Contexts - The Rough Guide to Bali and Lombok - page 452

ships that foundered continued to be plundered. On March 7, 1848, the governor-general of
the Dutch East Indies sent ultimatums demanding compensation, payment of war debts, the
destruction of defence works and the delivery of Jelantik to them. These were ignored, and
the Second Dutch Military Expedition arrived off the northern coast at Sangsit on June 8,
1848, with almost three thousand troops. Having quickly overcome the defences on the coast,
the well-armed force marched towards Jagaraga where Jelantik had organized his army of
around sixteen thousand, armed largely with kris and lances. The Dutch were eventually
put to flight and around two hundred Dutch soldiers were killed or wounded. The Balinese
suffered more than two thousand casualties but on June 10, 1848, the Dutch sailed back to
Batavia.
The Third Dutch Military Expedition
The following year, in the Third Dutch Military Expedition , the Dutch used almost their
entire military force in the Indies to overcome the Balinese. Around seven thousand troops
landed in Buleleng on April 4, 1849. Negotiations failed and on April 15 the Dutch attacked
the fortress at Jagaraga and defeated the Balinese with the loss of only about thirty men to the
Balinese thousands. Jelantik and the rajas of Buleleng and Karangasem fled east. With four
thousand additional troops from Lombok, the Dutch attacked Karangasem first. On their ar-
rival at the palace on May 20, the raja of Karangasem, Gusti Gde Ngurah Karangasem, along
with his family and followers, all committed puputan (ritual suicide). The raja of Buleleng,
accompanied by Jelantik, fled to the mountains of Seraya, where they were killed in further
fighting.
Dutch troops then headed west towards Semarapura where the local king, the dewa agung ,
signed an agreement on July 13, 1849. The Balinese recognized Dutch sovereignty and ac-
cepted that tawan karang was prohibited, and in return the Dutch agreed to leave the rajas to
administer their kingdoms and not to base garrisons on the island. A feast on July 15 sealed
the agreement.
The strengthening of the Dutch position
The Dutch regarded themselves as having sovereignty over the whole island but initially
largely left the kingdoms of the south and the east alone, basing themselves in the north and
placing Dutch controllers over the rajas of Buleleng and Jembrana.
From their administrative capital in Singaraja , the Dutch improved irrigation, planted cof-
fee as a cash crop, and outlawed slavery and the tradition of suttee , whereby widows would
throw themselves on their husbands' funeral pyres. They also quelled local rebellions , such
as the 1864 uprising in the village of Banjar, close to modern-day Lovina.
Meanwhile, with the Dutch concentrated in the north, the kingdoms of Klungkung, Badung,
Gianyar, Mengwi, Bangli and Tabanan in the south were weakened by internal conflicts and