BALI GUIDE

BALI HISTORY

The Dutch began preparations for an expeditionary force, which assembled at Besuki [East Java], to sail to Bali on the cast moonson of 1846. Jelantik began building fortifications, raising troops, and acquiring arms, relying, as the Dutch correctly surmised, upon certain enterprising merchants in the British colony of Singapore for large shipments of weapons. Balinese-Dutch relations were rapidly moving into a new and tragic phase. Balinese military preparations centered upon the Northern Kingdom of Buleleng, ruled by Gusti Madya Karangasem, the elder brother of the King of Karangasem. Buleleng and Karangasem, the two most powerful kingdoms of the island, but long time rivals, were now closely allied in opposing the political and military aims of the Dutch. They had the blessing of the Dewa Agung of Klungkung (bali art), who was in no position to provide much more than that. The King of Badung in the South, who wished to preserve the profits of trade and was no friend of the turbulent northerners, sought to remain detached from the conflict and exercised his influence upon his friendly neighbour, the King of Tabanan to do likewise. The other states were allied rather tenuously with Klungkung, but were attentive to Badung. They were not disposed to become involved.

Once the Dutch set themselves to subdue Bali, the outcome was never in doubt. But it took three campaigns to shatter the Balinese defenses and morale, campaigns in which the Dutch did not always by any means, achieve either glory or victory.

As a result of the military expeditions, the Dutch began to exercise rapidly increasing control over northern Bali and to interfere more frequently and vigorously in Balinse domestic affairs (balinese art). Buleleng became the first of the Balinese principalities to fall under Dutch administration. In 1855, the Dutch also assumed control over Jembrana. In each case, the Dutch adopted the administrative device they had found to be effective in Java. They appointed a member of the Royal family as regent and assigned him a Dutch controller who, as the title clearly implied, controlled both the regent and the Kingdom (traditional balinese). Thus, as of the mid 1850, the Dutch actually began to acquire the sovereign power which they had long claimed, at least in northern and western Bali. Only half a century later that they colonialized, enslaved and degraded the life of the entire island.