The Emergence of a City

According to Ong Tae Hae, Batavia was a low city, probably compared to the cities in China such as Shang Hai, and the dwelling houses are dense (Ong 1849: 6). She was founded in 1619 on the ruins of the former principality of Jayakarta. Occupation and domination are the elements inherent in any colonial establishment’s foundation; however, in the case of Batavia, either the native population chose to follow their own rulers Jayawikarta Prince and fled to nearby Banten, or they were simply chased away (Blusse, 1986: 3).

Before the town was occupied by VOC and named Batavia, at this place there is already the palace of Jayawikarta Prince (Heuken, 1996: 28). Then after Jan Pieterszoon Coen the governour of VOC occupied the area, he built a fortress at the estuary of Ciliwung river. In the first half of 17th century, the Dutch constructed Batavia town as a walled city at the eastern side of Ciliwung River. Then in the mid of 17th century the west side of the river was built and walled to secure the city. Ciliwung river was then flow in the middle of the city as the source of water and where the harbor located. This is an ideal and genius urban design.

Leonard Blusse in his dissertation shows that Batavia was city of Chinese as the indigenous fled to Banten after the VOC occupied their town on May 30, 1619. The only population still stayed in Jakarta was the Chinese community in a very small number. The emptiness in the city gave difficulty for the Dutch to build their settlement and fortress against the enemy. Blusse said that the situation was like “a ruler without subjects is like a rider without a horse”. The Dutch barely needed people whom could be ruled and worked for the VOC. Hence Jan Pieter Zon Coen made all efforts to lure people from every where. To invite indigenous Javanese was impossible for him, hence he lure the Chinese who would become an important community in Batavia, the name of Jakarta after she fell to the VOC (Blusse, 1986: 52).

In the early stage of Batavia, there were two prominent in the Chinese community they were Jan Con and Bencong (Blusse, 1986:55), the later was the first Capitan. The Dutch satisfied and were content to  their leadership since the Chinese had paid seven times more to construction of the city wall (Blusse, 1986: 56). Blusse has shot the moment of the city construction and the Chinese has a tremendous role in the financial.

Batavia was built by the Chinese. From Blusse’s dissertation, the Chinese role in the construction of Batavia was not only their skill as mason but also as the contractors. Lim Lacco was the biggest contractor of that time. Were the other Dutch towns and the fortresses built by the Chinese? In the building of Batavia city, Jan Con got the job ordered by the new governor general Jacques Spex (1629-1632). However, during the sieges of the town in 1628 – 1629 by Sultan Agung,  many building projects had been neglected.

The new governor Hendrix Brouwer (1632-1636) ordered a canal to be dug on the western side of Batavia castle. The plan is motivated by the fact that Batavia town was still situated prim¬arily on the eastern side of the meandering outlet of the Ciliwung. Hence, canalization at the west part should be done soon as urban development to this side cannot wait any longer. To carry out this project the Dutch was dependent upon Chinese contractors and labor brokers. According to Hendrick Brouwer the governor succeeding Spex,

"None of the Dutch burghers is willing to contract for build¬ing projects such as the dredging of canals or the supply of wood, lime and stone. Only Chinese are engaged in this sector. Without their help the construction of Batavia's fortification and the city's present lay-out would have required many more years to complete." ( Blusse, 1986: 60-63).

As Batavia stood in the middle of hostile environment, loyal contractors such as Jan Con was needed by the Dutch. By that time he was awarded a new contract to dig the Chinese gracht, the Chinese canal. However in order to give Batavia a “Dutch appearance” the contract was canceled. As a substitute on May 13, 1636 Jan Con was awarded the con¬struction of the Rhinoceros Gracht in the western half of the city at a price of 2/3 Rial or 32 Stuiver per cubic fathom. At the end of that same year, he completed the new Pasar Ikan or fish-market with a special canal added to it to facilitate the landing of fish. According to De Haan, during the same period, the indefatigable entrepreneur also provided the city with a deep moat, which surrounded its western and northern sides (De Haan 1935 I:79). Considering the fact that at the same time Jan Con became the chief supplier of lime, stone and wood for the fortification of Batavia castle and Batavia town, it is clear that his projects were most impressive in terms of magnitude, and labor involved (GM I:422). Yet, these pro¬jects give us only a partial impression of the man's activities (Blusse, 1986: 63).

