Guardians of the colony: nineteenth-century military travellers in the Dutch East Indies

Abstract

In the nineteenth century, many men left for the Dutch East Indies in military service. Their task was to maintain order and fight “rebels”. Dutch soldiers were part of the occupying force that saw to it that the population was kept under control. At a time when Dutch authority had not yet been established everywhere in the Indonesian archipelago, they had an important task. To what extent did this military mission determine their perspective? This article focuses on the texts of three soldiers: Maurits Ver Huell, Nikolaas Willem Schmal and Dirk Hendrik Kolff. All three visited the Indies in the early nineteenth century and each published a travelogue about their experiences. This article illustrates how the task that Dutch military travellers had influenced their representation of the indigenous people. It additionally addresses the question of the extent to which they represented their military presence as a form of violent occupation.