1740 Batavia Massacre
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The 1740 Batavia massacre ( nl, Chinezenmoord, lit=Murder of the Chinese; id, Geger Pacinan, lit=Chinatown tumult) was a
massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...
and
pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...
in which European soldiers of the
Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
and Javanese collaborators killed
ethnic Chinese The Chinese people or simply Chinese, are people or ethnic groups identified with China, usually through ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, or other affiliation. Chinese people are known as Zhongguoren () or as Huaren () by speakers of s ...
residents of the port city of
Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
(present-day
Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
) in the
Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
. The violence in the city lasted from 9 October 1740, until 22 October, with minor skirmishes outside the walls continuing late into November that year. Historians have estimated that at least 10,000 ethnic Chinese were massacred; just 600 to 3,000 are believed to have survived. In September 1740, as unrest rose among the Chinese population, spurred by government repression and declining sugar prices,
Governor-General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...
Adriaan Valckenier Adriaan Valckenier (6 June 1695 – 20 June 1751) was Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1737 to 1741. Mainly remembered for his involvement in the 1740 Batavia massacre, Valckenier later died in a prison in Batavia (present-day Ja ...
declared that any uprising would be met with deadly force. On 7 October, hundreds of ethnic Chinese, many of them
sugar mill A sugar cane mill is a factory that processes sugar cane to produce raw or white sugar. The term is also used to refer to the equipment that crushes the sticks of sugar cane to extract the juice. Processing There are a number of steps in pro ...
workers, killed 50 Dutch soldiers, leading Dutch troops to confiscate all weapons from the Chinese populace and to place the Chinese under a
curfew A curfew is a government order specifying a time during which certain regulations apply. Typically, curfews order all people affected by them to ''not'' be in public places or on roads within a certain time frame, typically in the evening and ...
. Two days later, rumors of Chinese atrocities led other Batavian ethnic groups to burn Chinese houses along Besar River and Dutch soldiers to fire cannons at Chinese homes in revenge. The violence soon spread throughout Batavia, killing more Chinese. Although Valckenier declared an amnesty on 11 October, gangs of irregulars continued to hunt down and kill Chinese until 22 October, when the governor-general called more forcefully for a cessation of hostilities. Outside the city walls, clashes continued between Dutch troops and rioting sugar mill workers. After several weeks of minor skirmishes, Dutch-led troops assaulted Chinese strongholds in sugar mills throughout the area. The following year, attacks on ethnic Chinese throughout
Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
sparked the two-year
Java War The Java War ( jv, ꦥꦼꦫꦁꦗꦮ) or Diponegoro War () was fought in central Java from 1825 to 1830, between the colonial Dutch Empire and native Javanese rebels. The war started as a rebellion led by Prince Diponegoro, a leading member ...
that pitted ethnic Chinese and Javanese forces against Dutch troops. Valckenier was later recalled to the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
and charged with crimes related to the massacre. The massacre figures heavily in
Dutch literature Dutch language literature () comprises all writings of literary merit written through the ages in the Dutch language, a language which currently has around 23 million native speakers. Dutch-language literature is the product of the Netherlands, Be ...
, and is also cited as a possible etymology for the names of several areas in Jakarta.


