Warring Societies of Pre-colonial Southeast Asiafrom the island, but otherwise little to attend there, while Balinese petty
rajas often sought the friendship of the Dutch to further their political
ends and involve the Company in internal warfare, although with limited
success. Nevertheless, various political factors made the Dutch wary
about Balinese activities in East Java, Lombok and beyond. There is an
interesting contemporaneity in this, since VOC-related conflicts in the
west and the east both occurred in the 1760s. Some of the events of this
time apply to local issues, while other aspects have global connotations.
In the west, the suzerainty of Mengwi over Balambangan was chal-
lenged when the current East Javanese raja fell out with his Balinese
overlord and sought Dutch assistance. The Mengwi ruler reacted
swiftly, strengthened his direct authority over Balambangan, and had
the vassal raja murdered in 1766. Such event would not normally have
moved the VOC to action, since easternmost Java was not economically
or commercially vital to it. However, the Seven Years’ War recently had
been concluded in Europe, and left the maritime position of Britain
greatly strengthened. British or British-affiliated trading vessels began
to appear in areas in the East Indies that were within or close to the
VOC sphere of interest. These considerations contributed to the VOC’s
decision to intervene in Balambangan in 1767. While the VOC was not
at the height of its efficacy, the Dutch and auxiliary troops dispatched
from Java’s north coast were more than a match for the Balinese com-
manders. Still, no major battles were fought at this stage, and the course
of events shows the fragility of Mengwi’s position. Not only were many
hundreds of Balinese killed by the local East Javanese, but the Balinese
elite in the Mengwi satellites Jembrana in westernmost Bali and Badung
in the south also had no qualms in approaching the VOC, offering
4,000 to 5,000 men who would attack their overlords in the back.^55 The
Dutch subjugation of Balambangan turned out to be an outdrawn affair
that lasted until 1777 and led to widespread depopulation and, ironi-
cally, the introduction of Islam as the creed of the majority. The raja of
Mengwi did not persist in his claims of the territory since he and the
rajas of Badung and Klungkung sent letters in 1768–69 in which they
- NA, VOC 3186, Secret letters from Semarang to Batavia, 1766, fols. 447, 460;
see also Sri Margana, “The Formation of a New Frontier: The Conquest of Java’s
Oosthoek by the Dutch in 1768”, in Nigel Worden (ed.), Contingent Lives: Social
Identity and Material Culture in the VOC World (Rondebosch: Historical Studies
Deparment, University of Cape Town, 2007).