Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/19

X in 1873 they continued to entertain the vain hope that a treaty of this sort might be the basis of a solution of our Achehnese difficulties. After the abolition of the royal authority and the death of the last Sultan, the Netherlands India Government came forward as his successor and claimed the allegiance of the chiefs of the dependent kingdoms. Many chiefs of Achehnese coast-dependencies formally gave in their submission in order to protect their commerce from injury, but the number who withheld their allegiance was greater; and many chiefs in the interior did not consider themselves bound by the promises of the raja of the coast. Furthermore the state of war—as may be learnt from our first chapter—added to the many chiefs who already disputed authority in Acheh a countless number of others: adventurers, religious leaders, military chiefs of every type. For years the Dutch authorities remained under the illusion that by taking up certain strong positions (one having the former Sultan's residence as its centre and others being important harbours in the dependencies) the rest of the country could be forced to submit, and that by the submission of certain of the principal Chiefs the other headmen and the rest of the people would be brought under Dutch authority.

At last under the governorship of General van der Heyden (1877–1881) they learnt by experience that while a defensive policy in no way advanced Dutch dominion, a vigorous offensive would make the enemy come to his senses. All Great-Acheh was conquered in this way. The coast-dependencies which, in parts, were densely populated and supplied the nervus rerum, money, to the war-party, were of greater real importance than the mother-state from which the colonies of pepperplanters had spread out. This fact the politicians forgot when in 1881 they thought that now that the war seemed virtually at an end they could fall back upon a more defensive attitude and introduce a purely civil government. The years 1881 to 1854 were necessary to enable them to see that the establishment of widely extended military posts in Great-Acheh and the introduction of a settled administration could never lead to the breaking down of the opposition in the dependencies; and that, on the contrary, so long as one did not oneself take the offensive against the Coast-states, the military posts in Great-Acheh would be the target of continual attacks by the Achehnese. The Government and the House of Representatives in the Netherlands came to the decision—alas, an erroneous decision,—that the expenditure