Pieter Gerardus van Overstraten (19 February 1755, in

Bergen op Zoom Bergen op Zoom (; called ''Berrege'' in the local dialect) is a municipality and a city located in the south of the Netherlands. Etymology The city was built on a place where two types of soil meet: sandy soil and marine clay. The sandy soil p ...

– 22 August 1801, in

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 ...

) was

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 ...

from 1796 until 1801. He was the last Governor-General 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 ...

, which was dissolved, bankrupt in 1799, but he remained in post as the Dutch state took over ruling its territories in the

Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in East (disambiguation)#Geography, the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and ...

. In that sense, he was also the first state appointed

. Van Overstraten was appointed member-extraordinary of the ''Council of Justice (Raad van Justitie)'' in Batavia/Jakarta in 1780. He arrived in there in 1781. Subsequently, he was promoted to full member. In the same year, he was made interim ''Advocate-Fiscal''. He was made ''Second Secretary'' to the ''High Government of the Indies'' in 1784. He was promoted in 1786 to ''First Secretary''. He became ''Counsellor-extraordinary'' to the

Dutch Council of the Indies The Council of the Indies ( nl, Raad van Indië; id, Dewan Hindia) was a body established in 1610 to advise and limit the powers of the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies. Initially the council had four members and a chairman, all Dutch na ...

in 1789. By 1791 he was Governor and Director of Java's Northeast Coast, in which post he greatly distinguished himself. During his time in the Northeast Coast, he was instrumental in getting

Hamengkubuwono I Hamengkubuwono I ( Javanese script: ꦱꦸꦭ꧀ꦠꦤ꧀ꦲꦩꦼꦁꦏꦸꦧꦸꦮꦤꦆ, Bahasa Jawa: ''Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono I''), born Raden Mas Sujana (Kartasura, 16 August 1717Yogyakarta, 24 March 1792), was the first sultan of Yogya ...

established as the first

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...

Yogyakarta Yogyakarta (; jv, ꦔꦪꦺꦴꦒꦾꦏꦂꦠ ; pey, Jogjakarta) is the capital city of Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by a monarchy, ...

. He wrote an historically important memoir for his successor containing information about that area during his term of office. On 16 August 1796 Pieter van Overstraten was selected as Governor-General. On 17 February 1797,

Willem Arnold Alting Willem Arnold Alting (11 November 1724 – 7 June 1800) was a Dutch colonial administrator who served as Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1780 to 1797. Born in Groningen, Alting studied in his hometown and graduated in law. He l ...

resigned as Governor-General and Commissioner of Police (''Commissaris-General''). He handed over his offices to Van Overstaten. The appointment was confirmed in 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 ...

on 22 January 1798. When the High Government of the Indies was dissolved in 1799, he resigned as Commissioner of Police, but remained as Governor-General serving the

Batavian Republic The Batavian Republic ( nl, Bataafse Republiek; french: République Batave) was the successor state to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on 19 January 1795 and ended on 5 June 1806, with the accession of Louis Bona ...

, which the

had become under

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

. He remained in post until his death in Batavia in 1801. During Van Overstraten's term of office, the

(VOC) was dissolved,

Ternate Ternate is a city in the Indonesian province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands. It was the ''de facto'' provincial capital of North Maluku before Sofifi on the nearby coast of Halmahera became the capital in 2010. It is off the we ...

went into British hands, Batavia was blockaded by a British fleet, and the fortifications on the island of

Onrust The ''Onrust'' (; en, Restless) was a Dutch ship built by Adriaen Block and the crew of the '' Tyger'', which had been destroyed by fire in the winter of 1613. The ''Onrust'' was the first ship to be built in what is now New York State, and the ...

, and on a few other islands, destroyed.

References

Sources

Dutch East India Company (VOC) infosite
{{DEFAULTSORT:Overstraten, Pieter Gerardus van 1755 births 1801 deaths Governors-General of the Dutch East Indies People from Bergen op Zoom 18th-century Dutch East Indies people 19th-century Dutch East Indies people