The invasion of Java was a successful British amphibious operation against Java in the Dutch East Indies between August and September 1811 during the Napoleonic Wars. Originally established as a colony of the Dutch East India Company, Java remained in Dutch hands throughout the French Revolutionary Wars, during which the French invaded the Dutch Republic, transforming it into the Batavian Republic in 1795 and the Kingdom of Holland in 1806. The Kingdom of Holland was annexed to the First French Empire in 1810, and Java became a French colony, though it continued to be administered and garrisoned primarily with Dutch personnel.
After their capture of the French West Indies between 1809 and 1810, and a successful campaign against France's possessions in Mauritius from 1810 to 1811, British attention turned to the Dutch East Indies. An expedition was dispatched from British India in April 1811, while a small squadron of Royal Navy frigates was ordered to patrol off the island, raiding shipping and launching amphibious assaults against targets of opportunity. British troops landed on 4 August, and by 8 August the undefended city of Batavia capitulated. The defenders withdrew to a previously prepared fortified position, Fort Cornelis, which the British besieged, capturing it early in the morning of 26 August. The remaining defenders, a mixture of Dutch and French regulars and native militiamen, withdrew, pursued by the British. A series of amphibious and land assaults captured most of the remaining strongholds, and the city of Salatiga surrendered on 16 September, followed by the official capitulation of the island to the British on 18 September.
The island remained in British hands for the remainder of the Napoleonic Wars, but was returned to Dutch control in 1816, as per the terms of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814.
Background
thumb|1780 illustration of [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies]]
The Dutch had been under French control for several years and were already at war with Britain. The strongly pro-French Herman Willem Daendels was appointed governor-general of the Dutch East Indies in 1807. He arrived in Java aboard the French privateer Virginie in 1808, and began fortifying the island against the British threat. In particular, Daendels established an entrenched camp named Fort Cornelis a few miles south of Batavia. He also improved the island's defences by building new hospitals, barracks, arms factories and a new military college.
In 1810, the Kingdom of Holland was formally annexed by France. As part of the resulting changes, Jan Willem Janssens was appointed personally by Napoleon Bonaparte to replace Daendels as governor-general. Janssens had previously served as governor of the Dutch Cape Colony, and had been forced to capitulate after being defeated by British forces at the Battle of Blaauwberg in 1806. Janssens accompanied a French frigate division under Joseph-François Raoul, which consisted of the frigates Méduse and Nymphe and the corvette Sappho, tasked with supporting Java. The division was accompanied by several hundred light infantrymen and several senior French officers. They arrived in Java in April 1811 without mishap. On 2 September, the frigates arrived at Surabaya, tailed by the 32-gun frigate HMS Bucephalus. Two days later, the British sloop HMS Barracouta joined the chase, but lost contact on 8 September. Four days later, Méduse and Nymphe chased Bucephalus, which escaped and broke contact the next day. The squadron was back in Brest, France on 22 December 1811. The first division of troops, under the command of Colonel Rollo Gillespie, left Madras on 18 April, escorted by a squadron under Captain Christopher Cole aboard the 36-gun . They arrived at Penang on 18 May, and on 21 May the second division, led by Major-General Frederick Augustus Wetherall, which had left Calcutta on 21 April, escorted by a squadron under Captain Fleetwood Pellew, aboard the 38-gun joined them. On 31 July Captain Maunsell commanding the sloop the Procris, discovered a convoy of 40 or 50 proas, escorted by six French gunboats in the mouth of the Indromayo river. Launching boats they were able to board and capture five of the French gunboats in quick succession; the sixth blew up. Meanwhile, however, the convoy escaped up the shallow muddy river.
