Java and the VOC, c. 1745–92

Abstract

The military advance which has been discussed since Chapter 6 had won no stability and little profit for the VOC. In Java, it had been attended by a series of brutal wars and permanent instability. In the second half of the eighteenth century the pace of the VOC’s advance would halt, and this first Dutch attempt at empire would end in partial withdrawal. The VOC was to restrict its activities largely to west and north coastal Java and Maluku, and a partial restoration of the Javanese state would become possible. However, the Javanese elite would still have to face the problem which had given rise to so much turbulence and bloodshed: their own disunity. Their solution was to be the partition of the kingdom. But before all this could take place, there were still more battles to be fought.