Fort Marlborough | |
---|---|
Fort Marlborough | |
Location | Bengkulu City, Bengkulu Province, Indonesia |
Nearest city | Bengkulu City |
Area | 0.027 km2 (0.010 sq mi) |
Established | 1713 (build) – 1719 (finish) |
Governing body | Ministry of Tourism |
Website | www |
Fort Marlborough (Indonesian Benteng Marlborough, also known as Malabero) is a former East India Company fort located in Bengkulu City, Sumatra. It was built between 1713 and 1719 by the East India Company under the leadership of Governor Joseph Collett as a defensive fort for the British East India Company's Residency there. It was one of the strongest British forts in the eastern region, second only to Fort St. George in Madras, India. [1]
The fort is made of bricks 50 to 180 centimeters in thickness. The 2000 Enggano earthquake, which registered 7.9 on the moment magnitude scale, and of 2007, with its 3.5-meter tsunami, had no effect on the strongly built fort. [2]
The fort has a rectangular layout, with an arrowhead-shaped bastion on each corner. The entrance to the fort is in the southwest, protected by a ravelin. A dry moat follows the trace of the fort. A wooden bridge spans the ditch that separates the main building from the front building. The southwest side has an arch entrance with a wooden door. [1] The fort encompasses 2.7 hectares, and stands on a site of 4.4 hectares.
The British East India Company built the fort between 1713 and 1719. In 1714 Governor Collett obtained permission to build a new fort in Bencoolen. He named the new fort, which he built two miles from an older fort (Fort York), Fort Marlborough.
The fort was built on an artificial hill, and construction, using both convict and local labor, took several years to complete. During that period, the civil officers and the military garrison were divided between the old and the new fort.
In April 1715 Governor Collett sent a copy of the plan of the first Fort Marlborough[ clarification needed ]; the plan showed that the fort was walled with earth ramparts and ditch, with gun platforms on the bastions. The pace of construction was slow. [1]
In 1760, during the Seven Years' War, a French squadron under the command of Charles Hector, Comte d'Estaing took the fort and used it as a base to attack and subdue other British settlements on the west coast of Sumatra. Before returning to the Mascarenes, he ransomed the fort back to the British.[ citation needed ]
At one time, the native people of Bengkulu burned the fort, forcing the inhabitants to flee to Madras. They returned in 1724 after an agreement was reached. In 1793, another attack on the fort occurred, killing one British officer, Robert Hamilton. Another attack happened in 1807, killing a resident, Thomas Parr. Both are commemorated with monuments in Bengkulu City erected by the British colonial government. [1] The monument to Parr is 170 metres (560 ft) southeast of the fortress. [3]
The British transferred Bengkulu, then known as Bencoolen, to Dutch control under the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, which defined British and Dutch spheres of influence. In exchange, the Dutch ceded Malacca to Britain and gave up their designs on the British settlement of Singapore. [4] In 1837, the fort had about 60 Dutch soldiers occupying it. [5] The Japanese occupied the fort during their occupation of the Dutch East Indies (1942–1945). Then, during the Indonesian National Revolution period, the fort housed the headquarters of the Indonesian national police until the Dutch reoccupied the fort. When the Dutch left Indonesia in 1950, the Indonesian Army took over the fort. In 1977, the fort was handed over to the then Department of Education and Culture to be restored and converted into a heritage site. [1]
Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles was a British colonial official who served as the governor of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816 and lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen between 1818 and 1824. Raffles was involved in the capture of the Indonesian island of Java from the Dutch during the Napoleonic Wars. It was returned under the Anglo–Dutch Treaty of 1814. He also wrote The History of Java in 1817, describing the history of the island from ancient times. The Rafflesia flower was named after him.
The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, also known as the Treaty of London, was a treaty signed between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in London on 17 March 1824. The treaty was to resolve disputes arising from the execution of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814. For the Dutch, it was signed by Hendrik Fagel and Anton Reinhard Falck, and for the British, George Canning and Charles Williams-Wynn.
Bengkulu, historically known as Bencoolen, is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southwest coast of Sumatra. It was formed on 18 November 1968 by separating out the area of the historic Bencoolen Residency from the province of South Sumatra under Law No. 9 of 1967 and was finalized by Government Regulation No. 20 of 1968. Spread over 20,130.21 km2, its area is comparable to the European country of Slovenia and it is bordered by the provinces of West Sumatra to the north, Jambi to the northeast, Lampung to the southeast, and South Sumatra to the east, and by the Indian Ocean to the northwest, south, southwest, and west.
