{{Short description|Administrative subdivision of the Dutch East Indies}} {{Infobox former subdivision |native_name= Residentie Tapanuli |common_name= Tapanuli |demonym= |capital= Sibolga |nation = Dutch East Indies |subdivision = Residency |today=Tapanuli |conventional_long_name=Tapanoeli Residency |image_map= 1909 Atlas sekolah Hindia-Nederland map of Tapanoeli 2.jpg |image_map_caption= Malay-language map of Tapanoeli Residency (1909) |year_start = 1844 |year_end = 1942 }} '''Tapanuli Residency''' ({{langx|nl|Residentie Tapanoeli}}) was an administrative subdivision of the Dutch East Indies with its capital in Sibolga. It was located in northern Sumatra and existed in various forms from 1844 until the end of Dutch rule in 1942.<ref name="EVNI 4 273-7">{{cite book |editor1-last=Stibbe |editor1-first=D. G. |title=Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch-Indië . - Vierde Deel |date=1921 |publisher=Brill |location=Nijhoff |pages=273–7 |url=https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=MMKB02A:000033187:00007 |language=nl}}</ref> The area it encompassed at various times corresponds to most of the western coast of the current day Indonesian province of North Sumatra and parts of Aceh, including much of the traditional heartland of Batak people (called in their language {{lang|bbc|Tano Batak}}).<ref name="Aritonang 1994 2-6">{{cite book |last1=Aritonang |first1=Jan S. |title=Mission schools in Batakland (Indonesia), 1861-1940 |date=1994 |location=Leiden |isbn=9789004319912 |pages=2–6}}</ref> Lake Toba, a historically important crater lake, was also within the borders of the Residency.

==History== thumb|left|View of Tapanoeli at Sibolga Bay, 1860s The land that became Tapanoeli Residency had been previously essentially independent.<ref name="Cribb 2000 80-5">{{cite book |last1=Cribb |first1=R. B. |title=Historical atlas of Indonesia |date=2000 |publisher=University of Hawai'i Press |location=Honolulu |isbn=0-8248-2111-4 |pages=80–5}}</ref> The Dutch East India Company as well as the British started to establish posts along the Western coast of Sumatra during that time; the British even established a fort at Tapanuli in 1752.<ref name="Cribb 2000 80-5" /> The Dutch expanded into Sumatra more aggressively into the 1820s and 1830s; the region that became Tapanoeli Residency had little contact with Westerners before that time, except in some coastal areas.<ref name="Aritonang 1994 2-6" /> They initially established Tapanoeli as part of {{lang|nl|Ajer Bangis}} Residency before separating it into its residency under the {{lang|nl|Gouvernment Sumatra's Westkust}} in 1844.<ref name="Aritonang 1994 2-6" /> The Residency was named after a village near Sibolga Bay; its name derived from the Batak languages meaning essentially a pleasant seaside village.<ref name="EVNI 4 273-7" /> Despite the fact that they had established the Residency on paper, the Dutch had little presence or influence in the interior of the region until the 1860s.<ref name="Aritonang 1994 111-2">{{cite book |last1=Aritonang |first1=Jan S. |title=Mission schools in Batakland (Indonesia), 1861-1940 |date=1994 |location=Leiden |isbn=9789004319912 |pages=111–2}}</ref> thumb|Fort Tapanoeli, early 19th century

It remained sparsely populated in the 1850s, due to the mountainous terrain; one estimate put the population in 1852 at roughly 75,000 "Sumatrans" (including Malays and Bataks), under 70 Europeans, roughly 250 Chinese and 350 Javanese, but more than 7,000 slaves.<ref name="Couperus 1852 19">{{cite book |last1=Couperus |first1=Petrus Theodorus |title=De residentie Tapanoeli (Sumatra's Westkust) in 1852 |date=1852 |url=https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=TyskwvV3pUkC |page=19 |language=nl}}</ref> That estimate may be too low, as another puts the 1840 population of Tapanoeli Residency at around 350,000 in total.<ref name="Reid 2005 55">{{cite book |last1=Reid |first1=Anthony |title=An Indonesian frontier : Acehnese and other histories of Sumatra |date=2005 |publisher=Singapore University Press |location=Singapore |isbn=9789971692988 |page=55}}</ref> Its economy at that time was based mainly on the small-scale extraction of resources using traditional methods, including frankincense, resin, camphor, gambier, coconut oil, rattan, gold ore, as well as the farming of cattle, goats, and so on.<ref>{{cite book |title=History of Padang Lawas, North Sumatra. |date=2014 |publisher=Gramedia |isbn=9782910513702 |pages=291–2}}</ref><ref name="Couperus 1852 33-41">{{cite book |last1=Couperus |first1=Petrus Theodorus |title=De residentie Tapanoeli (Sumatra's Westkust) in 1852 |date=1852 |pages=33–41 |url=https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=TyskwvV3pUkC |language=nl}}</ref> Coffee cultivation was introduced to the Bataks on government initiative in the 1840s, and it gradually became a centre of cultivation and export.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dobbin |first1=Christine |title=Islamic revivalism in a changing peasant economy : central sumatra, 1784-1847. |date=2017 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |location=Abingdon, Oxon |isbn=9781315398167 |language=en |chapter=Chapter VII: Epilogue}}</ref> The Dutch also allowed German missionaries to set up missions in the Residency.<ref name="Aritonang 1994 2-6" /><ref name="Aritonang 1994 111-2" />