Background

During the early years of the Dutch colonisation of the East Indies (modern-day Indonesia), many people of Chinese descent were contracted as skilled artisans in the construction of Batavia on the northwestern coast of
Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
; they also served as traders, sugar mill workers, and shopkeepers. The economic boom, precipitated by trade between the East Indies and China via the port of Batavia, increased Chinese immigration to Java. The number of ethnic Chinese in Batavia grew rapidly, reaching a total of 10,000 by 1740. Thousands more lived outside the city walls. The Dutch colonials required them to carry registration papers, and deported those who did not comply to China. The deportation policy was tightened during the 1730s, after an outbreak of
malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
killed thousands, including the
Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies The governor-general of the Dutch East Indies ( nl, gouverneur-generaal van Nederlands Indië) represented Dutch rule in the Dutch East Indies between 1610 and Dutch recognition of the independence of Indonesia in 1949. Occupied by Japanese fo ...
,
Dirck van Cloon Dirck van Cloon (also Dirk and Theodoor van Cloon; 1684 – 10 March 1735) was Eurasian Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. He died of malaria at the age of 50. He was born in Batavia sometime in 1684. For his education and training he ...
. According to Indonesian historian
Benny G. Setiono Benny Gatot Setiono (October 31, 1943 - January 17, 2017) was an Indonesian historian. Setiono was born in Caracas, Kuningan, West Java, Indonesia. His father, Endang Sunarko (Khouw Sin Eng), was also a writer, including of ''New China, Friend or ...
, the outbreak was followed by increased suspicion and resentment in native Indonesians and the Dutch toward the ethnic Chinese, who were growing in number and whose wealth was increasingly visible. As a result, Commissioner of Native Affairs Roy Ferdinand, under orders of Governor-General
Adriaan Valckenier Adriaan Valckenier (6 June 1695 – 20 June 1751) was Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1737 to 1741. Mainly remembered for his involvement in the 1740 Batavia massacre, Valckenier later died in a prison in Batavia (present-day Ja ...
, decreed on 25 July 1740, that Chinese considered suspicious would be deported to
Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
(modern day Sri Lanka) and forced to harvest cinnamon. Wealthy Chinese were extorted by corrupt Dutch officials who threatened them with deportation;
Stamford Raffles Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (5 July 1781 – 5 July 1826) was a British statesman who served as the Lieutenant-Governor of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816, and Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen between 1818 and 1824. He is ...
, an explorer, administrator and historian of Java, noted in 1830 that in some Javanese accounts, the Dutch were told by the Dutch-appointed Chinese headman of Batavia, Nie Hoe Kong, to deport all Chinese wearing black or blue because these were thought to be poor. There were also rumors that deportees were not taken to their destinations but were thrown overboard once out of sight of Java, and in some accounts, they died when rioting on the ships. The deportation of ethnic Chinese caused unrest among the remaining Chinese, leading many Chinese workers to desert their jobs. At the same time native occupants of Batavia, including the ethnic Betawi servants, became increasingly distrustful of the Chinese. Economic factors played a role: most natives were poor, and perceived the Chinese as occupying some of the most prosperous neighbourhoods in the city. Although the Dutch historian A.N. Paasman notes that at the time the Chinese were the "Jews of Asia", the actual situation was more complicated. Many poor Chinese living in the area around Batavia were sugar mill workers who felt exploited by the Dutch and Chinese elites equally. Rich Chinese owned the mills and were involved in
revenue farming Farming or tax-farming is a technique of financial management in which the management of a variable revenue stream is assigned by legal contract to a third party and the holder of the revenue stream receives fixed periodic rents from the contract ...
and shipping; they drew income from milling and the distillation of '' arak'', a molasses and rice-based alcoholic beverage. However, the Dutch overlords set the price for sugar, which itself caused unrest. Because of the decline of worldwide sugar prices that began in the 1720s caused by an increase in exports to Europe and competition from the
West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...
, the sugar industry in the East Indies had suffered considerably. By 1740, worldwide sugar prices had dropped to half the price in 1720. As sugar was a major export, this caused considerable financial difficulties for the colony. Initially some members of the Council of the Indies () believed that the Chinese would never attack Batavia, and stronger measures to control the Chinese were blocked by a faction led by Valckenier's political opponent, the former governor of Zeylan
Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff Gustaaf Willem, Baron van Imhoff (8 August 1705 – 1 November 1750) was a Dutch colonial administrator for the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He served as Governor of Ceylon from 1736 to 1740 and as Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies fr ...
, who returned to Batavia in 1738. Large numbers of Chinese arrived outside Batavia from nearby settlements, however, and on 26 September Valckenier called an emergency meeting of the council, during which he gave orders to respond to any ethnic Chinese uprisings with deadly force. This policy continued to be opposed by van Imhoff's faction; Vermeulen (1938) suggested that the tension between the two colonial factions played a role in the ensuing massacre. On the evening of 1 October Valckenier received reports that a crowd of a thousand Chinese had gathered outside the gate, angered by his statements at the emergency meeting five days earlier. This report was received incredulously by Valckenier and the council. However, after the murder of a Balinese sergeant by the Chinese outside the walls, the council decided to take extraordinary measures and reinforce the guard. Two groups of 50 Europeans and some native porters were sent to outposts on the south and east sides of the city, and a plan of attack was formulated.


