The Aceh War, also known as the Dutch War or the Infidel War (1873–1904), was an armed military conflict between the Sultanate of Aceh and the Kingdom of the Netherlands which was triggered by discussions between representatives of Aceh and the United States in Singapore during early 1873. The war was part of a series of conflicts in the late 19th century that consolidated Dutch rule over modern-day Indonesia.
The Johor Sultanate was founded by Malaccan Sultan Mahmud Shah's son, Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah II in 1528. Prior to being a sultanate of its own right, Johor had been part of the Malaccan Sultanate before the Portuguese conquered its capital in 1511. At its height, the sultanate controlled areas in what is now modern-day Johor, Pahang, Terengganu, territories stretching from the rivers of Klang to the Linggi and Tanjung Tuan, respectively situated in the states of Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Malacca, Singapore, Pulau Tinggi and other islands off the east coast of the Malay peninsula, the Karimun islands, the islands of Bintan, Bulang, Lingga and Bunguran, and Bengkalis, Kampar and Siak in Sumatra. During the colonial era, the mainland part was administered by the British, and the insular part by the Dutch, thus breaking up the sultanate into Johor and Riau. In 1946, the British section became part of the Malayan Union. Two years later, it joined the Federation of Malaya and subsequently, the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. In 1949, the Dutch section became part of Indonesia.
Piracy in the Strait of Malacca has long been a threat to ship owners and the mariners who ply the 900 km-long sea lane. In recent years, coordinated patrols by Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore along with increased security on vessels have sparked a sharp downturn in piracy.
The Sultanate of Aceh, officially the Kingdom of Aceh Darussalam, was a sultanate centered in the modern-day Indonesian province of Aceh. It was a major regional power in the 16th and 17th centuries, before experiencing a long period of decline. Its capital was Kutaraja, the present-day Banda Aceh.
Ali Mughayat Syah was the first Sultan of Aceh Darussalam in Northern Sumatra, reigning from about 1514 until his death. His reign not only saw the foundation of the Aceh Sultanate, but also the conquest of neighboring Daya (1520), Pidie (1521), and Pasai (1524). Despite his accomplishments, Ali Mughayat's life is poorly documented and must be pieced together from various Acehnese, Malay and European accounts.
Reverend Lewis Page Mercier is known today as the translator, along with Eleanor Elizabeth King, of three of the best-known novels of Jules Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas, From the Earth to the Moon, and Around the Moon. To avoid a conflict of interest with his position as chaplain, Mercier wrote under the pen names of Louis Mercier, MA (Oxon) and Mercier Lewis.
Sampson Low was a bookseller and publisher in London in the 19th century.
HMS Hinchinbrook was the French privateer Astrée, which the British captured in 1778 and took into the Royal Navy as a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate. She was Captain Horatio Nelson's second navy command, after the brig HMS Badger, and his first as post-captain. She was wrecked, with no loss of life, in January 1783.
Major-General Sir Henry Edward Colvile, was an English soldier.
William Henry James Boot was an English oil and watercolour artist, illustrator and author.
The Dutch expedition to the west coast of Sumatra was a punitive expedition of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army in 1831. The United States Navy, responding to the same incident, sent a punitive expedition in 1832.
Sultan Alauddin Ri'ayat Syah Sayyid al-Mukammal was the tenth Sultan of Aceh in northern Sumatra, ruling from 1589 to 1604. His reign is important since it saw the arrival of three new European powers to the region of the Melaka Straits: the Dutch, English and French.
Sultan Alauddin Jauhar ul-Alam Syah was the twenty-ninth sultan of Aceh in northern Sumatra. He ruled in 1795–1815 and again in 1819–1823, the intervening period being filled by the usurper Syarif Saiful Alam Syah.
Sultan Alauddin Muhammad Da'ud Syah I was the thirty-first sultan of Aceh in northern Sumatra. He was the sixth ruler of the Bugis Dynasty and reigned from 1823 to 1838.
Sultan Alauddin Ibrahim Mansur Syah, also known as Ali Alauddin Mansur Syah was the thirty-third sultan of Aceh in northern Sumatra. He was the eight ruler of the Bugis Dynasty and ruled de facto from 1838, formally from 1857 to 1870.
Sultan Alauddin Mahmud Syah II was the thirty-fourth sultan of Aceh in northern Sumatra. He reigned from 1870 to 1874 and was the last sultan to rule Aceh before the colonial invasion.
John Mackenzie was a Scottish Christian missionary who worked in Southern Africa, and who argued for the rights of the native Africans.
Frank Cundall was an English art historian, editor and author, the son of the writer and publisher Joseph Cundall. He was closely involved in the administration of and produced the reports for a series of international exhibitions held in London in the 1880s, and catalogued the art library at the South Kensington Museum, later the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The Aceh Expedition was a military expedition launched by the Portuguese against the Acehnese to force them to build a Portuguese fortress near Aceh. However, the expedition ended in failure.
Acehnese–Portuguese conflicts were the military engagements between the forces of the Portuguese Empire, established at Malacca in the Malay Peninsula, and the Sultanate of Aceh, fought intermittently from 1519 to 1639 in Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula or the Strait of Malacca. The Portuguese supported, or were supported, by various Malay or Sumatran states who opposed Acehnese expansionism, while the Acehnese received support from the Ottoman Empire and the Dutch East India Company.
