete control over its business, a large number of slaves was employed. Batavia became an unattractive location for people who wanted to establish their own businesses.
Most of Batavia's residents were of Asian descent. Thousands of slaves were brought from India and Arakan and, later, slaves were brought from Bali and Sulawesi. To avoid an uprising, a decision was made to free the Javanese people from slavery. Chinese people composed the largest group in Batavia, with most of them merchants and labourers. The Chinese people was the most decisive group in the development of Batavia. There was also a large group of freed slaves, usually Portuguese-speaking Asian Christians, that was formerly under the rule of the Portuguese. The group's members were made prisoners by the VOC during numerous conflicts with the Portuguese. Portuguese was the dominant language in Batavia until the late 18th century, when the language was slowly replaced with Dutch and Malay. Additionally, there were also Malays, as well as Muslim and Hindu merchants from India.
Initially, these different ethnic groups lived alongside each other; however, in 1688, complete segregation was enacted upon the indigenous population. Each ethnic group was forced to live in its own established village outside the city wall. There were Javanese villages for Javanese people, Moluccan villages for the Moluccans, and so on. Each person was tagged with a tag to identify them with their own ethnic group; later, this identity tag was replaced with a parchment. Reporting was compulsory for intermarriage that involved different ethnic groups.
Related Sites for History of Jakarta
- Indonesian History | The Jakarta Post read History of Jakarta
- Jakarta, Indonesia - Travel Guide, Info & Bookings รข€" Lonely Planet read History of Jakarta
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