Semarang, a Colonial Provincial Capital and Port City in Java, c.1775

Abstract

Semarang, the present-day capital and largest city of the province of Jawa Tengah or Central Java, has a long history as a port city. Its rise to prominence in Central Java dates from the eighteenth century, when the Dutch colonial authorities decided to promote the site to become the headquarters of Java’s Northeast Coast. The colonial authorities of the time were not the usual representatives, nominated by the government of the Netherlands, but employees of the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC), the Dutch East India Company. This chartered company had been granted exclusive rights for trade between the Netherlands and the Indian and Pacific Ocean areas. It was also given the privilege of concluding treaties with the rulers of the countries adjacent to these oceans, to organise a fleet and an army, and to occupy territory in the name of the mother country. Through the use of this political and military power, the VOC became quite successful in establishing a ‘colonial (trading) empire’, which connected the arid zones of the Red Sea with the marshy shores of New Guinea, and the islands of Japan to the stormy waters around the Cape of Good Hope.