After three years of siege, the Dutch…

After three years of siege, the Dutch finally manage to sack Bonjol on August 16, 1837.

Through a negotiation ruse, the Dutch again capture Tuanku and exile him, first to Cianjur in West Java, then to Ambon, and later to Manado in Sulawesi.

With the victory, the Dutch tighten their hold on West Sumatra.

The Padri War (also called the Minangkabau War) between the indigenous Islamist population of West Sumatra and Dutch troops, whose resources had been stretched thin by the Diponegoro resistance in Java, can be said to have begun as early as 1803, prior to Dutch intervention, and is a conflict that had broken out in Minangkabau country when the Padris started to suppress what they saw as unislamic customs, i.e. the adat.

"Padris" are Muslim clerics from Sumatra who, inspired by Wahabism and after returning from Hajj, want to impose Sharia in Minangkabau country in West Sumatra, Indonesia.

"Adats" comprise the Minangkabau nobility and traditional chiefs.

After occupation of the Pagaruyung Kingdom by Tuanku Pasaman, one of Padri leaders in 1815, on  February 21, 1821, the Minangkabau nobility had made a deal with Dutch in Padang to help them to fight the Padris.

The signing of the Masang Agreement in 1824 had ended ending hostilities with the state of Bonjol, founded by Tuanku Imam Bonjol.

Subsequently, however, once the Diponegoro resistance was suppressed, the Dutch had attacked the state of Pandai Sikat in a renewed effort to gain control of West Sumatra.

Despite valiant fighting by the Indonesians (by this time the traditionalists had realized they didn't want to be ruled by the Dutch either and had joined forces with the Padris in their resistance), the overwhelming power of the Dutch military eventually prevails.

Tuanku had been captured in 1832 but escaped after three months to continue the struggle from his tiny fortress in Bonjol.