Sumatra's East Coast Residency ( nl, Residentie Oostkust van Sumatra) was an administrative subdivision of the Dutch East Indies with its capital in
Medan
Medan (; English: ) is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of North Sumatra, as well as a regional hub and financial centre of Sumatra. According to the National Development Planning Agency, Medan is one of the four main ...
. It was located in northern Sumatra.
Formation
From the early 19th century the Dutch gradually took control 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 ...
, starting from the south. In Eastern Indonesia, the sultanates of
Asahan,
Serdang,
Deli
Deli may refer to:
* Delicatessen, a shop selling specially prepared food, or food prepared by such a shop
* Sultanate of Deli, a former sultanate in North Sumatra, Indonesia
Places
* Deli, Boyer-Ahmad, a village in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Pro ...
and
Langkat
The Sultanate of Langkat () was a Malay Muslim state located in modern Langkat Regency, North Sumatra. It predates Islam in the region, but no historical records before the 17th century survive. It prospered with the opening of rubber plantatio ...
were subjugated between 1662 and 1865, and these sultans were subsequently used by the Dutch to indirectly rule the 'native states', as they became known. The inland
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, ...
areas were under Dutch control by 1895. The East Coast Residency was established in 1873, and took its final form in 1908 after Tamiang, a small area in the north, was transferred to Aceh
Plantations
In 1863, the first Dutch settler, Jacobus Nienjuys, arrived and began to plant
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
,
nutmeg
Nutmeg is the seed or ground spice of several species of the genus ''Myristica''. ''Myristica fragrans'' (fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg) is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fruit: nutmeg, from its seed, an ...
and coconut. Others followed, and established plantations to grow tropical crops such as tobacco,
rubber
Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
,
palm oil
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced from ...
and
coffee
Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world.
S ...
. These plants grew very well in the region's volcanic soil. By 1938, there were 10,026 square kilometers of plantations in the northern part of the residency, known as the Estates Area.
Administration
In 1938, all ten residences on the island of Sumatra were brought together to form the
Gouvernement of Sumatra, with Medan as its capital. The head of each residency was a resident. Under the resident, there were assistant residents, controllers and district administrators, who were responsible for the subdivisions of the residency. In East Sumatra, as well as the directly governed areas, there were 34 native states, which were autonomous to a degree, They comprised:
* Five Malay sultanates (
Asahan,
Deli
Deli may refer to:
* Delicatessen, a shop selling specially prepared food, or food prepared by such a shop
* Sultanate of Deli, a former sultanate in North Sumatra, Indonesia
Places
* Deli, Boyer-Ahmad, a village in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Pro ...
,
Langkat
The Sultanate of Langkat () was a Malay Muslim state located in modern Langkat Regency, North Sumatra. It predates Islam in the region, but no historical records before the 17th century survive. It prospered with the opening of rubber plantatio ...
,
Serdang and
Siak)
* Malay principalities
*
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, ...
states
The towns of Medan,
Pematang Siantar
Pematangsiantar (sometimes written as Pematang Siantar, acronym PS or ''P. Siantar'', colloquially just Siantar), is an independent city in North Sumatra, Indonesia, surrounded by, but not part of, the Simalungun Regency, making Pematangsiantar an ...
,
Tandjong Balai,
Tebing Tinggi
Tebing Tinggi Deli or more commonly simply ''Tebing Tinggi'' ( Jawi: ) is a city near the eastern coast of Northern Sumatra, Indonesia. It has an area of 38.44 km2 and a population at the 2010 Census of 145,180, which grew to 172,838 at the ...
and
Bindjei were enclaves within the native states. The first two were governed by a mayor, and the latter three by the assistant resident.
Population
Before 1863, when the first Europeans arrived, the region was populated by a few thousand
Malays. As labourers from outside the region were brought in to work on the plantations, the population grew rapidly. Initially these immigrant workers came directly from
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, and from 1872, Java. In the late 1880s, the number of Chinese labourers brought in by the tobacco companies reached 20,000 per year. The work force on the coffee, rubber, tea and oil-palm plantations, which began to be planted in the late 1890s, was entirely ethnic Javanese.
As of 1938, the "native" population was dominated by
ethnic Javanese, mostly from central Java, followed by Bataks. There were also
Banjar people
The Banjar or Banjarese ( bjn, Urang Banjar; ) are an indigenous ethnic group native to the Banjar regions (notably Banjarmasin, Banjarbaru, Banjar Regency, etc.) in the southeastern Kalimantan hemisphere of Indonesia. Nowadays, Banjarese di ...
from southern
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...
and
Mandailing people
The Mandailing is an ethnic group in Sumatera, Indonesia that is commonly associated with the Batak people. They are found mainly in the northern section of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. They came under the influence of the Kaum Padri who ...
from west Sumatra. Most of the "other orientals" were from China, but there were also
Indians and
Arabs
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...
. Most of the managers of the tobacco plantations and half the managers of the rubber, tea and oil plantations were Dutch, but there were also other Europeans and Americans.
Notes
References
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