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British
Temporary Rule
In
1814 the British come to Indonesia and built Fort
York in Bengkulu on the west coast of Sumatra. It
was later renamed Fort Marlborough.
During the Napoleonic wars in Europe when Holland
was occupied by France, Indonesia fell under the rule
of the British East India Company (1811-1816). Sir
Thomas Stanford Raffles was appointed Lieutenant Governor
General of Java and dependencies. He was subordinated
to the Governor General in Bengal, India. Raffles
introduced partial self-government and abolished the
slave trade. In those days slaves were captured and
traded by foreigners. He also introduced the land-tenure
system, replacing the hated Dutch forced-agricultural
system, whereby crops were grown and surrendered to
the Government.
Borobudur and other temples were restored and research
conducted. Raffles wrote his famous book, "The
History of Java," in which he described Java's
high civilization and culture. During the British
stay in Sumatra (1814-1825), William Marsden wrote
a similar book on the history of Sumatra, which was
published in 1889.
After the fall of Napoleon, and the end of the French
occupation of Holland the British and Dutch signed
a convention in London on August 13, 1814, in which
it was agreed that Dutch colonial possessions dating
from 1803 onwards should be returned to the Dutch
Administration in Batavia. Thus, the Indonesian archipelago
was recovered from the British in 1815.