Incident


Massacre

After groups of Chinese sugar mill workers revolted using custom-made weapons to loot and burn mills, hundreds of ethnic Chinese, suspected to have been led by Nie Hoe Kong, killed 50 Dutch soldiers in Meester Cornelis (now
Jatinegara Jatinegara (originally known as Meester Cornelis or Meester for short) is one of the districts (''Kecamatan'') of East Jakarta, Indonesia. The name also refers to the larger, historic area of the colonial town of Meester Cornelis. Established in ...
) and
Tanah Abang Tanah Abang is a district of Central Jakarta, Indonesia. The district hosts the biggest textile market in Southeast Asia, Tanah Abang Market. It hosts Bung Karno Stadium, in Kelurahan Gelora, and the western half of the largely skyscraper-domin ...
on 7 October. In response, the Dutch sent 1,800 regular troops, accompanied by ''
schutterij Schutterij () refers to a voluntary city guard or citizen militia in the medieval and early modern Netherlands, intended to protect the town or city from attack and act in case of revolt or fire. Their training grounds were often on open spaces w ...
'' (militia) and eleven battalions of conscripts to stop the revolt; they established a curfew and cancelled plans for a Chinese festival. Fearing that the Chinese would conspire against the colonials by candlelight, those inside the city walls were forbidden to light candles and were forced to surrender everything "down to the smallest kitchen knife". The following day the Dutch repelled an attack by up to 10,000 ethnic Chinese, led by groups from nearby
Tangerang Tangerang (Sundanese: , ) is a city in the province of Banten, Indonesia. Located on the western border of Jakarta, it is the third largest urban centre in the Greater Jakarta metropolitan area after Jakarta and Bekasi; the sixth largest city pro ...
and
Bekasi Bekasi (, su, ) is a city in West Java, Indonesia, located on the eastern border of Jakarta.the city of planet Bekasi is his nickname.It serves as a commuter city within the Jakarta metropolitan area. According to the 2020 Census by Statistics ...
, at the city's outer walls; Raffles wrote that 1,789 Chinese died in this attack. In response, Valckenier called another meeting of the council on 9 October. Meanwhile, rumors spread among the other ethnic groups in Batavia, including slaves from
Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
and
Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...
,
Bugis The Bugis people (pronounced ), also known as Buginese, are an ethnicity—the most numerous of the three major linguistic and ethnic groups of South Sulawesi (the others being Makassar and Toraja), in the south-western province of Sulawe ...
, and Balinese troops, that the Chinese were plotting to kill, rape, or enslave them. These groups pre-emptively burned houses belonging to ethnic Chinese along Besar River. The Dutch followed this with an assault on Chinese settlements elsewhere in Batavia in which they burned houses and killed people. The Dutch politician and critic of colonialism W. R. van Hoëvell wrote that "pregnant and nursing women, children, and trembling old men fell on the sword. Defenseless prisoners were slaughtered like sheep". Troops under Lieutenant Hermanus van Suchtelen and Captain Jan van Oosten, a survivor from Tanah Abang, took station in the Chinese district: Suchtelen and his men positioned themselves at the poultry market, while van Oosten's men held a post along the nearby canal. At around 5:00 p.m., the Dutch opened fire on Chinese-occupied houses with cannon, causing them to catch fire. Some Chinese died in the burning houses, while others were shot upon leaving their homes or committed suicide in desperation. Those who reached the canal near the housing district were killed by Dutch troops waiting in small boats, while other troops searched in between the rows of burning houses, killing any survivors they found. These actions later spread throughout the city. Vermeulen notes that many of the perpetrators were sailors and other "irregular and bad elements" of society. During this period there was heavy looting and seizures of property. The following day the violence continued to spread, and Chinese patients in a hospital were taken outside and killed. Attempts to extinguish fires in areas devastated the preceding day failed, and the flames increased in vigour, and continued until 12 October. Meanwhile, a group of 800 Dutch soldiers and 2,000 natives assaulted Kampung Gading Melati, where a group of Chinese survivors were holding up under the leadership of Khe Pandjang. Although the Chinese evacuated to nearby Paninggaran, they were later driven out of the area by Dutch forces. There were approximately 450 Dutch and 800 Chinese casualties in the two attacks.


