Banten
Banten is the westernmost province on the island of Java, Indonesia. Its capital city is Serang and its largest city is Tangerang. The province borders West Java and the Special Capital Region of Jakarta on the east, the Java Sea on the north, the Indian Ocean on the south, and the Sunda Strait on the west and shares a maritime border with Lampung to the west. The province covers an area of. It had a population of over 11.9 million in the 2020 census, up from about 10.6 million in 2010. The estimated mid-2024 population was 12,431,390, still increasing by about 106,000 people per year. Formerly part of the province of West Java, Banten was split off to become a separate province on 17 October 2000.
The northern half has recently experienced rapid rises in population and urbanization, and the southern half has a more traditional character but an equally fast-rising population.
Present-day Banten was part of the Sundanese Tarumanagara kingdom from the fourth to the seventh centuries AD. After the fall of Tarumanegara, it was controlled by Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms such as the Srivijaya Empire and the Sunda Kingdom. The spread of Islam in the region began in the 15th century; by the late 16th century, Islam had replaced Hinduism and Buddhism as the dominant religion in the province, with the establishment of the Banten Sultanate. European traders began arriving in the regionfirst the Portuguese, followed by the British and the Dutch. The Dutch East India Company, VOC, finally controlled the regional economy, gradually weakening the Banten Sultanate. On 22 November 1808, Dutch Governor-General Herman Willem Daendels declared that the Sultanate of Banten had been absorbed into the Dutch East Indies. This began the Bantam Residency, 150 years of direct Dutch rule. In March 1942, the Japanese invaded the Indies and occupied the region for three years before their August 1945 surrender. The region was returned to Dutch control for the next five years before the Dutch left and it was ruled by the Indonesian government. Banten became part of the province of West Java, but separatist efforts led to the creation of the separate province of Banten in October 17, 2000.
Etymology
The name "Banten" has several possible origins. The first is from the Sundanese phrase katiban inten, which means "struck down by diamonds". The phrase comes from the history of the Bantenese people, who were animists before adopting Buddhism and Hinduism. After Islam began to spread in Banten, the community began to recognize and embrace Islam. The spread of Islam in Banten is described as being "struck down by diamonds".Another origin story is that the Indonesian Hindu god Batara Guru traveled from east to west, arriving at Surasowan. When he arrived, Batara Guru sat on a stone which became known as watu gilang. The stone glowed, and was presented to the king of Surasowan. Surasowan was reportedly surrounded by a clear, star-like river, and was described as a ring covered with diamonds. This evolved into "banten".
Another possibility is that "Banten" comes from the Indonesian word bantahan, because the local Bantenese people resisted the Dutch colonial government. The word "Banten" appeared before the establishment of the Banten Sultanate as the name of a river. The high plains on its banks were called Cibanten Girang, shortened to Banten Girang. Based on research in Banten Girang, the area has been settled since the 11th and 12th centuries. During the 16th century, the region developed rapidly towards Serang and the northern coast. The coastal area later became the Sultanate of Banten, founded by Sunan Gunung Jati, which controlled almost all of the former Sunda Kingdom in West Java. Sunda Kelapa was captured by the Dutch, and Cirebon and the Parahiyangan region were captured by the Mataram Sultanate. The Banten Sultanate was later converted into a residency by the Dutch.
History
Early history
During the fifth century, Banten was part of the kingdom of Tarumanagara. The fourth-century Lebak inscription, discovered in 1947 in a lowland village on the Cidanghiyang River in, contains two lines of Sanskrit poetry in the Pallawa script which describes life in the kingdom under the reign of Purnawarman. The kingdom collapsed after an attack by Srivijaya, and western Java became part of the Sunda Kingdom. In the Chinese Chu-fan-chi, written around 1225, Chou Ju-kua wrote that Srivijaya ruled Sumatra, the Malay peninsula, and western Java during the early 13th century. Chu-fan-chi identified the port of Sunda as strategic and thriving, with pepper from Sunda among the highest quality. The population were made up of farmers, and their houses were built on wooden poles. Robbery, however, was common.According to Portuguese explorer Tome Pires, Bantam was an important early-16th-century port in the Kingdom of Sunda along with the ports of Pontang, Cheguide, Tangaram, Calapa and Chimanuk. In 1527, as the Portuguese fleet arrived off the coast, newly-converted Javanese Muslims under Sunan Gunungjati captured the port of Banten and the surrounding area from the Sundanese and established the Sultanate of Banten. According to Portuguese historian João de Barros, Banten was the center of the sultanate and a major Southeast Asian port. The town of Banten was in the middle of the bay, about across. It was 850 fathoms in length. A river, navigable by junks, flowed through the center of the town; a small tributary extended to the town's edge. The present-day river is smaller, and only navigable by small boats. A fortress near the town had brick walls seven palms thick. Armed, wooden defence buildings were two stories high. The town square was used for military activities and folk art, with a market in the morning. The palace was on the south side of the square. Next to the palace is a tall, flat-roofed building known as Srimanganti, which was used by the king to meet his subjects. West of the square is the Great Mosque of Banten.
