Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The French in Sumatra and the Malay world, 1760-1890

1973; Brill; Volume: 129; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1163/22134379-90002718

2213-4379

Anthony Reid,

Asian Studies and History

When a large Dutch Army finally conquered the dalam (citadel) of Atjeh in January 1874, after two costly campaigns, it found little documentary evidence within of Atjeh's illustrious past. The exception was a beautifully-written letter within a blue and gold border, signed by Louis Philippe of France and his Foreign Minister Guizot in January 1843. The French Consul in Batavia confirmed its authenticity, but could shed no further light on why it should have been addressed to the Atjehnese Sultan. Writing forty years later, E. S. de Klerck repro duced it 'as a curiosity ? the letter lacks any political importance'.1 The present attempt to unravel the motives behind this letter, and other mysterious French appearances on the Sumatran scene, has not entirely succeeded in removing the air of unreality about them. France never had an important share in the riches of the Archipelago spice trade, and appeared slow to understand the importance of Portuguese, Dutch and British commerce there. Consciously or otherwise she appeared drawn rather towards policies and commitments on the Asian mainland. The ambitions the French occasionally entertained for the Archipelago tended to focus at its extremities, Sumatra or the Sulu Basilan area, which they perceived as serving more important activities in the Indian Ocean and China respectively. Such initiatives as were taken in the Archipelago were motivated as much by the desire to maintain the status of a great power, or to pursue chimerical visions both material and spiritual, as by a sober calculation of practical advantage. The boldest ventures were all left to languish after a few years. The more modest ones (the French Catholic Mission in Malaya, and some minor commercial enterprises), which did build an unobtrusive basis for permanent French influence in the Malay world, appeared incapable of exciting the French imagination.