Abstract
The start of mineral exploitation and the gradual establishment of a network of government administrators in the outer islands of the Dutch East Indies in the 1850s made the establishment more conducive for systematic exploration and mapping. However, it took until the 1880s before this started—by that time the mapping brigades of the Topographic Survey in Batavia had finished their work on Java, and the triangulation, survey and mapping of Western Sumatra and Western Borneo had begun. All of this happened somewhat half-heartedly, as parliament in the Netherlands again and again tried to restrict these operations in order to economize. These restrictions were lifted when Van Heutz became Governor-General. His vision of the colony as a unitary state (not just as Java and a couple of vassal sultanates) meant imposing Dutch presence (Pax Neerlandica) and administration throughout the archipelago. In addition, as maps formed the basis for good administration, the funding of the Survey was more secure. Southern and Eastern Sumatra were tackled, as was southern Borneo, and the systematic mapping of Celebes commenced. A regular army exploration program for New Guinea was set up, and by the 1920s most of that island was no longer a white patch on the map. This chapter links changes in government policies towards mapping activities and the resulting map series of the outer islands that were produced by the Topographic Survey in Batavia from the 1880s until 1950, when the Survey was transferred to the independent Indonesian authorities.
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Notes
- 1.
The Sugar Law (Suikerwet) that was passed in 1870 ended the government’s involvement in sugar cane cultivation and the Agricultural Law passed the same year made it possible for private companies to lease existing agricultural land while guaranteeing indigenous ownership. At the same time, uncultivated lands could be distributed as leasehold estates.
- 2.
The Koelie-ordonnantie (1880) imposed penal sanctions on imported labourers for breach of contract.
- 3.
- 4.
According to Schepers (1925), there are multiple reasons that led to the introduction of a general sheet line system for the whole archipelago: The existing partial index sheets did not answer to any set system; some were numbered from the north in an east-westerly direction, some from the south, some in a west-easterly direction, some according to the date of their being ready, thus lacking a logical sequence altogether. Confusion reigned especially on Sumatra. Here the central meridian of the maps for Western Sumatra was supposed to be at Padang, 6° 26′ 42″ West of Batavia, while for the maps of Southern Sumatra the central meridian of 3° 15′ West of Batavia was adhered to. Both central meridians were not multiples of 20′, so map sheets of the two systems did not match but overlapped or showed gaps.
[De redenen, die hebben geleid tot het invoeren van een dergelijken, algemeenen bladwijzer voor den geheelen archipel, zijn velerlei. De bestaande partieele bladwijzers hadden geen vast systeem; enkele waren van het noorden genummerd in de richting O - W, andere weer vanuit het zuiden, bij weer andere was de volgorde W - O, terwijl bij de opneming van Sumatra's Westkust de bladen eenvoudig genummerd zijn geworden in de volgorde, waarin zij gereedkwamen, zoodat daar van een regelmatige volgorde heelemaal geen sprake is geweest. Vooral op Sumatra was de verwarring, zelfs voor de ingewijden, hopeloos, waarbij nog kwam, dat daar twee systemen van bladindeeling bestonden, waarbij de nulmeridiaan van het systeem van West-Sumatra geacht werd te loopen over het westelijk uiteinde A van de basis nabij Padang en gelegen was op ongeveer 6° 26′ 42″ West van Batavia, terwijl voor Zuid-Sumatra als nulmeridiaan was aangenomen de meridiaan, gelegen 3° 15′ West van Batavia. Beide nulmeridianen waren dus noch onderling, noch van den nulmeridiaan van Batavia een geheel veelvoud van 20′ verwijderd, met het gevolg dat de bladen van beide systemen elkaar overlapten en niet aansloten.]
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Acknowledgements
For the chapter’s structure, as well as for his comments, the author is indebted to Paul van den Brink, with whom he originally intended to write it.
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Ormeling, F.J. (2020). The Exploration and Survey of the Outlying Islands of the Dutch East Indies. In: Kent, A., Vervust, S., Demhardt, I., Millea, N. (eds) Mapping Empires: Colonial Cartographies of Land and Sea. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23447-8_3
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