Principled Pragmatism: VOC Interaction with Makassar 1637-68 and the Nature of Company Diplomacy

2017·4.7 MB·English

by  Feddersen, Carl Fredrik

Principled Pragmatism
VOC Interaction with Makassar 1637-68, and the Nature
of Company Diplomacy

Carl Fredrik Feddersen
Principled Pragmatism
VOC Interaction with Makassar 1637-68, and the Nature
of Company Diplomacy
© Carl Fredrik Feddersen, 2017
ISBN: 978-82-02-56660-9
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Cover painting: Romeyn de Hooghe, The conquest of Macassar 1666 to 1669, by Speelman
From: the Atlas of Mutual Heritage and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the Dutch National
Library. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Typesetting: Datapage
Font: Whitney & MinionPro
The book is produced with support from University of Agder.
Cappelen Damm Akademisk/NOASP
Contents
Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................19
Summary, English .........................................................................................................21
1 Presenting My Case ...............................................................................................25
Section 1: Chapter Introduction ...................................................................................................25
Contents and plan of the chapter ..........................................................................................26
Section 2: A brief chronology of VOC–Makassar interaction, 1603–68 ...........................26
The twin kingdoms of Goa-Tello ............................................................................................26
Actors in the Makassarese political field ............................................................................27
Internal tensions in South Sulawesi: The Bugis-Makassar dimension ........................28
The nature of politics ................................................................................................................29
The role of Islam ........................................................................................................................29
The regional dimension ...........................................................................................................30
The Ambonese wars ..................................................................................................................31
Global dimension ......................................................................................................................32
The outsiders ..............................................................................................................................33
Chronological overview of the seventeenth VOC-Makassar interaction ...................34
The monopoly on nutmeg and cloves as the central issue of conflict .........................35
The 1637 negotiations and treaty ..........................................................................................37
From the 1637 peace to war, negotiations, and the 1655 treaty ....................................37
Tensions 1655–60, and another cycle of war, negotiations, and treaty .......................38
Context and treaty making: The Bugis rebellion in 1660 ................................................39
New tensions and decision for war, 1660–66 ....................................................................40
A final cycle of war and treaty, 1667–68 ..............................................................................41
War on and in Makassar, June–November 1667 ...............................................................42
Securing the peace by war and still more treaties, 1667–69 ..........................................42
Section conclusion ....................................................................................................................43
Section 3: Approaches to VOC Diplomacy in the historiography:
General overview .............................................................................................................................43
Section introduction .................................................................................................................43
General types of approaches ..................................................................................................44
Section 4: Chronological overview of the historiography .....................................................47
Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century historiography ...............................................47
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contents
The Van Leur break and the economic turn in the post-World
War II historiography ...............................................................................................................48
Revisionist comparative perspectives and views on the nature of interaction..........48
Entering a new millennium: The coming of a “new diplomatic history”? ...................52
Jurrien van Goor’s positions on Company diplomacy......................................................53
Positions and plan of the exposition .....................................................................................54
Van Goor’s positions on the nature of the Company’s diplomacy................................54
Van Goor’s position on the Company’s position in the overseas
diplomatic systems ...................................................................................................................55
Accommodation as preferred interaction mode and its implications .........................55
Comparative aspects and the issue of commensurability ..............................................56
Comparisons at the macro-cultural level ............................................................................57
The singularity of my analysis compared to Van Goor’s positions ...............................59
Bringing it up to date, 2010–14 ..............................................................................................60
Van Meersbergen .......................................................................................................................61
Section 5: Positions on and propositions about law and treaty ...........................................62
The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries ...................................................................63
Andaya versus Alexandrowicz ...............................................................................................64
The Paulusz–Arasaratnam exchange on the Westerwolt Treaty ..................................65
Somers .........................................................................................................................................67
Somers 2001 ...............................................................................................................................68
On the Company’s assumptions and mode in its diplomatic
dealings VOC mode ..................................................................................................................70
Somers 2005 ..............................................................................................................................70
Van Ittersum ...............................................................................................................................72
Positions ......................................................................................................................................73
Grotius’s treaty theory: Fraud by law ...................................................................................74