As plantation industries were developed in Sumatra in the late nineteenth century, the demographics of Tapanoeli changed as Javanese and Chinese workers were imported as labour.<ref name="Reid 2005 55" /> The borders of the Residency were revised several times in the early twentieth century; in 1902 and 1904 Trumon and Singkil were transferred to Atjeh and Dependencies Residency, and in 1908 a number of formerly independent Batak districts were added to Tapanoeli, including Samosir.<ref name="EVNI 4 273-7" /> At around the same time those adjustments were made, the first complete European map of Tapanoeli was released as well.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Kent |editor1-first=Alexander James |title=Mapping empires : colonial cartographies of land and sea : 7th International Symposium of the ICA Commission on the History of Cartography, 2018 |date=2020 |publisher=Springer International |isbn=9783030234478 |page=41}}</ref> It gained the status of a full Residency in 1906, reporting directly to Batavia; Sumatra's West Coast, which it had formerly reported to, was demoted to the status of a residency.<ref name="EVNI 4 273-7" /><ref name="Aritonang 1994 2-6" /> There was not much large-scale economic development on behalf of the Dutch until after 1908, when the area was opened up to European exploitation; after that, a number of rubber, coffee, and other plantations were built.<ref name="EVNI 4 273-7" />

As a densely forested, mountainous area Tapanoeli struggled regularly with Malaria outbreaks in the early twentieth century.<ref name="EVNI 4 273-7" />

After 1918, the Residency was subdivided into 4 subdivisions: *{{lang|nl|Sibolga en Omstreken}}, including the capital Sibolga and surrounding regions; *{{lang|nl|Nias en omliggend eiland}}, including Nias Island *{{lang|nl|Bataklanden}}, including Tarutung, Samosir and much of the Toba Batak territory. *{{lang|nl|Padang Sidempoean}}, centered on the city Padangsidempuan

In 1938, Tapanoeli and all other residencies on the island of Sumatra were reorganized under a new regional Gouvernement of Sumatra, whose capital was in Medan. However, with the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies starting in 1942, Tapanoeli Residency ceased to exist. During the Indonesian National Revolution, the region was very contested and fell under the rule of various warlords; it was only after April 1948 that the Republic of Indonesia started to assert its control and included the area of Tapanuli in the newly created province of North Sumatra.<ref name="Cribb 2000 158">{{cite book |last1=Cribb |first1=R. B. |title=Historical atlas of Indonesia |date=2000 |publisher=University of Hawai'i Press |location=Honolulu |isbn=0-8248-2111-4 |page=158}}</ref>

== List of Residents of Tapanoeli == {| class="wikitable" |- !No. !Portrait !Name !Took office !Left office !Note |- ||-||||L.A. Gallé||1843||1844||as Assistant Resident |- ||1||||A. van der Hart||1844||1848||first Resident |- ||2||||P.H.A.B. van Hengst||1848||1850|| |- ||3||||W. Kocken||1850||1851|| |- ||4||||P.T. Couperus||1851||1853|| |- ||5||||F.H.J. Netscher||1853||1855|| |- ||6||||J. Blok||1855||1858|| |- ||7||||J. van der Linden||1858||1860|| |- ||8||||C.H. Palm||1860||1862|| |- ||9||||H.A. Steijn Parvé||1862||1864|| |- ||13||||J.K de Wit||1864||1865|| |- ||11||||C.C.L. van Coeverden||1865||1869|| |- ||12||||H.D. Canne||1869||1874|| |- ||13||||S. Stibbe||1874||1876|| |- ||14||||J.C. Boyle||1876||1881|| |- ||15||||D.F. van Braam Morris||1881||1882|| |- ||16||||C.F.E. Praetorius||1882||1887|| |- ||17||||A.W.P. Verkerk Pistorius||1887||1888|| |- ||18||||A.L. van Hasselt||1888||1893|| |- ||19||||P.J. Kooreman||1893||1894|| |- ||20||||E.A. Taylor Weber||1894||1895|| |- ||21||||W.C. Hoogkamer||1895||1898|| |- ||22||107x107px||L.C. Welsink||1898||1908|| |- ||23||||C.J. Westenberg||1908||1911|| |- ||24||||J.P.J. Barth||1911||1915|| |- ||25||||F.C. Vorstman||1915||1921|| |- ||26||||W.K.H. Ypes||1921||1925|| |- ||27||||P.C. Arends||1925||1926|| |- ||28||||H.Ch. Gooszen||1926||1929|| |- ||29||||U. Fagginger Auer||1929||1933|| |- ||30||||J.W.Th. Heringa||1933||1936|| |- ||31||||V.E. Korn||1936||1939|| |- ||32||||J.N. van der Reyden||1939||1942|| |}

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:Residencies of the Dutch East Indies