There the fleet waited for a time for intelligence concerning the Dutch strength. Colonel Mackenzie, an officer who had been dispatched to reconnoitre the coast, suggested a landing site at Cilincing, an undefended fishing village east of Batavia. The fleet anchored off the Marandi River on 4 August, and began landing troops at 14:00. The defenders were taken by surprise, and nearly six hours passed before Franco-Dutch troops arrived to oppose the landing, by which time 8,000 British troops had been landed. A brief skirmish took place between the advance guards, and the Franco-Dutch forces were repulsed. The British were disappointed to find that part of the town had been set on fire, and many warehouses full of goods such as coffee and sugar had been looted or flooded, depriving them of prize money. Stopford had orders to supersede Rear-Admiral Albemarle Bertie as commander in chief at the Cape, but on his arrival he learnt of Vice-Admiral Drury's death, and the planned expedition to Java, and so travelled on. In one skirmish, one of Janssens's French subordinates, General Alberti, was killed when he mistook some British riflemen in their green uniforms for Dutch troops. Weltevreeden was six miles from Fort Cornelis and on 20 August the British began preparing fortifications of their own, some 600 yards from the Franco-Dutch positions.
A sortie from the fort early on the morning of 22 August briefly seized three of the British batteries, until they were driven back by some of the Bengal Sepoys and the 69th Foot. The Franco-Dutch position worsened when a deserter helped General Rollo Gillespie to capture two of the redoubts by surprise. Gillespie, who was suffering from fever, collapsed, but recovered to storm a third redoubt. The French General Jauffret was taken prisoner. Two Dutch officers, Major Holsman and Major Muller, sacrificed themselves to blow up the redoubt's magazine.
The three redoubts were nevertheless the key to the defence, and their loss demoralised most of Janssens's East Indian troops. Many Dutch troops also defected, repudiating their allegiance to the French. The British stormed the fort at midnight on 25 August, capturing it after a bitter fight. Bucephalus pursued them alone until 12 September, when the French frigates came about and attempted to overhaul her. Bucephaluss commander, Captain Charles Pelly, turned about and tried to lead the pursuing French over shoals, but seeing the danger, they hauled off and abandoned the chase, returning to Europe.
On 31 August a force from the frigates , and , and the sloop HMS Dasher captured the fort and town of Sumenep, on Madura Island in the face of a large Dutch defending force. Suspecting Janssens to be in Cirebon, a force was landed there from , , HMS President, and on 4 September, causing the defenders to promptly surrender. General Jamelle, a member of Janssens's staff, was captured in the fall of the town.
While the navy took control of coastal towns, the army pushed on into the interior of the island. Janssens had been reinforced on 3 September by 1,200 mounted irregulars under Prince Prang Wedono and other Javanese militia. On 16 September Salatiga fell to the British. With his effective force reduced to a handful of men, Janssens surrendered two days later, on 18 September. Stamford Raffles was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Java. He ended Dutch administrative methods, liberalized the system of land tenure, and extended trade.
Britain returned Java and other East Indian possessions to the newly independent United Kingdom of the Netherlands under the terms of the Convention of London in 1814. One enduring legacy of the British occupation was the road rules, as the British had decreed that traffic should drive on the left, and this has endured in Indonesia to this day.
Sepoy revolt
The Bengali sepoy regiments stationed in Yogyakarta in 1815, inspired by the Hindu rituals of the Surakarta court and the glory of the Javanese temples of Prambanan and Borobodur planned a revolt against the British. This plot was conjured with the help of Sunan and the sepoys planned to kill all the British officers, overthrow European power, and install a Bengali administration over the whole island. In the end, the plan never came to fruition. As described by British officer Sir Stamford Raffles:
He further stated that this revolt would ultimately have led to the reestablishment of Hinduism in Java and the expulsion of European power
The Sunan of Surakarta took an avid interest in the Hindu sepoys, and would attend Pooja with the Bengalis, who prayed to Javanese idols which likely had not seen worship in centuries. He would also allow them to take part in his court, and use his facilities for worship and training.
British order of battle
Stopford's fleet on his arrival on 9 August to assume command of the expedition, consisted of the following ships, dispersed around the Javanese coast: