New Orleans founding father Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne…

Many people of Chinese descent have been contracted as skilled artisans in the construction of Batavia on the northwestern coast of Java during the early years of the Dutch colonization of the East Indies (modern-day Indonesia); they also serve as traders, sugar mill workers, and shopkeepers.

The economic boom, precipitated by trade between the East Indies and China via the port of Batavia, has increased Chinese immigration to Java.

The number of ethnic Chinese in Batavia had grown rapidly, reaching a total of ten thousand by 1740.

Thousands more live outside the city walls.

The Dutch colonials require them to carry registration papers, and deport those who do not comply to China.

The deportation policy had been tightened during the 1730s, after an outbreak of malaria killed thousands, including the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, Dirck van Cloon.

According to Indonesian historian Benny G. Setiono, the outbreak was followed by increased suspicion and resentment in native Indonesians and the Dutch toward the ethnic Chinese, who were growing in number and whose wealth was increasingly visible.

As a result, Commissioner of Native Affairs Roy Ferdinand, under orders of Governor-General Adriaan Valckenier, decrees on July 25, 1740, that Chinese considered suspicious will be deported to Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka) and forced to harvest cinnamon.

Wealthy Chinese are extorted by corrupt Dutch officials who threaten them with deportation;  Stamford Raffles, a British explorer and historian of Java, will note in 1830 that in some Javanese accounts, the Dutch were told by the Chinese captain (the Dutch-appointed leader of the ethnic Chinese) for Batavia, Ni Hoe Kong, to deport all Chinese wearing black or blue because these were thought to be poor.

There are also rumors that deportees were not taken to their destinations but were thrown overboard once out of sight of Java, and in some accounts, they died when rioting on the ships.

The deportation of ethnic Chinese has caused unrest among the remaining Chinese, leading many Chinese workers to desert their jobs.

At the same time, native occupants of Batavia, including the ethnic Betawi servants, have became increasingly distrustful of the Chinese.

Economic factors play a role: most natives are poor, and perceive the Chinese as occupying some of the most prosperous neighborhoods in the city.

Although the Dutch historian A.N. Paasman will note that at this time the Chinese were the "Jews of Asia", the actual situation was more complicated.

Many poor Chinese living in the area around Batavia are sugar mill workers who feel exploited by the Dutch and Chinese elites equally.

Rich Chinese own the mills and are involved in revenue farming and shipping; they draw income from milling and the distillation of arak, a molasses and rice-based alcoholic beverage.

However, the Dutch overlords set the price for sugar, which itself causes unrest.

Because of the decline of worldwide sugar prices that began in the 1720s caused by an increase in exports to Europe and competition from the West Indies, the sugar industry in the East Indies has suffered considerably.

By 1740, worldwide sugar prices have dropped to half the price in 1720.

As sugar is a major export, this causes considerable financial difficulties for the colony.

Some members of the Council of the Indies (Raad van Indië) had believed initially that the Chinese would never attack Batavia, and stronger measures to control the Chinese have been blocked by a faction led by Valckenier's political opponent, the former governor of Zeylan Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff, who had returned to Batavia in 1738.

Large numbers of Chinese have arrived outside Batavia from nearby settlements, however, and on September 26, Valckenier calls an emergency meeting of the council, during which he gives orders to respond to any ethnic Chinese uprisings with deadly force.

This policy continues to be opposed by van Imhoff's faction; Vermeulen (1938)  will suggest that the tension between the two colonial factions played a role in the ensuing massacre.

Valckenier receives reports on the evening of October 1 that a crowd of a thousand Chinese had gathered outside the gate, angered by his statements at the emergency meeting five days earlier.

This report is received incredulously by Valckenier and the council.

However, after the murder of a Balinese sergeant by the Chinese outside the walls, the council decides to take extraordinary measures and reinforce the guard.

Two groups of fifty Europeans and some native porters are sent to outposts on the south and east sides of the city, and a plan of attack is formulated.

Groups of Chinese sugar mill workers revolt using custom-made weapons to loot and burn mills, after which hundreds of ethnic Chinese, suspected to have been led by Chinese captain Ni Hoe Kong, kill fifty Dutch soldiers in Meester Cornelis (now Jatinegara) and Tanah Abang on October 7.

In response, the Dutch send eighteen hundred regular troops, accompanied by schutterij (militia) and eleven battalions of conscripts to stop the revolt; they establish a curfew and cancel plans for a Chinese festival.

Fearing that the Chinese will conspire against the colonials by candlelight, those inside the city walls are forbidden to light candles and are forced to surrender everything "down to the smallest kitchen knife".

The Dutch repel an attack the following day by up to ten thousand ethnic Chinese, led by groups from nearby Tangerang and Bekasi, at the city's outer walls;  Raffles will writes that seventeen hundred and eighty-nine Chinese died in this attack.

Valckenier responds by called another meeting of the council on October 9.

Meanwhile, rumors spread among the other ethnic groups in Batavia, including slaves from Bali and Sulawesi, Bugis, and Balinese troops, that the Chinese are plotting to kill, rape, or enslave them.

These groups preemptively burn houses belonging to ethnic Chinese along Besar Stream.

The Dutch follow this with an assault on Chinese settlements elsewhere in Batavia in which they burn houses and kill people.

The Dutch politician and critic of colonialism W. R. van Hoëvell will write that "pregnant and nursing women, children, and trembling old men fell on the sword. Defenseless prisoners were slaughtered like sheep".

Troops under Lieutenant Hermanus van Suchtelen and Captain Jan van Oosten, a survivor from Tanah Abang, take station in the Chinese district: Suchtelen and his men position hemselves at the poultry market, while van Oosten's men hold a post along the nearby canal.

At around 5:00 p.m., the Dutch open fire on Chinese-occupied houses with cannon, causing them to catch fire.

Some Chinese die in the burning houses, while others are shot upon leaving their homes or commit suicide in desperation.

Those who reach the canal near the housing district are killed by Dutch troops waiting in small boats, while other troops search in between the rows of burning houses, killing any survivors they find.

These actions later spread throughout the city.

Vermeulen notes that many of the perpetrators were sailors and other "irregular and bad elements" of society.

During this period there is heavy looting and seizures of property.

The Dutch execute Chinese prisoners on October 10, 1740.

The violence continues to spread the following day, and Chinese patients in a hospital are taken outside and killed.

Attempts to extinguish fires in areas devastated the preceding day fail, and the flames increase in vigor, and continue until October 12.

Meanwhile, a group of eight hundred Dutch soldiers and two thousand natives assault Kampung Gading Melati, where a group of Chinese survivors are holding up under the leadership of Khe Pandjang.

Although the Chinese evacuate to nearby Paninggaran, they are later driven out of the area by Dutch forces.

There are approximately four hundred and fifty Dutch and eight hundred Chinese casualties in the two attacks.

Valckenier had unsuccessfully requested on October 11 that officers control their troops and stop the looting.

Two days later, the council established a reward of two ducats for every Chinese head surrendered to the soldiers as an incentive for the other ethnic groups to assist in the purge.

As a result, ethnic Chinese who had survived the initial assault are hunted by gangs of irregulars, who kill those Chinese they find for the reward.