Summing up: Ittersum ..............................................................................................................75
Section 6: Summing up the historiography of VOC diplomacy ...........................................75
2 Positions and Propositions Refined ......................................................................79
Section 1: Brief historiography on seventeenth-century Company–Makassar
interaction, with an emphasis on Andaya’s propositions .....................................................79
Spiritual versus secular conceptions of “treaty” ...............................................................80
South Sulawesian and Western functions of treaty and function
of state-interaction systems contrasted .............................................................................83
A spiritual conceptualisation of interstate relations: The workings of
the South Sulawesian system and grounds for structural misunderstandings,
and conflicting views on the nature and bonds of treaties .............................................84
The concept of siri and the workings of diplomacy and treaty in the
South Sulawesi states system ................................................................................................85
Miscommunication in treaty making between Makassar and the Company ............86
Exceptions confirming the rule in the Company’s treaty practice ................................87
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The 1671 treaties ........................................................................................................................88
The Bongaya Treaty of 1667 ....................................................................................................88
European tunnel vision and lack of understanding of and
sensitivity to local perceptions in the Company’s treaty making..................................89
Allegations of breach of contract as a cultural misconception .....................................90
Summing up of the subsection ..............................................................................................92
Andaya’s views on treaty and treaty making in historiographic perspective .............92
Concluding remarks ..................................................................................................................93
Section 2: Resink’s proposition on international law in Makassar
and its implications for Andaya’s positions ..............................................................................94
Introduction ................................................................................................................................94
Parallelisms .................................................................................................................................94
Institutions of international law in Indonesia .....................................................................97
The outsider as a separate category in the Indonesian
system of maritime interaction ..............................................................................................98
Section conclusion ...................................................................................................................101
Section 3: Two views on Makassarese dynamism ................................................................102
Reid on Makassarese dynamism .........................................................................................103
The nature of late sixteenth and seventeenth-century
leadership in Makassar ..........................................................................................................105
Pattingalloang ...........................................................................................................................105
Structural factors .....................................................................................................................106
A seventeenth century cultural shift with “modern” implications? ...........................107
Section 4: The structure of the argument ...............................................................................108
On the primary sources ..........................................................................................................113
The nature of the primary sources and method ...............................................................114
3 The model of overseas diplomacy in the Heeren XVII’s
Generale Instructies and the advice on Makassar in the particular letters .............115
Section 1: Chapter introduction ..................................................................................................115
Chapter topic .............................................................................................................................115
Chapteraim ................................................................................................................................115
Chapter propositions ...............................................................................................................116
Two additional comments ......................................................................................................117
A rebuttal to my critics about my interpretation of the role of
international law in the Company’s diplomacy ................................................................117
The Role of Islam in Makassarese political thinking .......................................................118
Plan of exposition and analysis .............................................................................................118
Method and issues ...................................................................................................................119
Section 2: The respective General Instructions 1609–50, and
diplomacy’s role in them ..............................................................................................................119
The 1609 Instructions .............................................................................................................119
Issues, concerns, and diplomacy in the 1609 Instructions ...........................................120
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The 1613 Instructions Context and general contents ......................................................122
General presentation of the contents in the 1613 Instructions .....................................122
On diplomacy in the 1613 Instructions ...............................................................................126
Article 8 .....................................................................................................................................126
Article 10 ...................................................................................................................................126
Article 21 .....................................................................................................................................127
Article 22 ...................................................................................................................................128
Article 23 ...................................................................................................................................128
Article 26 ...................................................................................................................................129
Article 33 ...................................................................................................................................129
