BALI GUIDE

BALI HISTORY

Pitched battles continued well into the following year. The Dutch managed to gain allies and troops from Lombok. The King of Karangasem, despairing at the news, killed his family and himself. The Dutch battled their way to the gates of the Dewa Agung in Klungkung (bali crafts). But they were repelled. The fluctuating fortunes of war were dramatically signalled by the commander of the Lombok forces, who visited a Dutch Colonel on shipboard and displayed to him three especially valuable and significant prizes. The first was the Kris of the King of Karangasem, signifying his death and the fall of that Kingdom; the second was the Kris of King of Buleleng; the third that of Gusti Ketut Jelantik. The King of Buleleng and Jelantik had been ambushed by the wily troops from Lombok. The King had been killed on the spot; Jelantik, seeing no escape, had taken poison.

The Jelantik and the two kings dead, with the Dewa Agung and his surviving protectors deeply grieved and dismayed, the Balinese resistance was in a state of complete dissaray. The Dutch, decimated though they were by tropical deseases, could scarcely even have blundered into defeat. Again, Mads Lange stepped in. He negotiated a new agreement between the Dutch and the Dewa Agung (balinese handicraft). It was a difficult task which involved the installation of new rulers, the redefinition of overlordvassal relationships, and also, of course, a whole new Balinese-Dutch modus vivendi. Peace was eventually negotiated, and in July 1849 new treaties were signed.

It was to take another 60 years and require two further major military engagements before the last of the Balinese kingdoms fell to the Dutch. Not all kingdoms chose armed resistance. The entry of the Dutch into Balinese political affairs served the interests of a number of Balinese rulers, particularly those of Mataram and Lombok, and the smaller kingdoms of Bangli and Gianyar (bali wood). They seized the opportunity to further their own political and economic ambitions by siding with the Dutch. Throughout the second half of the 19th century, the fragile unities between the remaining independent Balinese rulers were placed under increasing stress. Rival kingdoms were in an almost permanent state of war. To this was added a succession of natural disasters and epidemic that heightened the political instability.

With the establishment of the Residency of Bali and Lombok in 1882, North Bali came under direct Dutch colonial rule. From then on, events moved swiftly as the Dutch sought to bring an end to Bali's independence. Through military superiority, but assisted also by internecine wars and rivalries that ensured the Balinese were never able to present a united front against them, the last of the kingdoms fell to Dutch hands; Mataram and Karangasem (indonesia handmade) in 1894, Gianyar in 1900, Badung and Tabanan in the puputan of 1906, and finally in 1908, Bangli and the traditional centre of Balinese power, Klungkung.