Colonial era
When the Dutch arrived in Indonesia, the Portuguese had long been in Banten. The English established a factory in Banten, followed by the Dutch. The French and the Danish also came to trade in Banten. In the competition among European traders, the Dutch emerged victorious. The Portuguese left Banten in 1601 after their fleet was destroyed by the Dutch off the coast during the Dutch–Portuguese War.In 16th century, Chinese junk ships regularly traded with Jambi, Patani, Siam and Cambodia. Local Muslim women who dealt in the cloth trade willingly married Han Chinese men in Palembang and Jambi and also local Muslim women in Banten married Han Chinese men. The Han Chinese men usually converted to Islam to please their Muslim wives.
Although the Dutch won the war, they preserved the Banten Sultanate. The maritime sultanate relied on trade, and the pepper monopoly in Lampung made the Banten authorities intermediaries. The sultanate grew rapidly, becoming a commercial center. As sea trade increased throughout the archipelago, Banten became a multi-ethnic region. Assisted by the British, Danish and Chinese, Banten traded with Persia, India, Siam, Vietnam, the Philippines, China and Japan. The reign of Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa was the sultanate's height. Under his reign, Banten had one of the strongest navies in the region, built to European standards with help from European shipbuilders and attracted Europeans to the sultanate. To secure its shipping lanes, Banten sent its fleet to Sukadana and conquered it in 1661. Banten also tried to escape the pressure of the Dutch East India Company, which had blockaded incoming merchant ships.
A power struggle developed around 1680 between Ageng Tirtayasa and his son, Abu Nashar Abdul Qahar. The disagreement was exploited by the VOC, who supported Haji and causing a civil war. Strengthening his position, Haji sent two envoys to meet King Charles II of England in London in 1682 to obtain support and weapons. In the ensuing war, Ageng withdrew from his palace to Tirtayasa ; on 28 December 1682, the region was seized by Haji with Dutch assistance. Ageng and his other sons, Pangeran Purbaya and Syekh Yusuf from Makassar, retreated to the southern Sunda interior. On 14 March 1683, Sultan Ageng was captured and imprisoned in Batavia.
The VOC continued to pursue and suppress Sultan Ageng's followers, led by Prince Purbaya and Sheikh Yusuf. On 5 May 1683, the VOC sent Lieutenant Untung Surapati and his Balinese troops, joining forces led by VOC Lieutenant Johannes Maurits van Happel to subdue the and Dayeuhluhur regions; on 14 December 1683, they captured Sheikh Yusuf. Heavily outnumbered, Prince Purbaya surrendered. Surapati was ordered by Captain Johan Ruisj to pick up Purbaya and bring him to Batavia. They met with VOC forces led by Willem Kuffeler, but a dispute between them destroyed Kuffeler's forces; Surapati and his followers became fugitives from the VOC.
Lampung was given to the VOC on 12 March 1682 by Sultan Haji as compensation for the company's support, and a 22 August 1682 letter gave the VOC the province's pepper monopoly. The sultanate also had to reimburse the VOC for losses caused by the war. After Sultan Haji's death in 1687, the VOC's influence in the sultanate began to increase; the appointment of a new sultan required the approval of the governor-general in Batavia. Sultan Abu Fadhl Muhammad Yahya ruled for about three years before he was replaced by his brother, Pangeran Adipati. The civil war in Banten left instability for the next government, due to dissatisfaction with the VOC's interference in local affairs. Popular resistance peaked again at the end of the reign of Sultan Abul Fathi Muhammad Syifa Zainul Arifin. The sultan sought VOC assistance against the rebellion, and Banten became a vassal state of the company in 1752.
In 1808, at the peak of the Napoleonic Wars, Governor-general Herman Willem Daendels ordered the construction of the Great Post Road to defend Java from British attack. Daendels ordered the sultan of Banten to move his capital to Anyer and provide labor to build a port in Ujung Kulon. The sultan defied Daendels' order, and Daendels ordered an attack on Banten and the destruction of Surosowan Palace. The sultan and his family were held in the palace before their imprisonment in Fort Speelwijk. Sultan Abul Nashar Muhammad Ishaq Zainulmutaqin was then exiled to Batavia. On 22 November 1808, Daendels announced from his Serang headquarters that the sultanate had been absorbed into the Dutch East Indies. The sultanate was abolished in 1813 by the British after the invasion of Java. That year, Sultan Muhammad bin Muhammad Muhyiddin Zainussalihin was disarmed and forced to abdicate by Thomas Stamford Raffles; this ended the sultanate. After the British returned Java to the Dutch in 1814 as part of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814, Banten became a residentie of the Dutch East Indies.