THE PEOPLE

 The Dutch

     The Balinese princes prospered and 'soon started out for new colonies, extending their influence to the East and conquering he neighboring islands of Lombok and Sumbawa. In 1510 the Portuguese adventurer Alphonso de Albuquerque discovered Sumatra and made voyages to the " Spice Islands " to procure valuable cargoes of pepper, cloves, and nutmeg, all the while fighting pirates, hostile Malays, and Javanese. In 1597 2 fleet of Dutch ships, headed by a former employee of the Portuguese, Cornelius Houtman, discovered Bali. He and his men fell in love with the island and made excellent friends with the kin a!9 good-natured fat man who had two hundred wives, rode in a. chariot drawn by two white buffaloes which he drove himself and owned fifty dwarfs whose bodies bad been distorted into resemblance of kris handles. After a long Sojourn in the island, some of the Dutch returned to Holland to report the discovery of the new " paradise ". others refused to leave Bali. The news created such a sensation in Holland that in 1601 the trader Herm skerk was sent to Bali with presents of all sorts for the king, who in turn presented him with a beautiful Balinese lady.

The relations between the Indies and Europe later were darkened by the appearance of the Dutch East India Company, an organization of merchants and traders whose goal was the unlimited exploitation of the islands. They promoted wars, seized lands, established monopolies of opium (if a native was caught selling opium he was put to death) . and collected revenues from the natives that were even greater than those exacted by the local princes. The traders used every possible means to gain the favors of the Raja in order to control Bali, bringing gifts to them of Persian horses, gilt chairs, red cloth, wines, brass candelabra, and so forth. Not meeting with much success, they resorted to political intrigue, selling arms to the enemies of the Balinese while Offering assistance against those they had armed, in exchange for concessions.

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Meantime the Balinese had completed the conquest of Lombok (1740). There the Dutch tried to influence the Balinese governors to become independent of Bali and join the " Honorable East India Company." After two centuries of ruthless operation the company, already bankrupt and decayed, attracted such unfavorable criticism that the Dutch Government was forced to assume control, and in 1798 the Dutch East India Company went into inglorious collapse.

In the following years trouble started for the Balinese; the sultan of Surakarta, in Java, ceded to the Dutch " rights " he did not have over Bali, but they took no steps to claim them. The Balinese princes recognized Dutch supremacy, but retained their local autonomy. In x 846 the question of the ancient right of the Balinese to confiscate the cargo of wrecked ships brought the first Dutch military expedition against North Bali, which, after a series of battles, ended in Dutch control over the northern states of Buleleng and Jembrana in 1882. The Balinese princes were made to sign a treaty in which piracy, slavery, and the exercise of shore rights were forbidden and in which they promised not to permit the establishment of any other European power in Bali.

In 1885 there was a rebellion of Sasaks, the vassals of the Balinese in Lombok, while in Bali internal wars broke out among the various Raja. Sasaks were brought to Bali and forced to fight During these wars the united states of Badung and Klungkung annexed Mengwi and they all turned against the troublesome Raja of Gianyar. The Sasak chiefs complained to the Dutch, asking to be freed from the tyranny of the Balinese princes. The Dutch were becoming alarmed at the friendly advances of the Balinese towards the English, and officials were sent to negotiate a peace. They were unsuccessful and even apologies demanded for insults to the envoys were refused.