The 1740 Batavia massacre was a pogrom in which Dutch soldiers and native collaborators killed ethnic Chinese residents of the port city of Batavia. 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. The massacre figures heavily in Dutch literature, and is also cited as a possible etymology for the names of several areas in Jakarta.
About 1740 Batavia massacre in brief
The 1740 Batavia massacre was a pogrom in which Dutch East Indies soldiers and native collaborators killed ethnic Chinese residents of the port city of Batavia. 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 Adriaan Valckenier declared that any uprising would be met with deadly force. On 7 October, hundreds of ethnic Chinese, many of them sugar mill workers, killed 50 Dutch soldiers, leading Dutch troops to confiscate all weapons from the Chinese populace and to place the Chinese under a curfew. Two days later, rumours of Chinese atrocities led other Batavian ethnic groups to burn Chinese houses along Besar River and Dutch soldiers to fire cannon at Chinese homes. The following year, attacks on ethnic Chinese throughout Java sparked the two-year Java War that pitted ethnic Chinese and Javanese forces against Dutch troops. The massacre figures heavily in Dutch literature, and is also cited as a possible etymology for the names of several areas in Jakarta. The Dutch colonials required them to carry registration papers, and deported those who did not comply to China. Wealthy Chinese were extorted by corrupt Dutch officials who threatened them with deportation.
Rich mill workers who felt exploited by the Dutch and Chinese elites were equally involved in the area around Batavia and were involved in farming and shipping; they drew income from mill and distillation of a molasses and rice-based alcoholic beverage. Because sugar prices had dropped worldwide, the Dutch overlords set the price for sugar itself, which caused unrest in the sugar industry in the 1720s and 1730s. According to Indonesian historian Benny G. Setiono, 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 decreed on 25 July 1740 that Chinese considered suspicious would be deported to Ceylon and forced to harvest cinnamon. The deportation of Chinese caused unrest among the remaining Chinese, leading many Chinese workers to desert their jobs. The situation was more complicated than the actual situation was at the time, as the Dutch were more poor than the Chinese. The death toll from the massacre has been estimated to be between 600-3,000, but it is believed to be closer to 5,000. The number of Chinese living in Batavia grew rapidly, reaching a total of 10,00 by 1740. Thousands more lived outside the city walls. In 1740 the Dutch-led troops assaulted Chinese strongholds in sugar mills throughout the area. The next year, the Java War erupted, with ethnic Chinese forces fighting Dutch troops in Java.
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This page is based on the article 1740 Batavia massacre published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
