154 ISLAM AT WAR
aters of war. Steam gunboats often could drive right up the rivers of the
targeted country, delivering the invaders at the heart of the native popu-
lace. It was an irresistible combination.
The Muslim world was still largely illiterate. What schools existed were
primarily religious, and native ingenuity would not prove an adequate
counter for the advancements in warfare that the West was achieving. It
is reasonable to say that the difference in fighting powers between Muslim
and European forces became so great that the colonial powers no longer
needed large armies. Small expeditionary forces, frequently a native fac-
tion armed and led by its European ally, were perfectly capable of invasion
and battlefield victory against much more numerous opponents. Occupa-
tion of a conquered province might require a significant force, but not the
actual fighting. So extreme had the difference in military capability be-
come, that small European forces were almost universally successful at
the very fringe of their most distant frontiers, while their native opponents
were helpless in the very heart of their homelands.
If the native peoples—Muslims and others—failed to defeat the modern
forces put against them, they at least could resist. Proud tribes, many of
them with centuries-old warrior heritages, did not take the European oc-
cupations lying down. Their familiarity with the often-inhospitable terrain
of their homelands gave them a significant guerrilla capability. They may
not have manufactured modern weapons, but they could use them reason-
ably well, neither were their own arms totally ineffective. Frequent and
fierce battles inflicted casualties on both sides. In the end, though, Euro-
pean technology and organization were simply overwhelming.
Muslim Indonesia was one area in which European colonial rule be-
came formalized in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The
Dutch had maintained a significant trading presence in the islands since
the beginning of the seventeenth century. During the Napoleonic Wars the
British Navy and British East India Company had captured these bases
and occupied the ports, but by 1818, with a general European peace well
in hand, the islands were returned to the Dutch. Significant native resis-
tance greeted Dutch moves to step up their commercial presence to out-
right colonization. In the Moluccas, Pattimura led one of the earliest
uprisings immediately after the Dutch returned. Prince Dipenegoro led the
Java uprising from 1825 until 1830. Tuanku Imam Bonjol led resistance
movements in the western part of Sumatra, and Teuku Umar led the Aech
War in northern Sumatra from 1873 until 1903. All of these movements
were slowly ground down by Dutch soldiers, gunboats, and native levies.
In 1903 the Sultan of Achin, Muhammad Daud, surrendered to the Dutch,
but his people continued their resistance until 1907.