The cancellation of Chinese canal and the reason as to give a “Dutch appearance” to the city raise a hypothesis that there was no Chinese architecture in Batavia in that era. This hypothesis can be proved by Johannes Rach’s drawing in the 1760’s after the Chinese massacre. He drew a scene of Glodok outside the city wall with its Chinese temple in Chinese architecture. On the other hand according to another drawing by Nieuhoff, the Chinese hospital inside the city wall, which was built before the Chinese massacre, was in Dutch architecture.

Daendels

Daendels 1762-1818

More than half a century after the Chinese uprising in 1740, the Batavian had been forgotten with the murder. Java was not anymore ruled by VOC that was bankrupt in the end of 18th century, but the Netherlands. A new Governor General Daendels arrived in Batavia in 1803.

One of the main tasks of Daendels, in addition to making healthy Batavia, because at that time Batavia really became den of disease, was to reorganize the defense against British. In Batavia, everywhere were a lot of garbage piles and her shallow canals became mosquito breeding. Every sailor who anchored in Batavia definitely wanted to quickly lift the anchor for fear of disease. In that state Daendels came with all the risks that he must carried on.

Daendels successfully developed Batavia towards the south in Weltevreden with various buildings around the Waterloo Plein or now is called Lapangan Banteng. For the construction he destroyed the Castle of Batavia, took the bricks for building a new city.

As he thought that the town wall was not any more effective for defense as the town was already developed outside the wall and he plan to build the great post road for defending Java, he destroyed the town wall of Batavia and other buildings. He moved the government complex to the Waterloo Plein at South of Batavia. The beautiful view of Batavia had been gone. Weitzel, a traveler said:

 "The City of Batavia is not anymore the famous metropolis of yore. The great majority of all the most important buildings and houses have been pulled down, with the exception of the warehouses. Of the castle only rubble heaps remain.

The larger part of the town walls have been razed, the city gates have been demolished. The town is but a village surrounded by wide canals   [ . . . ) the Prinsenstraat being no more than a shaded road along which a few houses can be found near the centre." (Weitzel 1860:8-10).

Daendels’ action was the second time in ruining the old town of Batavia after the town was being burned in the 1740 riots. Now we cannot enjoy the very famous castle and several other buildings. Suppose the construction of the new town of Batavia was not by destroying the old, now is definitely the old city of Jakarta very unique for tourism. Daendels destroyed the remembrance on old Batavia.

In addition Daendels also closed the canals so that the town was no longer a clone of Amsterdam. The waterways turned out to be streets and a lot of buildings was changed its form. Only Kali Besar River was not closed for the flow of Ciliwung River in the city. The action to close the canals continued until 1817.

The Culture of Batavian

Batavian in front of the Chuch

Batavia was a meeting point between the Western culture and the Eastern culture. The western culture was brought by the Dutch, and other European ethnic groups, while the eastern culture was brought mostly by the Chinese, the Arab, the Indian and other ethnic groups in the archipelago.
 

In the 17th century, inside the town wall lived the Dutch, the Chinese and the slaves. They lived glamorously along the prosperity of the town.  Their luxury can be seen from the old painting where man and women dressed well accompanied by their slaves behind holding an umbrella and their bible going to the Church.

In the old Batavia, the government only recognized Calvinist church. Hence only three churches were built inside the town wall: the Dutch church, the Portuguese church inside the town wall, and the Portuguese church outside the town wall that survive until today. This church is now called Gereja Sion or Sion church, located at the end of Pangeran Jayakarta street. There was also a Malay church located at the Dutch hospital, southern part of the town. However this Dutch hospital is now gone.

Why there were Portuguese churches, while we know that Batavia was ruled by Dutch? These Portuguese churches were not built by the Portuguese who were catholic. At that time Catholic was a forbidden religion in the old Batavia. The Portuguese churches were also Protestant and built by the Dutch. The church was for slaves that were brought from India who speak Portuguese. After they arrived in Batavia they were compelled into protestant and the government built two protestant churches for them.