Follow-up and further violence

On 11 October Valckenier unsuccessfully requested that officers control their troops and stop the looting. Two days later the council established a reward of two
ducat The ducat () coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages from the 13th to 19th centuries. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wi ...
s for every Chinese head surrendered to the soldiers as an incentive for the other ethnic groups to assist in the purge. As a result, ethnic Chinese who had survived the initial assault were hunted by gangs of irregulars, who killed those Chinese they found for the reward. The Dutch worked with natives in different parts of Batavia; ethnic Bugis and Balinese
grenadier A grenadier ( , ; derived from the word '' grenade'') was originally a specialist soldier who threw hand grenades in battle. The distinct combat function of the grenadier was established in the mid-17th century, when grenadiers were recruited fr ...
s were sent to reinforce the Dutch on 14 October. On 22 October Valckenier called for all killings to cease. In a lengthy letter in which he blamed the unrest entirely on the Chinese rebels, Valckenier offered an amnesty to all Chinese, except for the leaders of the unrest, on whose heads he placed a bounty of up to 500 rijksdaalders. Outside the walls skirmishes between the Chinese rebels and the Dutch continued. On October 25, after almost two weeks of minor skirmishes, 500 armed Chinese approached Cadouwang (now
Angke Tambora is a subdistrict of West Jakarta, Indonesia. Tambora Subdistrict is bounded by a railway to the west and to the north, Kali Krukut - Kali Besar canal to the east, and Duri Selatan Road to the south. The Roa Malaka Administrative Villa ...
), but were repelled by cavalry under the command of ''Ridmeester'' Christoffel Moll and
Cornets The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B, though there is also a sopr ...
Daniel Chits and Pieter Donker. The following day the cavalry, which consisted of 1,594 Dutch and native forces, marched on the rebel stronghold at the Salapadjang sugar mill, first gathered in the nearby woods and then set the mill on fire while the rebels were inside; another mill at Boedjong Renje was taken in the same manner by another group. Fearful of the oncoming Dutch, the Chinese retreated to a sugar mill in Kampung Melayu, four hours from Salapadjang; this stronghold fell to troops under Captain Jan George Crummel. After defeating the Chinese and retaking Qual, the Dutch returned to Batavia. Meanwhile, the fleeing Chinese, who were blocked to the west by 3,000 troops from the
Sultanate of Banten The Banten Sultanate (كسلطانن بنتن) was a Bantenese Islamic trading kingdom founded in the 16th century and centred in Banten, a port city on the northwest coast of Java; the contemporary English name of both was Bantam. It is said ...
, headed east along the north coast of Java; by 30 October it was reported that the Chinese had reached Tangerang. A ceasefire order reached Crummel on 2 November, upon which he and his men returned to Batavia after stationing a contingent of 50 men at Cadouwang. When he arrived at noon, there were no more Chinese inside the Batavia walls. On 8 November the
Sultanate of Cirebon The Sultanate of Cirebon ( id, Kesultanan Cirebon, Pegon: كسلطانن چيربون, su, Kasultanan Cirebon) was an Islamic sultanate in West Java founded in the 15th century. It is said to have been founded by Sunan Gunungjati, as mar ...
sent between 2,000 and 3,000 native troops to reinforce the city guard. Looting continued until at least 28 November, and the last native troops stood down at the end of that month.


