British-Dutch Wars
Although the British and Dutch cooperated to counter Spanish and Portuguese influence, the alliance was uneasy as one tried to take advantage of the other's weakness. Rivalry first emerged over control of the Banda Islands and their nutmeg production. Beginning in 1616, the British settlement on Pulau Run (Run Island) was blockaded for several years, causing the death of expedition leader Captain Nathaniel Courthope. The Dutch governor of the Netherlands East Indies, Jan Pieterszoon Coen, shifted the center of Dutch operations to Batavia (Jakarta) from Bantam after British threats. In 1619, Coen ordered an attack on two British ships, causing the death of Captain John Jourdain. In March 1620, news arrived of a peace agreement signed between Britain and the Netherlands, giving Britain a minority share of the spice trade but granting the Netherlands free rein in the Spice Islands. Coen used the agreement to take full control of the Banda Islands, forcing the British out. The British formally gave up their claim in 1667 with the Peace of Breda following hostilities with the Dutch in the English Channel. The Netherlands emerged dominant in maritime Southeast Asia.
Trouble resurfaced in the late eighteenth century. As the Netherlands was allied to France, Britain took control of some strategic enclaves in the Spice Islands between 1776 and 1801, but it returned these in the 1802 Peace of Amiens treaty. However, in the early nineteenth century the Netherlands came under the sway of Napoleonic France. The arrival of Francophile governor Herman Daendels in 1808 led to British concern over French proxy influence in Southeast Asia. A decision was taken to protect Indian security and Chinese trade by assuming control of Java and its dependencies. In August 1811, a British force of 12,000, led by Lord Minto, easily took Batavia, establishing Stamford Raffles as lieutenant governor of Java. The Dutch had little choice but to cooperate with the new administration.
Raffles's dream of expanding the British Empire into Java and the surrounding islands ended with Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, as the British wished to reestablish the Netherlands as a strong independent state. Dutch administration was restored to the Dutch East Indies in 1816. Dispute, however, arose over the ownership of Singapore (claimed by the British in 1819) and British presence in western Sumatra. The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 solidified the boundaries of maritime Southeast Asia, surrendering Sumatra to the Dutch, while granting the British Malacca and Singapore. By this stage the Netherlands had to accept British military and economic dominance and the fact that Dutch colonial rule relied on British guarantees.
Further Reading
Bastin, John. (1957) The Native Policies of Sir Stamford Raffles in Java and Sumatra: An Economic Interpretation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Hall, D. G. E. (1968) A History of Southeast Asia. 3d ed. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd.
Raffles, Thomas Stamford. ([1817] 1965). History of Java. Reprint. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Oxford University Press.
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