page_title: Batavia, Dutch East Indies
section_title: Society
hierarchical_section_title: Batavia, Dutch East Indies / Society
caption_attribution_description: English: Balinese_slave_in_Batavia_in_1700_from_Cornelis_de_Bruin_Voyages_de_Corneille_le_Brun_1718.jpg
context_page_description: Batavia, also called Batauia in the city's Malay vernacular, was the capital of the Dutch East Indies. The area corresponds to present-day Jakarta, Indonesia. Batavia can refer to the city proper or its suburbs and hinterland, the Ommelanden, which included the much-larger area of the Residency of Batavia in the present-day Indonesian provinces of Jakarta, Banten and West Java.
  The founding of Batavia by the Dutch in 1619, on the site of the ruins of Jayakarta, led to the establishment of a Dutch colony; Batavia became the center of the Dutch East India Company's trading network in Asia. Monopolies on local produce were augmented by non-indigenous cash crops. To safeguard their commercial interests, the company and the colonial administration absorbed surrounding territory.
  Batavia is on the north coast of Java, in a sheltered bay, on a land of marshland and hills crisscrossed with canals. The city had two centers: Oud Batavia and the relatively-newer city, on higher ground to the south.
  It was a colonial city for about 320 years until 1942, when the Dutch East Indies was occupied by Japan during World War II.
context_section_description: Batavia, founded as the trade and administrative center of the Dutch East India Company, was never intended to be a Dutch settlement. Jan Pieterszoon Coen founded Batavia for trade, with the city's inhabitants producing and supplying food. There was no migration of intact Dutch families, and there were few Dutch women in Batavia. A mixed society was formed; relationships between Dutchmen and Asian women did not usually result in marriage, and the women did not have the right to return to the Dutch Republic. This societal pattern created a group of mestizos in Batavia. Since the Dutch East India Company preferred to maintain complete control of its business, a large number of slaves was employed.
  Women became an important feature of Batavia's social network; they were accustomed to dealing with slaves, and spoke the same language (mostly Portuguese and Malay). Many of these women effectively became widows; their husbands left Batavia to return to the Netherlands, and their children were often removed as well.
  Most of Batavia's residents were of Asian descent. Thousands of slaves were brought from India and Arakan; later, slaves were brought from Bali and Sulawesi. To avoid an uprising, a decision was made to free the Javanese people from slavery. Chinese people made up the largest group in Batavia (most being merchants and laborers), and were the most decisive group in the city's development. Other residents included Malays and Muslim and Hindu merchants from India.
  Initially, these ethnic groups lived together; however, in 1688, segregation was imposed on the indigenous population. Each ethnic group was forced to live in its own village outside the city wall. Each person was tagged to identify their ethnic group; later, the identity tags were replaced with parchment.
  Batavia experienced more malaria epidemics during the 18th century, as its marsh areas bred mosquitoes. The disease killed many Europeans and Batavia received the nickname "cemetery of Europeans". Wealthier European settlers moved to southern areas at higher elevations.
  Within Batavia's walls, the wealthy Dutch built tall houses and canals. Commercial opportunities attracted Indonesian and Chinese immigrants, with the increasing population imposing a burden on the city. During the 18th century, over 60 percent of Batavia's population were slaves working for the Dutch East India Company. Laws protected slaves against overly-cruel actions by their masters; Christian slaves were freed after the death of their masters, and other slaves were allowed to own a store and earn money to buy their freedom.
  Although Batavia became the political and administrative center of the Dutch East Indies and the main port in Southeast Asian trade, the city's population remained relatively small. Early-19th-century estimates of its population were smaller than that of Surabaya, although it overtook the latter by the end of the century; the 1920 census indicated a population of 306,000, compared to 192,000 for Surabaya, 158,000 for Semarang and 134,000 for Surakarta. Its population increased rapidly, exceeding half a million ten years later.
  The population of the Dutch East Indies was never purely European. Of the 30,000 Dutch citizens in the Dutch East Indies in 1860, less than 5,000 were purely Dutch. Seventy percent of the population was male, since more male immigrants arrived from Europe.
  Slavery existed in Batavia until its abolition in 1853. Slaves mainly lived in the back of the garden of the main house and were paid, with free food and lodging. Female slaves, known as baboe, cooked and cared for children.
  Children went to school, where the teachers were locally trained. Many children did not finish school; to counter this, the school system awarded prizes to well-performing children.
  When Stamford Raffles was governor of Java, he changed social interaction in Batavian society. Raffles disapproved of the relaxed Dutch dress code, where many men wore Javanese attire. Raffles and his wife, Olivia, introduced European dress (with much white, because of the tropical climate) fo
caption: Many coolies and slaves were employed from outside Java.
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