Bengkulu, formerly Bencoolen is the capital of the Indonesian province of Bengkulu. The city is the second largest city on the west coast of Sumatra Island after Padang. Previously this area was under the influence of the kingdom of Inderapura and the Sultanate of Banten. The city also became the place of exile of Sukarno from 1939 to 1942. It covers an area of 151.70 km2 and had a population of 308,544 at the 2010 Census and 373,591 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as of mid-2023 was 391,117. The city is the only city in Bengkulu Province.
The dollar was the currency of British colony of Bencoolen on the west coast of the island of Sumatra until the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, when the British Empire traded away Bencoolen for Malacca.
Joseph Collett (1673–1725) was a British administrator in the service of the British East India Company. He served as the deputy-governor of Bencoolen from 1712 to 1717 and as governor of the Madras Presidency from 1717 to 1720. He re-built Hertford Castle in England and stood for election to the British Parliament.
Mukomuko is a regency of Bengkulu Province, Indonesia, on the island of Sumatra. It was originally part of the North Bengkulu Regency, but on 25 February 2003 that regency was split into two parts, the northwestern part created as a separate Mukomuko Regency. It covers a land area of 4,146.52 km2 and had a population of 155,753 at the 2010 census, which rose to 190,498 at the 2020 census; the official estimate as at mid 2023 was 198,794 - comprising 102,576 males and 96,218 females. The administrative centre of the Mukomuko Regency is Mukomuko town.
Fort Rotterdam is a 17th-century fort in Makassar on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is a Dutch fort that was built on top of an existing fort of the Gowa Kingdom. The first fort on the site was constructed by the a local sultan around 1634, to counter Dutch encroachments. The site was ceded to the Dutch under the Treaty of Bongaya, and they completely rebuilt it between 1673 and 1679. It had six bastions and was surrounded by a seven meter high rampart and a two meter deep moat.
Thomas Forrest was a British navigator who served in the East India Company for more than 30 years. He is known for exploration, surveying, and diplomacy, and published three important accounts of his voyages in India and the Malay Archipelago
Bengkulu, historically spelled as Bencoolen or Benkoelen , is a province of Indonesia on the island of Sumatra.
This is a list of governors, deputy governors, residents, and lieutenant-governors of the presidency and residency versions of British Bencoolen.
British Bencoolen, variously known during its existence as Fort York, Fort Marlborough, Bencoolen, Benkulu, or "the West Coast", was a possession of the British East India Company (EIC) extending nearly 500 miles along the southwestern coast of Sumatra and centered on the area of what is now Bengkulu City. The EIC established a presence there in 1685, and in 1714 it built Fort Marlborough there. The United Kingdom ceded Bencoolen to the Netherlands in 1824.
Benkoelen Residency, also spelled Bencoolen, is an administrative subdivision of the Dutch East Indies, covering the present-day province of Bengkulu, Indonesia. Benkoelen was a British colony before they ceded it to the Netherlands in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824. It was one of the control center of the Dutch before independence, though after independence it became the resident of Bengkulu prefect. Initially it was the part of Sumatra, with the division of Sumatra, it became the part of Southern Sumatra. Further, on the demand of Bengkulu Struggle Agency and according to Law no. 9/1967 Junkto Government Regulation no. 20/1968, Bengkulu became an all-new province, thereby making the Benkoelen Residency a part of it.
Bantam Presidency was a presidency established by the British East India Company and based at the Company factory at Bantam in Java. Founded in 1617, the Presidency exercised its authority over all the Company factories in India, including the agencies of Madras, Masulipatnam and Surat. The factors at Bantam were instrumental in founding the colony of Madraspatnam in 1639 with the Fort St. George, which later grew into the modern city of Madras. The Presidency of Bantam was twice downgraded, first in 1630 before being restored in 1634 and for the second time in 1653, when owing to the hostility of Dutch traders, the Presidency was shifted to Madras.
The Thomas Parr Monument is a monument located in Bengkulu, Bengkulu, Indonesia and dedicated to Thomas Parr, the British Resident of Bengkulu who was killed in 1807. Constructed the year after his death, it is considered a cultural property of Indonesia.
York was launched in 1773 as an East Indiaman' She then made five voyages for the British East India Company (EIC) between 1773 and 1787. She then became a general merchantman and was last listed in 1794.
Thomas Church, was a British colonial administrator under the British East India Company. Church started as a writer in Bencoolen (Bengkulu) in 1816 and rose to the high position of Resident Councillor of Singapore before retiring in 1856.
The invasion of the Spice Islands was a military invasion by British forces that took place between February and August 1810 on and around the Dutch owned Maluku Islands also known as the Spice Islands in the Dutch East Indies during the Napoleonic wars.
Osterley was an East Indiaman launched on 9 October 1771 by Wells, Deptford. She made two voyages for the British East India Company (EIC) before the French frigate Pourvoyeuse captured her on 21 February 1779 while she was on her third voyage. She then sailed for a few years as a French merchantman.