British expedition to Makassar

British expedition to Makassar
A Bugis treatise on gunnery, taken in the expedition
Date 7 or 8 June 1814 Location Bontoala, near Makassar Result British victory
Belligerents
Bone Sultanate	United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
La Mappatunruq  [ id ]	Miles Nightingall

The British expedition to Makassar was a British military expedition held in June 1814 against the Bone Sultanate in modern South Sulawesi. The military campaign was targeted at the palace of the Sultan of Bone, located in modern Makassar, in order to force Bone's acknowledgement of British authority in South Sulawesi. The palace was taken and burned, with the British seizing Bone's library in the process.

Background

The Bone Sultanate in Southern Sulawesi had been the dominant native power in the region since the Makassar War in the late seventeenth century. ^[1] When the British invaded Java in 1811, the newly installed governor of the Dutch East Indies Stamford Raffles sought to establish permanent British influence in the region through establishing British positions outside Java. ^[2]

In 1812, La Mappatunruq  [ id ] (or Muhammad Ismail Muhtajuddin) became the new Sultan of Bone. ^{[3] [4]} He attempted to increase his influence in the region over smaller states, and showed hostility to the new British government. In early June 1814, having subjugated the raja of Buleleng in an expedition to Bali, a British force arrived in Makassar under the command of Miles Nightingall. ^[2]

Expedition

On 6 June 1814, Nightingall demanded La Mappatunruq submit to British supremacy by handing over the regalia of the Sultanate of Gowa, which was in Bone's possession. La Mappatunruq was given a deadline of ten hours to do so, and did not. ^{[2] [3]} Thus, Nightingall ordered an attack on the Bone palace in Bontoala, within modern-day Makassar city. The British force was supported by local troops from Gowa and Soppeng. ^[5]

The attack took place on either 7 ^[5] or 8 ^[4] June, and the palace was overrun with heavy losses on the Bone side. ^[4] Five cannons were captured by the British, ^[4] and the raja of Bulukumba (a Bone ally) was killed during the fighting. ^[5] Bone forces retreated towards Maros after the fighting. ^[4]

Aftermath

A Bugis poetry collection taken during the expedition.

After the capture of the palace, a number of manuscripts from Bone's royal library were seized, with Crawfurd acquiring 30 manuscripts written in Bugis and Makassarese. They are now held in the British Library. A number of manuscripts remained, later seized by the Dutch in their 1905 expeditions. The palace was afterwards burned. ^[4] The Gowan regalia were also captured, and were given to the raja of Soppeng. ^[5]

British influence in the region did not last long, as the Dutch returned to power in 1816. ^[3]

References

1. O'Connor, Sue; McWilliam, Andrew; Brockwell, Sally (7 September 2020). Forts and Fortification in Wallacea: Archaeological and Ethnohistoric Investigations. ANU Press. pp. 165–166. ISBN   978-1-76046-389-2.
2. Bastin, John (1954). "Raffles and British Policy in the Indian Archipelago, 1811-1816". Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 27 (1 (165)): 113. ISSN   2304-7550. JSTOR   41486176.
3. "Riwayat Raja Bone (24): La Mappasessu To Appatunru". Palontaraq (in Indonesian). 20 June 2018. Retrieved 11 August 2025.
4. "The Royal Library of Bone: Bugis and Makassar manuscripts in the British Library". British Library. 6 June 2020. Retrieved 20 May 2025.
5. Abduh, Muhammad; Hanif, Zainal Abidin; Pawiloy, Sarita; Baso, M. Noer (1 January 1985). Sejarah Perlawanan Terhadap Imperialisme dan Kolonialisme di Sulawesi Selatan (in Indonesian). Direktorat Jenderal Kebudayaan. pp. 45–46.

5°07′51″S119°25′17″E / 5.1308°S 119.4215°E / -5.1308; 119.4215