Java Sea

The Java Sea approaches to Cirebon connected the port with Batavia and the maritime commerce of Java's northern coast. In 1681 Cirebon's rulers entered an alliance with the Dutch East India Company. The same year the company began operating Fort Bescherming at the port, initially a modest bamboo stockade.

The fort was more than a defence against attack. It served as a political office through which the company sought to hold the Cirebon sultans to their agreement, and it underwent repeated renovations. Correspondence between Batavia and the three Cirebon rulers in 1680–1682 records the diplomacy accompanying this new relationship. For ships approaching Cirebon, the shore therefore presented a port increasingly shaped by company power and negotiations with several courts, rather than a single undivided sultanate.