A Colonial Tragedy
The Chinese Massacre at Batavia, 1740
Published on 23. April 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
350 pages
978-90-8728-477-0 (ISBN)
Description
In October 1740, a tragedy unfolded in Batavia, the Asian headquarters of the Dutch East India Company on the island of Java. Faced with a spontaneous Chinese peasant uprising, Batavia's vengeful inhabitants carried out a bloody massacre of their fellow Chinese within the city walls. The murderers marched from house to house, looting and pillaging, not even sparing the hospitals and prisons. How could such a slaughter take place in the prosperous Queen of the East? Drawing on a wealth of Dutch and Chinese sources, Leonard Blusse reconstructs the colonial development of Batavia and its environs, and the crucial Chinese contribution to it. After more than a hundred years of successful cooperation, this spectacular colonial project was lost to a toxic mix of ecological decline, epidemics, runaway Chinese immigration and high-level personal conflicts within the colonial administration, with the Chinese paying the ultimate price. Never before has so much attention to detail revealed what preceded the massacre and how this tragedy was eventually swept under the carpet of colonial history.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Illustrations
1 s/w Abbildung, 22 farbige Abbildungen
1 Illustrations, black and white - 22 Illustrations, color
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-90-8728-477-0 (9789087284770)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Leonard Blusse (1946) held the chair in the History of Asian-European Relations at the University of Leiden. His best-known publications in English include Strange Company, (KITLV press, 1986), Bitter Bonds (Markus Wiener, 2002), Visible Cities (Harvard UP, 2008), and the Chinese Annals of Batavia (Brill, 2018).
Content
Foreword;
Chapter 1. Setting the Stage: Dutch Trade and Chinese Diaspora;
Chapter 2. The Chinese puzzle;
Chapter 3. Pieter van Hoorn's Colonization Plans;
Chapter 4. Joan van Hoorn, Colonizer of the Ommelanden;
Chapter 5. The Chinese Surge;
Chapter 6. Different Century, New Protagonists;
Chapter 7. The Crisis of Governance;
Chapter 8. The Slapping Hand of the Lord;
Chapter 9. Adriaan Valckenier in the Lime Light;
Chapter 10. Der Wille Zur Macht: Van Imhoff Goes to Ceylon;
Chapter 11. ' The Ship is half sunken': a Peek behind the Chinese Scene;
Chapter 12. Small Causes, Great Consequences;
Chapter 13. Beyond the City Walls: the Chinese Rebellion;
Chapter 14. Within the city walls: fear and amok;
Chapter 15. History at the crossroads;
Chapter 16. Peripetia and Catharsis; Afterword: Prospero and Caliban;
Acknowledgements;
Bibliography;
Notes;
Illustration Credits;
Index
Chapter 1. Setting the Stage: Dutch Trade and Chinese Diaspora;
Chapter 2. The Chinese puzzle;
Chapter 3. Pieter van Hoorn's Colonization Plans;
Chapter 4. Joan van Hoorn, Colonizer of the Ommelanden;
Chapter 5. The Chinese Surge;
Chapter 6. Different Century, New Protagonists;
Chapter 7. The Crisis of Governance;
Chapter 8. The Slapping Hand of the Lord;
Chapter 9. Adriaan Valckenier in the Lime Light;
Chapter 10. Der Wille Zur Macht: Van Imhoff Goes to Ceylon;
Chapter 11. ' The Ship is half sunken': a Peek behind the Chinese Scene;
Chapter 12. Small Causes, Great Consequences;
Chapter 13. Beyond the City Walls: the Chinese Rebellion;
Chapter 14. Within the city walls: fear and amok;
Chapter 15. History at the crossroads;
Chapter 16. Peripetia and Catharsis; Afterword: Prospero and Caliban;
Acknowledgements;
Bibliography;
Notes;
Illustration Credits;
Index