Indonesia High Sea

The waters off western Sumatra faced the Minangkabau hinterland and the kingdom of Pagaruyung, whose relations with the coast changed as Islam and maritime commerce expanded. By the sixteenth century royal authority was divided among rulers of the world, custom and religion. In the early seventeenth century the kingdom recognized Aceh's sovereignty and governors on the west coast, but coastal Minangkabau communities rebelled around 1665. The Dutch East India Company's arrival at Padang in 1663 offered local rulers another partner against Aceh's monopoly on gold and pepper. Company influence then became a account of resentment in its own right. Around 1750 Pagaruyung sought British assistance to expel the Dutch, and later welcomed Britain's temporary seizure of Padang. The early nineteenth century brought the destructive Padri conflict inland. Raffles visited in 1818 and found the royal capital burned and abandoned. Agreements with traditional leaders subsequently gave the Dutch a pretext for intervention. Offshore routes thus connected a gold-producing hinterland with changing coastal alliances and the growing reach of European companies.