1740 Batavia massacre

The 1740 Batavia massacre (Dutch: Chinezenmoord, literally "Murder of the Chinese"; Indonesian: Geger Pacinan, meaning "Chinatown Tumult") is a pogrom against ethnic Chinese in the port city of Batavia (present-day Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies.

The violence inside the city lasts from 9 October 1740 until 22 October; minor skirmishes outside the walls continue late into November that year.Unrest in the Chinese population had been triggered by government repression and reduced income from falling sugar prices prior to the massacre.

In response, at a meeting of the Council of the Indies (Raad van Indië), the governing body of the Dutch East Indies Company), Governor-General Adriaan Valckenier declares that any uprising is to be met with deadly force.

His resolution took effect on 7 October after hundreds of ethnic Chinese, many of them sugar mill workers, killed 50 Dutch soldiers.

The Dutch dispatches troops who confiscate all weapons from the Chinese populace and place the Chinese under a curfew.

Two days later, after being frightened by rumors of Chinese atrocities, other Batavian ethnic groups begin burning Chinese houses along Besar Stream and Dutch soldiers launch an assault using cannons on Chinese homes.

The violence soon spreads throughout Batavia, killing more Chinese.

Although Valckenier declares an amnesty on 11 October, gangs of irregulars continue to hunt and kill Chinese until 22 October, when Valckenier calls more forcefully for a cessation of hostilities.

Outside the walls of the city, Dutch troops continue fighting to contain the rioting sugar mill workers and after several weeks of minor skirmishes, Dutch-led troops assault Chinese strongholds in sugar mills throughout the area, driving the survivors east towards Bekasi.Historians have estimated that at least 10,000 ethnic Chinese were massacred; the number of survivors is uncertain, although estimates range from 600 to 3,000.

The following year, ethnic Chinese throughout Java are attacked, sparking a two-year war that pits ethnic Chinese and Javanese forces against Dutch troops.

Valckenier is later recalled to the Netherlands and charged with crimes related to the massacre; Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff replaces him as governor-general.

The massacre's legacy in popular culture is found in Dutch literature, in which it has figured heavily.

It is also cited as a possible etymology for the names of several areas in Jakarta.

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