Kapuas Delta

The Kapuas delta joined western Borneo's river traffic to maritime routes beyond the island. Its lower channels gained a new political centre in 1771, when Syarif Abdurrahman Alkadrie and his followers established Pontianak at the meeting of the Landak, Kapuas Kecil and Kapuas rivers. The settlement developed as a port and trading town, with a mosque and palace marking the centre of government.

The lower river also became a setting for negotiations with the Dutch East India Company. A political contract in 1779 concerned land across from the palace known as Tanah Seribu, assigned for Dutch activities. Riverbank authority therefore extended through agreements over where outside merchants and officials could establish themselves. By the early nineteenth century the delta's approaches led to a sultanate whose commercial position rested on the convergence of inland waterways and access to the sea.