The 1617 Instructions..............................................................................................................130
Hierarchy of concerns by structure of exposition ............................................................131
The role of and approach to diplomacy ..............................................................................132
The 1632 Instructions ..............................................................................................................132
Contents and structure of the 1632 Instructions .............................................................133
The Moluccas ............................................................................................................................133
The treatment of diplomacy in the 1632 Instructions ....................................................134
The Moluccas: Political concerns and diplomacy ...........................................................136
The 1650 Instructions .............................................................................................................137
The context of the 1650 Instructions ..................................................................................137
Textual analysis, the 1650 Instructions..............................................................................138
The balance between war and diplomacy regarding
independent Asian princes ...................................................................................................139
Treaties and negotiations in category 3 .............................................................................139
Adaptation, accommodation, and pragmatism as
the general principle in diplomatic interaction
with rulers in category 3 ........................................................................................................140
Cultural accommodation .......................................................................................................142
The desired quality of personnel .........................................................................................143
Means of diplomacy: The diplomatic gift .........................................................................144
Notions of cultural relativism and pragmatic
accommodation to local ways in the pre-1650 General Instructions ........................144
International law and “treaty” in the 1609 Instructions ................................................146
Conclusion: The Directors’ model of overseas diplomacy
in the General Instructions, 1609–50 ................................................................................149
Section 3: Commerce, diplomacy, and ideology....................................................................149
The Company’s success as providential blessing ...........................................................150
Section 4: Approaches to diplomacy in the entries on Makassar in
the particular patriase letters to the High Government 1634–1669 ................................154
Section introduction ...............................................................................................................154
Letters containing politico-diplomatic implications or
direct advice on diplomatic approach .................................................................................155
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contents
The nature of the Directors’ advice on approach towards
Makassar in the particular patriase letters .......................................................................159
Chapter conclusion .................................................................................................................159
4 Culture and Treaty: Leonard Andaya’s model of conflicting
treaty conceptions and the June 26, 1637 treaty between Sultan
Alauddin and the Company ........................................................................................161
Section 1: Presentation of the June 26, 1637 treaty of peace between
the Company and Makassar .......................................................................................................162
Background and context of June 1637 treaty ...................................................................162
The nature of the 1637 treaty: Historiographic positions and
my propositions .......................................................................................................................163
Plan of exposition ....................................................................................................................164
Sources .......................................................................................................................................164
Section 2: Perspective in South-Sulawesian thinking on diplomacy
and treaty: Andaya’s positions and my counter-propositions ...........................................164
Andaya’s structural approach to overseas treaty making ............................................164
Local imprints in the Company–Makassar treaty record ..............................................165
Andaya on the protection of sovereignty as a “typical
South Sulawesian feature,” and its imprint on the 1637 treaty ....................................166
Problems in the analysis .........................................................................................................167
Alauddin’s claim of perceptions of perpetuity as typical of the
South Sulawesi treaty tradition ............................................................................................168
Antagonistic notions of “breach of contract”...................................................................169
Implications of unnumbered articles..................................................................................170
The swearing ritual as an example of local imprint .........................................................171
Section conclusion ...................................................................................................................172
Section 3: The significance of communicative performance in
the treaty negotiations ..................................................................................................................173
Brief chronology of events from June 22–June 26 and their implications .................173
Section propositions ................................................................................................................173
Events of June 22: Determining the sultan’s intentions .................................................174
Events of June 23: The Achenese ambassadors as
communication link and mediators .....................................................................................174
Morning June 23 .................................................................................................................174
Negotiating for negotiations, June 23 .................................................................................176
Initial negotiations on board the ship, June 23 .................................................................177
Events of June 24: A simple “misunderstanding”? .........................................................179
Negotiations of substance, June 24 ...................................................................................180
Alauddin’s first response, June 24 .......................................................................................181
Dutch deliberations and swift response on the ship, June 24 .....................................184
Alauddin’s amendments and continued negotiations, June 25 ...................................184
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