{{Dutch colonial campaigns The Nias Expedition was a punitive expedition of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army to Nias at the end of 1855, which, with intervals, lasted until 1864.

Background

Nias (Nias Island) was an almost isolated island. The distance of Nias Island from the mainland Sumatera made Nias Island become almost isolated from

Srivijaya Srivijaya ( id, Sriwijaya) was a Buddhist thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia), which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th t ...

and

Majapahit Majapahit ( jv, ꦩꦗꦥꦲꦶꦠ꧀; ), also known as Wilwatikta ( jv, ꦮꦶꦭ꧀ꦮꦠꦶꦏ꧀ꦠ; ), was a Javanese people, Javanese Hinduism, Hindu-Buddhism, Buddhist thalassocracy, thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia that was ba ...

. But, Nias people and their activity were noted well by Fantsur (Barus) and Sibolga people (both are

Batak Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of closely related Austronesian ethnic groups predominantly found in North Sumatra, Indonesia, who speak Batak languages. The term is used to include the Karo, Pakpak, Simalungun, Toba, ...

) during their trade. Nias island was officially part of Fantsur (Barus) empire in the tenth century (as it might have been earlier). Their relationship was still good until the 17th century. This statement is accurate according to Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie's notes. In 1672, Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie was being given a permission by Barus to do trade transaction in Barus harbour, Singkil (1693), and Nias Island (1694). At the end of 1855, The Nias Expedition was launched by Netherlands to expand their territory to plant spices on land and to build harbors at the beach. Occupying Nias would make it easier for the Netherlands to control the trade route at west coast of

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

. If spices grew well, 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 ...

would be able to build a twinning harbor

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

like Sibolga or Barus.

Sources

*1900. W.A. Terwogt. ''Het land van Jan Pieterszoon Coen. Geschiedenis van de Nederlanders in oost-Indië.'' P. Geerts. Hoorn *1900. G. Kepper. ''Wapenfeiten van het Nederlands Indische Leger''; 1816–1900. M.M. Cuvee, Den Haag.' *1876. A.J.A. Gerlach. ''Nederlandse heldenfeiten in Oost Indë.'' Drie delen. Gebroeders Belinfante, Den Haag. *1866. Willem Adriaan van Rees. ''De pioniers der beschaving in Nederlands Indië. Verhaal van enige krijgstochten op de buitenbezittingen.'' D.A. Thieme. Den Haag. *1907. Corpus Diplomaticum, vol 4, pp 25–54. 1850s conflicts 1860s conflicts Dutch conquest of Indonesia History of Sumatra