Besides protestant churches there were Chinese temples that all were built outside of the town wall. The biggest temple was Jin De Yuan temple at Petak Sembilan. However in the riot of 1740 all of the Chinese temples were burned down. Only Jin De Yuan temple was rebuilt and the surrounding area is now known as Glodok. 

Other ethnic group who lived in Batavia was the Balinese. They came to Batavia as traders, but there were also slaves. Since they were Hindu, it was very easy to live among the Chinese. Almost all of the Chinese man in Batavia married the Balinese women as there was no Chinese woman came to Batavia.

Beside those ethnic groups, Batavia also became an interesting place for textile traders from India. Although their number was small, they gave a certain color to Batavia. Nowadays, the Indians textile traders can be found in Pasar Baru quarter. They trade side by side with the Chinese.   

Not to forget that Batavia is also a home for the Arab. They lived in Pekojan with their old mosque, the Moorish quarter. Pekojan is named after the Koja, immigrant from Gujarat. According to De Haan, the term was used also for the people from Coromandel dan Gujarat.

Nowadays, beside the Chinese who live in Glodok, the various cultures of Batavia are in heritage to the Betawi society, the so call natives of Jakarta. Their culture is a mix between several ethnic groups who had settled in Batavia and its surrounding. Anyhow, now they are mostly live at the fringes of Jakarta.
All of them represent the culture of modern Jakarta.

Riot in 1740

Riot 1740 at Kali Besar

The Southeast Asian Chinese dominated trading had shown that Chinese junks landed on the coastal area of Java. Blusse’s dissertation has a complete presentation on the case of Batavia and her partner Amoy in south China. Those junk landed in the coastal area of Central and east Java would probably not much different to those landed in Batavia.

Due to the Chinese massacre in Batavia 1740, the Chinese escaped from the calamity to other Chinese settlement in central and East Java. As consequence they also brought political changes in the interior of the island. The massacre up rose war between the Chinese, supported by the indigenous princes, and the Dutch. Johannes Theodorus Vermeulen wrote the Chinese in Batavia in the tragedy of 1740 in Batavia. He constructed the process of the riots, urban change with a historical background of the massacre. The writing analyzes the political point of view and clearly shows the social condition of the city at that time. The Chinese community inside the wall of Batavia who did not involve in the rebellion, became the victim. The Dutch attacked their houses and hospital; and burn their settlement at West side Kali Besar, Roa Malaka (Vermeulen 1938: 76).

The rebellion was wide spread until Central and East Java. In Semarang the Chinese were massacred by a madoerese Prince who work for the Dutch. A cross check to the old map of Semarang it is true that in the city the Chinese settlement at the east bank of Semarang river was burned and they were removed into a camp at the west. In Gresik around 400 Chinese were killed (Vermeulen 1938: 88).

Leonard Blusse’s writing on the Chinese show that without them Batavia, and other cities, would not be built. Not only the construction of buildings and infrastructure was contracted by the Dutch to the Chinese, but also they hold all part of urban economic on which urban life should stand on it (Blusse, 1986: 74-75). Blusse's thesis on the Chinese of early Batavia shows that the Chinese predominate over the urban population. Since the native of Batavia had left for Banten, there were only the Chinese, Dutch and other minority group. The Dutch men who came to Batavia tended not to stay for life. After they gained a lot of money they went home. On the other hand, the Chinese tended to stay and married Balinese slave, built their family in the city. Hence Blusse called Batavia as a Chinese colonial town (Blusse 1986: 80-81). Not only inside the city wall did the Chinese have role in the development, outside the city wall, the Chinese pioneered the opening of agricultural land.

Beside their role in the urban development, the Chinese also had a big role in the rural area. As early as the mid of 17th century they open the sugar plantation at the outside of the city wall of Batavia. According to Blusse, there were 79 Chinese, 4 Dutchmen, and 1 Javanese entrepreneurs in the ommelanden of Batavia. Blusse mentioned that there were also Chinese who avoided landing in Batavia to get rid of the quota installed by the Dutch. They landed in other city of the northern coast Java. After 1740 the Dutch located them in the Chinese camp, Glodok, which is called in Javanese as Pecinan (Chinese quarter).

The history of the Chinese massacre in 1740 inspired a novel “The Sun over Batavia” by Chen Ming-Sien and published in this website.