Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi.2), including adjacent islands such as the Simeulue, Nias, Mentawai, Enggano, Riau Islands, Bangka Belitung and Krakatoa archipelago.
The United East India Company, commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies, it was granted a 21-year monopoly to carry out trade activities in Asia. Shares in the company could be purchased by any citizen of the United Provinces and subsequently bought and sold in open-air secondary markets. The company possessed quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts, negotiate treaties, strike its own coins, and establish colonies. Also, because it traded across multiple colonies and countries from both the East and the West, the VOC is sometimes considered to have been the world's first multinational corporation.
The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, contemporary with the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on the legality and conduct of Dutch trade with Britain's enemies in that war.
Minangkabau people, also known as Minang, are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the Minangkabau Highlands of West Sumatra, Indonesia. The Minangkabau's West Sumatera homelands was the seat of the Pagaruyung Kingdom, believed by early historians to have been the cradle of the Malay race, and the location of the Padri War.
The Padri War was fought from 1803 until 1837 in West Sumatra, Indonesia between the Padri and the Adat. The Padri were Muslim clerics from Sumatra who wanted to impose Sharia in Minangkabau in West Sumatra, Indonesia. The Adat comprised the Minangkabau nobility and traditional chiefs. They asked for the help of the Dutch, who intervened in 1821 and helped the nobility defeat the Padri faction.
West Sumatra is a province of Indonesia. It is on the west coast of the island of Sumatra and includes the Mentawai Islands off that coast. West Sumatra borders the Indian Ocean to the west, as well as the provinces of North Sumatra to the north, Riau to the northeast, Jambi to the southeast, and Bengkulu to the south. The province has an area of 42,119.54 km2 (16,262.45 sq mi), or about the same size as Switzerland, with a population of 5,534,472 at the 2020 census. The official estimate at mid 2023 was 5,757,210. The province is subdivided into twelve regencies and seven cities. It has relatively more cities than other provinces outside Java, although several of them are relatively low in population compared with cities elsewhere in Indonesia. Padang is the province's capital and largest city.
North Sumatra, also called North Sumatra Province, is a province of Indonesia located in the northern part of the island of Sumatra, just south of Aceh. Its capital and largest city is Medan on the east coast of the island. It is bordered by Aceh on the northwest and Riau and West Sumatra on the southeast, by coastlines located on the Indian Ocean to the west, and by the Strait of Malacca to the east.
Padang is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of West Sumatra. It had a population of 833,562 at the 2010 Census and 909,040 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as at mid 2023 was 942,938 - comprising 473,089 males and 469,849 females. It is the 16th most populous city in Indonesia and the most populous city on the west coast of Sumatra. The Padang metropolitan area is the third most populous metropolitan area in Sumatra with a population of over 1.7 million. Padang is widely known for its Minangkabau culture, cuisine, and sunset beaches.
Bukittinggi is the third largest city in West Sumatra, Indonesia, with a population of 111,312 in 2010 and 121,028 in 2020. An official estimate as of mid 2023 lists a population of 124,047, consisting of 61,949 males and 62,098 females. The city covers an area of 25.24 km2. It is located in the Minangkabau Highlands, 90 km by road from the West Sumatran capital city of Padang. The city is completely surrounded by the Agam Regency, making it an enclave within the regency, and it is located at 0°18′20″S100°22′9″E, near the volcanoes Mount Singgalang (inactive) and Mount Marapi. At 930 m above sea level, the city has a cool climate with temperatures between 16.1° to 24.9 °C.
Pagaruyung, also known as Pagarruyung, Pagar Ruyung and Malayapura or Malayupura, was a kingdom that once stood in the island of Sumatra and the seat of the Minangkabau kings of Western Sumatra. Modern Pagaruyung is a village in Tanjung Emas subdistrict, Tanah Datar regency, located near the town of Batusangkar, Indonesia.
