Speelman, Cornelis
(1628–1684), governor-general of the Dutch East India Company. Born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Speelman came to the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) in 1645 at the age of seventeen. He rose through the ranks of the Dutch East India Company, serving as governor of Coromandel, a territory on the east coast of South India, from 1663 to1665. He learned several local languages and wrote widely on political, social, and cultural topics. In 1668, allied with Arung Palakka (1634–1696), prince of Boni, a kingdom in southern Sulawesi, he led Dutch military forces to defeat Makassar, then the most powerful state in the eastern archipelago of the Dutch East Indies and a trading center for the company's European rivals. The Treaty of Bungaya (18 November 1668) that followed granted the company a monopoly of trade in Makassar and hegemony over its former empire. As member of the Council of the Indies from 1671, Speelman argued vigorously for extending the company's territorial control in the Indies, rather than focusing simply on trade, and he led Dutch military forces in eastern Java in 1676. As governor-general (1681–1684) he ordered the conquest of Banten in the west of the island. His rule was marred by his corruption and abuse of power, and the Dutch East India Company confiscated his estate after his death.
Further Reading
Andaya, Leonard Y. (1981) The Heritage of Arung Palakka: A History of South Sulawesi (Celebes) in the Seventeenth Century. The Hague, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff.
Vlekke, Bernard H. M. (1943) Nusantara: A History of the East Indian Archipelago. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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