Expansion and Internalization of Modes of Warfare in Pre-colonial Baliqualities of those in power. As pointed out by Henk Schulte Nordholt
(1996), a raja in the pre-colonial period did not inherit his power
automatically but had to renew it.^85 That a few attempts to achieve he-
gemony ended in failure is therefore far from astonishing. The Mengwi–
Klungkung alliance in about the 1710s–1770s dominated large parts of
Bali and Balambangan but the Dutch attack in 1767 demonstrated the
extreme vulnerability of the project. Karangasem, at the height of its
power, entertained plans to become overlord of all of Bali with Dutch
assistance in 1805 but quickly backed off when the ruling elite realized
the outcry from the other rulers that such enterprise would bring with
it.^86 Klungkung’s hand in the destruction of Gianyar and Mengwi in the
late nineteenth century merely led to increased warfare in South Bali.
While there were binding symbols that encompassed Balinese society,
such as the centrality of the Pura Besakih temple and the hierarchical
concepts embodied in the warna (caste) system, these were insufficient
to transform an awareness of cultural identity into political cohesion,
or to stop the endless series of military clashes between or within the
micro-states.
Finally it needs to be stressed once again that the unstable situation
was not merely due to the inner workings of Balinese society, but was
ultimately contingent on external influences. As apparent from this
survey, the VOC, and later on, the Dutch colonial state had a large role
in the various stages of Balinese external and internal warfare since the
seventeenth century, through the political and economic developments
they engendered in the archipelago. Unaware of this, Dutch colonial
policy-makers who pursued their (in)famous Ethical Policy in the years
around 1900 to the supposed benefit of the indigenous peoples, re-
garded the squabbling petty rajas as anachronisms inevitably bound for
elimination under the colonial Juggernaut.^87
- Schulte Nordholt, The Spell of Power, 4, 63, 149.
- Lekkerkerker, “Bali 1800–1814”, 319; A Dutch evaluation of the plans of the
Karangasem ruler is found in the document “Carang Assam”, Coll. Van Alphen en
Engelhard, 19B, No. 148, National Archives, The Hague. - For the ethical policy and the Bali expeditions in 1906–08, see van den Doel, Zo ver
de wereld strekt, 127–28, 150–61. It should be noted that the expeditions were not
directly triggered by Balinese internecine wars.