Pariaman, is a coastal city in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Pariaman covers an area of 73.36 km2 (28 sq mi), with a 12 km (7 mi) coastline. It had a population of 79,043 at the 2010 Census and 94,224 at the 2020 census; the official estimate as at mid 2023 was 97,206 - comprising 49,131 males and 48,075 females. "Pariaman" means "safe area".
Rijcklof Volckertsz. van Goens was the Governor of Zeylan and Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. He was the Governor of Zeylan from 12 May 1660 to 1661, then in 1663 and finally from 19 November 1664 to 1675 during the Dutch period in Ceylon. He was also served as Council Member of India during 1679. Van Goens’ managed to monopolize the cinnamon trade, get hold of the Malabar pepper and drive away the Portuguese from Ceylon and the Coromandel Coast for the VOC.
The siege of Negapatam was the first major offensive military action on the Indian subcontinent following the arrival of news that war had been declared between Great Britain and the Dutch Republic, beginning the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. A British force besieged the Dutch-controlled port of Negapatam, the capital of Dutch Coromandel, on the eastern coast of India, which capitulated after the fortification's walls were breached. The Dutch garrison consisted of 500 European troops, 5,500 local troops, and 2,000 troops of Hyder Ali, the ruler of Mysore.
The Capture of Trincomalee on 11 January 1782 was the second major engagement between Great Britain and the Dutch East India Company in the East Indies after the outbreak of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. After capturing Negapatam, the major Dutch outpost in India, a British force assaulted the Dutch-controlled port of Trincomalee on the eastern coast of Ceylon, and successfully stormed Fort Fredrick and Fort Ostenburg to gain control of the city and the port. In gaining control of the port, they also captured the vessels there at the time.
The Sunda Strait campaign of January 1794 was a series of manoeuvres and naval actions fought between warships and privateers of the French Republic and a squadron of vessels sent by the British East India Company to protect trade in the region, later augmented by Dutch warships. The campaign developed as French forces based on Île de France reacted more quickly than the British forces in the Indian Ocean to the expansion of the French Revolutionary Wars on 1 February 1793. French privateers rapidly spread along the British trade routes in the Far East, becoming concentrated around the narrow Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies. These ships were soon joined by French Navy frigates and began to inflict losses on shipping in the region. The Royal Navy forces in the Indian Ocean were deployed elsewhere and so the East India Company, the private enterprise that ruled much of British India in the 1790s and maintained their own fleet and navy, raised a squadron of armed merchant ships to patrol the Strait and drive off the raiders.
The Jambi Sultanate, alternatively known as Djambi, was a sultanate that was centered in the modern-day province of Jambi in Indonesia.
This is a timeline of the 17th century.
Mahyuddin Datuk Sutan Maharadja was a Minangkabau journalist, intellectual, activist and newspaper editor active in the Dutch East Indies. He is considered to be one of the fathers of modern Indonesian journalism and was a key figure in West Sumatran politics from the 1890s to 1921.
Inderapura, also known as Ujung Pagaruyung, was a kingdom located in the Pesisir Selatan Regency, present-day West Sumatra, bordering Bengkulu Province and Jambi. Officially, the kingdom was a vassal of the Pagaruyung Kingdom, although in practice it was independent and free to manage its internal and external affairs. The kingdom in its heyday covered the west coast of Sumatra from Padang in the north to Sungai Hurai in the south. Inderapura's most important products were pepper and gold.
The Japanese occupation of West Sumatra, officially known as Sumatora Nishi Kaigan Shū, started from 1942 until 1945 when the region was controlled by the Empire of Japan. The occupation was notable and recognized as one of the rare instances where a civilian government was established, rather than being governed by someone associated with the Japanese Imperial Army. The Japanese entered Padang on 17 March 1942 and within ten days all important cities in the West Sumatra region were occupied without resistance from the Dutch. The Japanese occupation of the region ended on 17 August 1945 with the proclamation of Indonesian independence by Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta.
British East India Company 
Dutch East India Company 
