Kraton and Kumpeni

The Javanese realms of Surakarta and Yogyakarta in Central Java were of prime importance in the politics of the Netherlands Indies, located, as they were, at the heart of the Dutch colonial state. This book covers forty years of the history of the Javanese Principalities in the post-Java War period (1830-1870). The first part deals with the delicate political balance that was constructed between each Javanese Kraton and the Dutch colonial state, or ‘Kumpeni’ (Company), as it was still called by the Javanese. Attention is given not only to Dutch-Javanese relations, but also to the various interconnections between the Javanese princes themselves. The second part is devoted to an indepth analysis of the Javanese response to the new pressures imposed on them. Finally, this monograph offers a review of social and economic changes taking place in Central Java in the midnineteenth century, largely as a result of the rise of private plantation enterprise after 1830. Vincent J.H. Houben is currently a Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Berlin in Germany.