Lampung Province was
founded on March 18th, 1964 based on the Government Regulation No.3/1964, which
later to be converted to be Law No.14, 1964. Lampung used to be a resident
under the province of South Sumatera.
Although Lampung Province
before March 18th, 1964, was administratively a part of South Sumatera, Lampung
Province, just before Indonesia was declared independent, had shown a great
potential and had its own cultural pattern that could add to their repertoire of traditional culture in Indonesia.
Therefore, in the era of Dutch colony, Lampung region was not separated from
the target of Dutch colonist.
When Banten was under the command of Sultan Agung Tirtayasa (1651-1683), Banten managed to become a center of trade that competed with VOC(Vereenigde Ootindische Compagnie) in the waters of Java, Sumatera and Maluku. Sultan Agung in an effort to widen his territory experienced an obstacle attempted by VOC, which had entrenched in Batavia. The son of Sultan Agung Tirtayasa named Sultan Haji was entrusted to replace the position of his Banten sultanate crown.
The glory of Sultan Banten
hade made VOC angry. Therefore, VOC kept on trying to rule out Banten
Sultanate. In the end, VOC succeeded in persuading Sultan Haji to fight his
father Sultan Agung Tirtayasa. In his fighting against his father, Sultan Haji
asked VOC to back him up, promising that he would hand over his territory in
Lampung to VOC. Finally on April 7th, 1682, Sultan Agung Tirtayasa was forced
to step down and Sultan Haji was appointed Sultan Banten.
Of talks between VOC and
Sultan Haji, Sultan Haji issued a charter on August 27, 1682, that contained
among other things a clause saying that trade control of spices on Lampung
regency was handed over to VOC, which automatically gained a trade monopoly on
Lampung.
On August 29, 1682, a
convoy of VOC’s armada and Banten dropped anchor in Tanjung Tiram. The armada
was headed by Vander Schuur who showed a credential from Sultan Haji. Vander
Schuur’s first attempt turned out to be fruitless and he didn’t get spices that
he looked for. It seemed that the direct trade between VOC and Lampung failed
because not all possessors in Lampung did obey Sultan Haji who was allied with
VOC. Even, Lampung possessors still recognized Sultan Agung Tirtayasa as Sultan
Banten.
Meanwhile, VOC doubted if
Lampung was under the command of Sultan Banten. Only then did VOC know that the
command over Lampung was not absolute.
Placement of Sultan Banten’s
representative in Lampung often mentioned as “Jenang” or sometimes called
Governor was only done in order to take care of pepper trades. In fact, Lampung
rulers spread over the remote villages and towns called “Adipati”. Hierarchically, Lampung rulers were not under direct command
of Governor. So, Sultan Banten’s command on Lampung was only on coastal areas
to monopolize the flow of agricultural products, especially pepper. It was
clearly understood that Banten-Lampung relationship was only to help each other
in terms of trade.
When
Raffles ruled in 1811, he occupied Semangka area and did not want to hand over
Lampung to Dutch colonist because Raffles thought that Lampung was not a Dutch’s
colonial area. Only after Raffles had left Lampung, was Dutch Resident appointed
for Lampung.
In
1817, the position of Radin Inten was
stronger; therefore, the Dutch colonist felt worried and sent a small
expedition headed by Assistant Resident resulting in an agreement that:
1. Radin Inten received financial
support from Dutch amounting to f 1.200 a year.
2. Radin Inten’s brothers got
respectively f.600 a year.
3. Radin Inten was not allowed to
enlarge his territory except villages in his command.
However, this agreement was
not obeyed by Radin Inten and he still fought Dutch. Because of this, Dutch
ordered Leliever to catch Radin inten but he succeeded in killing Leliever and
his troops. Dutch did not do anything about the death of Leliever, as it was
busy fighting Diponegoro (1825-1830). In
1825, Radin Inten passed away and was replaced by his son Radin Imba Kusuma.
After Diponegoro war was
over in 1930, Dutch attacked Radin Imba Kusuma in Semangka region, then in 1833
Dutch also attacked the fort of Radin Imba Kusuma but failed to occupy it. Only
in 1834, after Assistant Resident was replaced by Dutch military officer, was
Radin Imba Kusuma’s fort successfully occupied.
Radin Imba Kusuma had to
run away to Lingga region but was arrested by Lingga residents and handed over
to Dutch, which then isolated Radin Imba Kusuma in Timor Island.
Meanwhile, the people of
Lampung in remote areas still fought Dutch which later used subtle tactics by
giving out prizes to leaders of the people of Lampung who fought Dutch but to
no avail. Not feeling safe, Dutch formed mercenary soldiers
consisting of Lampung people themselves to protect Dutch’s interest in Teluk
Betung and its surroundings. Radin Inten II, a son of Radin Imba Kusuma still
continued to fight Dutch colonist. In the end, Radin Inten II was arrested and
killed by Dutch troops who came from Java to catch Radin Inten II.
Since then, Dutch started
to step his foot in Lampung. Such plantations as coffee, rubber, tobacco and
palm oil ware developed. In 1913, to support deliveries of plantation products,
Dutch had railways built from Telukbetung to Palembang.
Toward the era of
Independent Day on August 17th, 1945, and post period of physical fighting,
Lampung youth participated and felt how bitter it was to fight against cruel Dutch
colonization. As mentioned earlier that in 1964 Lampung Residence was upgraded
to become first level province of Lampung.
Source: lampungprov.go.id