Aftermath

Most accounts of the massacre estimate that 10,000 Chinese were killed within Batavia's city walls, while at least another 500 were seriously wounded. Between 600 and 700 Chinese-owned houses were raided and burned. Vermeulen gives a figure of 600 survivors, while the Indonesian scholar A.R.T. Kemasang estimates that 3,000 Chinese survived. The Indonesian historian Benny G. Setiono notes that 500 prisoners and hospital patients were killed, and a total of 3,431 people survived. The massacre was followed by an "open season" against the ethnic Chinese throughout Java, causing another massacre in 1741 in
Semarang Semarang ( jv, ꦏꦸꦛꦯꦼꦩꦫꦁ , Pegon: سماراڠ) is the capital and largest city of Central Java province in Indonesia. It was a major port during the Dutch colonial era, and is still an important regional center and port today. ...
, and others later in
Surabaya Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of East Java and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. L ...
and
Gresik Gresik Regency ( older spelling: Grissee, ) is a regency within East Java Province of Indonesia. As well as a large part of the Surabaya northern and western suburbs, it includes the offshore Bawean Island, some 125 km to the north of Java an ...
. As part of conditions for the cessation of violence, all of Batavia's ethnic Chinese were moved to a ''
pecinan A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...
'', or Chinatown, outside of the city walls, now known as
Glodok Glodok () is an urban village of Taman Sari, West Jakarta, Indonesia. The area is also known as Pecinan or Chinatown since the Dutch colonial era, and is considered the biggest in Indonesia. Majority of the traders and residents of Glodok are C ...
. This allowed the Dutch to monitor the Chinese more easily. To leave the ''pecinan'', ethnic Chinese required special passes. By 1743, however, ethnic Chinese had already returned to inner Batavia; several hundred merchants operated there. Other ethnic Chinese led by Khe Pandjang fled to
Central Java Central Java ( id, Jawa Tengah) is a province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogyakarta in t ...
where they attacked Dutch trading posts, and were later joined by troops under the command of the Javanese sultan of Mataram, . Though this further uprising was quashed in 1743, conflicts in Java continued almost without interruption for the next 17 years. On 6 December 1740, van Imhoff and two fellow councillors were arrested on the orders of Valckenier for insubordination, and on 13 January 1741, they were sent to the Netherlands on separate ships; they arrived on 19 September 1741. In the Netherlands, van Imhoff convinced the council that Valckenier was to blame for the massacre and delivered an extensive speech entitled "Consideratiën over den tegenwoordigen staat van de Ned. O.I. Comp." ("Considerations on the Current Condition of the Dutch East Indies Company") on November 24. As a result of the speech, the charges against him and the other councillors were dismissed. On 27 October 1742, van Imhoff was sent back to Batavia on the ''Hersteller'' as the new governor-general of the East Indies, with high expectations from the Lords XVII, the leadership of the Dutch East India Company. He arrived in the Indies on 26 May 1743. Valckenier had asked to be replaced late in 1740, and in February 1741 had received a reply instructing him to appoint van Imhoff as his successor; an alternative account indicates that the Lords XVII informed him that he was to be replaced by van Imhoff as punishment for exporting too much sugar and too little coffee in 1739 and thus causing large financial losses. By the time Valckenier received the reply, van Imhoff was already on his way back to the Netherlands. Valckenier left the Indies on 6 November 1741, after appointing a temporary successor, Johannes Thedens. Taking command of a fleet, Valckenier headed for the Netherlands. On 25 January 1742, he arrived in Cape Town but was detained, and investigated by governor Hendrik Swellengrebel by order of the Lords XVII. In August 1742 Valckenier was sent back to Batavia, where he was imprisoned in Fort Batavia and, three months later, tried on several charges, including his involvement in the massacre. In March 1744 he was convicted and condemned to death, and all his belongings were confiscated. In December 1744 the trial was reopened when Valckenier gave a lengthy statement to defend himself. Valckenier asked for more evidence from the Netherlands, but died in his prison cell on 20 June 1751, before the investigation was completed. The death penalty was rescinded posthumously in 1755. Vermeulen characterises the investigation as unfair and fuelled by popular outrage in the Netherlands, and arguably this was officially recognised because in 1760 Valckenier's son, Adriaan Isaäk Valckenier, received reparations totalling 725,000 gulden. Sugar production in the area suffered greatly after the massacre, as many of the Chinese who had run the industry had been killed or were missing. It began to recover after the new governor-general, van Imhoff, "colonised" Tangerang. He initially intended for men to come from the Netherlands and work the land; he considered those already settled in the Indies to be lazy. However, he was unable to attract new settlers because of high taxes and thus sold the land to those already in Batavia. As he had expected, the new land-owners were unwilling to "soil their hands", and quickly rented out the land to ethnic Chinese. Production rose steadily after this, but took until the 1760s to reach pre-1740 levels, after which it again diminished. The number of mills also declined. In 1710 there had been 131, but by 1750 the number had fallen to 66. After the 1740 massacre, it became apparent over the ensuing decades through a series of considerations that Batavia needed Chinese people for a long list of trades. Considerable Chinese economic expansion occurred in the late eighteenth century, and by 1814 there were 11,854 Chinese people within the total of 47,217 inhabitants.


Legacy

Vermeulen described the massacre as "one of the most striking events in 18th-century utchcolonialism". In his doctoral dissertation, W. W. Dharmowijono notes that the attack has figured heavily in Dutch literature, early examples of which include a poem by Willem van Haren that condemned the massacre (dating from 1742) and an anonymous poem, from the same period, critical of the Chinese. Raffles wrote in 1830 that Dutch historical records are "far from complete or satisfactory". Dutch historian
Leonard Blussé Leonard Blussé (born 23 July 1946 in Rotterdam) is a Dutch historian concerned with the field of Asian-European relations. Blussé has a prolific written output in his field, having authored, co-authored or edited more than twenty books since 20 ...
writes that the massacre indirectly led to the rapid expansion of Batavia, and institutionalised a ''
modus vivendi ''Modus vivendi'' (plural ''modi vivendi'') is a Latin phrase that means "mode of living" or " way of life". It often is used to mean an arrangement or agreement that allows conflicting parties to coexist in peace. In science, it is used to descr ...
'' that led to a dichotomy between the ethnic Chinese and other groups, which could still be felt in the late 20th century. The massacre may also have been a factor in the naming of numerous areas in Jakarta. One possible etymology for the name of the Tanah Abang district (meaning "red earth") is that it was named for the Chinese blood spilled there; van Hoëvell suggests that the naming was a compromise to make the Chinese survivors accept amnesty more quickly. The name ''Rawa Bangke'', for a subdistrict of East Jakarta, may be derived from the colloquial Indonesian word for corpse, ''bangkai'', due to the great number of ethnic Chinese killed there; a similar etymology has been suggested for ''Angke'' in Tambora.


See also

*
Chinese Indonesians Chinese Indonesians ( id, Orang Tionghoa Indonesia) and colloquially Chindo or just Tionghoa are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Chinese people and their Indonesian descendants have l ...
*
Chinese Indonesian surname Many Overseas Chinese, ethnic Chinese people have lived in Indonesia for many centuries. Over time, especially under social and political pressure during the New Order (Indonesia), New Order era, most Chinese Indonesians have adopted names that be ...
*
Legislation on Chinese Indonesians Indonesian law affecting Chinese-Indonesians were conducted through a series of laws, directives, or constitutions enacted by the Government of Indonesia that affected the lives of Chinese Indonesians or Chinese nationals living in Indonesia ...
*
Discrimination against Chinese Indonesians Discrimination against people of Chinese descent in Indonesia has been carried out since the time of the Dutch East India Company. Serious violence against Chinese people has occurred at irregular intervals since 1740, when the soldiers of the D ...
* 1918 Kudus riot *
Nanking massacre The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Ba ...
* Mergosono massacre (1947) *
Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66 The Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66, also known as the Indonesian genocide, Indonesian Communist Purge, or Indonesian politicide ( id, Pembunuhan Massal Indonesia & Pembersihan G.30.S/PKI), were large-scale killings and civil unrest pri ...
*
Banjarmasin riot of May 1997 The Banjarmasin riot of May 1997 took place on May 23, 1997 on the last day of the election campaign for the 1997 Indonesian legislative election. In strongly Islamic Banjarmasin, supporters of the PPP were aggrievated by perceived abuses of power ...
*
May 1998 riots of Indonesia The May 1998 riots of Indonesia ( id, Kerusuhan Mei 1998), also known as the 1998 tragedy (''Tragedi 1998'') or simply the 1998 event (''Peristiwa 1998''), were incidents of mass violence, demonstrations, and civil unrest that occurred thro ...
– riots in which many ethnic Chinese were targeted for violence


Notes


References


Citations


Sources

; Works cited * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * . * * * * * ; Online sources *


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:1740 Batavia Massacre
Batavia massacre The 1740 Batavia massacre ( nl, Chinezenmoord, lit=Murder of the Chinese; id, Geger Pacinan, lit=Chinatown tumult) was a massacre and pogrom in which European soldiers of the Dutch East India Company and Javanese collaborators killed ethnic ...
18th century in Indonesia Anti-Chinese sentiment in Indonesia Chinese diaspora in Indonesia Conflicts in 1740 Batavia, Dutch East Indies Ethnic riots Massacres committed by the Dutch East India Company Massacres in Indonesia Race riots Massacres of ethnic groups 1740 in the Dutch Empire Massacres in 1740 1740 murders in Asia