the ceremonial in the relations between Dutch government officials and the
princely states of Surakarta and Yogyakarta. In the old ceremonies during the
VOC period, the Javanese princes took absolute precedence over the local Dutch
administrators, while in actual politics they were more or less on a par. Daendels
ruled that the ceremonies should be devised to express equality between the
princes and the residents, because the latter represented the Governor-General.
Such an ending to the 'keeping up appearances' of Javanese grandeur greatly
annoyed the princes.8
All these developments happened against a background of renewed war with
England. At the end of 1803, the British launched a new offensive. In the long
term, the offensive was once more successful, although it took longer to develop
than that they had begun 1795. In 1806 the Cape of Good Hope fell again; in
1810 the Dutch lost the colonies in the east of the Archipelago and, finally,
in 1811 the same fate overcame Java. As mentioned above, a year earlier, the
Kingdom Holland had been annexed by the empire of Napoleon. The emperor
had decided to summon Daendels back to Europe and replace him with Jan
Willem Janssens, who had been Governor-General of the Cape of Good Hope
and in this capacity had had to capitulate to the English in 1806. On May 16
1811, Janssens was sworn in as Governor-General of what had become the
French East Indies. Soon after Daendels' departure, the British landed in Java
and on September 17 1811, the government in Java had to capitulate. The
Division for the Dutch Colonies in Paris had become a colonial office without
colonies. Nevertheless, it continued to operate until the fall of Napoleon and the
restoration of Dutch sovereignty at the end of 1813. The Netherlands became a
kingdom under King Willem I. In 1814, the King established a Department of
Trade and Colonies (Department van Koophandel en Koloniën), headed by a
Secretary of State. In the meantime the kingdom had commenced negotiations
with the English for the return of the colonies.9
Archives of the period, c.1791 - c.1811
Having sketched the changes in the way the area was governed, the time has
come to see what the consequences were for formation of archives, in particular
those from the section of the official colonial governments stationed in the
Netherlands: the VOC, the OIC, RAB and MvK, the last-mentioned abbreviation
standing for both the departments of the Kingdom Holland in charge of the
colonies.10 For practical reasons, I shall approach this in a top-down manner
nevertheless, bearing in mind the question of the information value of these
archives in reconstructing parts or elements of regional Asian history, South
Africa included. Therefore, I shall skip those elements of the archives which
have to do with activities or events happening in the Netherlands or in Europe
COLONIAL LEGACY IN SOUTH EAST ASIA -
THE DUTCH ARCHIVES
8 Van't Veer, Daendels, 107, 109, 116, 121, 124-127, 13 5-136, and 138-142; Van Niel, Java's Northeast Coast,
191-196, 205-209, and 212-215.
9 Van't Veer, Java's Northeast Coast, 182-183, and 185-186; Otten, Gids, 27, and 351; Van Niel, Java's
Northeast Coast, 228-229.
10 The archival codes of the National Archives in The Hague for the collections of VOC, OIC, RAB and MK are
HaNA 1.04.02, 2.01.27.01, 2.01.27.02, 2.01.27.03, respectively.
11 The archive of the Ministry of Trade and Colonies is the first of these pertaining to the colonies organized
according to the verbaaZ-system.
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