Gezigt op Achin

Title

Gezigt op Achin

Description

View of the city of Achin in North Sumatra, Indonesia.

ca. 1777

Artist

Schley, van der (1715-1779)

Jakob van der Schley (1715 -1779) was a Dutch draughtsman and engraver. He studied under Bernard Picart (1673-1733) whose style he subsequently copied. His main interests were engraving portraits and producing illustrations for "La Vie de Marianne" by Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (1688-1763), published in The Hague between 1735 and 1747. He also engraved the frontispieces for a 15-volume edition of the complete works of Pierre de Brantôme (1540-1614), "Oeuvres du seigneur de Brantôme", published in The Hague in 1740. Most of the plates in the Hague edition of Prévost's "Histoire générale des voyages" are signed by van der Schley.

Historical Description

The island of Sumatra is the sixth largest island in the world. The original name of Sumatra was Swarna Dwipa ("Island of Gold"), which originated from the export of gold from the highlands of Sumatra in early times. In the first millennium AD, Buddhism and Hinduism gained a foothold on the island and merged with the beliefs of the original peasant culture. Several empires formed on the basis of the culture imported from India. With its location on the sea trade route from India to China, trading towns soon began to flourish, the most famous being Srivijaya on the site of today's Palembang. The first trade contacts with Europe were established by Portuguese traders from small trading posts. The actual colonial conquest only began in 1596 with the landing of the Dutch on the island. They conquered all the sultanates in succession, with Aceh only being completely defeated in 1905. The Dutch prevailed against the British on Sumatra, which was confirmed in the British-Dutch Treaty of 1824. At the end of the 19th century, new, "modern" plantations emerged worldwide. Their characteristics: they were located in remote areas, money and management came from different countries (Europe and the USA), new scientific findings were applied to optimize yields and many unskilled workers were needed in addition to a few specialists. A center of this development was East Sumatra with its tobacco plantations. The land was bought from the local princes, the recruited Chinese workers lived in camps and huge areas with their own judiciary were created. he island was occupied by the Japanese during the Second World War and then became part of the Republic of Indonesia. However, Sumatra's pole of unrest is still the region of Aceh in the north, which is striving for independence.