Java Expedition

The Java Expedition established the British in control of Java from 1811 to August 1816, with Stamford Raffles as its Lieutenant Governor. [Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor By Keat Gin Ooi Contributor Keat Gin Ooi Published by ABC-CLIO, 2004; ISBN 1576077705, ISBN 9781576077702; p. 937] [British India - From Queen Elizabeth To Lord Reading. By An Indian Mahomedan Contributed by Theodore Morison, 1926 republished by READ BOOKS, 2007; ISBN 1406751480, ISBN 9781406751482; pp. 81, 82, 83, 84]

Around 1807, Napoleon I of France, after having deposed his brother Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland, had ordered General Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen to Mauritius and the Dutch Marshal Herman Willem Daendels to Java to improve the defences of those territories against possible British incursion.

In March 1810, Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 1st Earl of Minto at that time Governor-General of Bengal, succeeded in seizing Bourbon (Reunion). Admiral Bertie's attack on Mauritus, however, was not successful against the forces placed there by Decean. Lord Minto entrusted 10,000 men to Sir John Abercrombie who subdued Decean and his forces and Mauritus passed into British hands.

Lord Minto now set his sights on Java which was held by a large garrison of Dutch and French-led officers, led by General Jan Willem Janssens, who had succeeded Marshal Daendels. Lord Minto assigned Stamford Raffles to gather intelligence about the island and its people, the object of which was to determine whether there were sufficient resources, human and financial, to carry out a successful expedition there.

The Java Expedition represented, at that time, the largest force to have been issued from India, with 12,000 men, 57 transports, and over 40 warships. On June 11, 1811, the armada left Malacca and by August 4th of that year, the entire fighting force was anchored at Batavia. 3,000 men had been lost to illness.

General Samuel Auchmuty commanded the military troops and found himself facing a strongly fortified opponent at Cornelis. The opposing forces were made up of 17,000 men and 280 guns. The battle began in earnest two days after landing on the island. On September 18, Janssens surrendered.

Others involved

*William Robert Broughton
*Archibald Seton
*Commodore Sir John Hayes
*Captain G.P. Baker
*H.C. Cornelius

ee Also

*The Life of Sir Stamford Raffles By Demetrius Charles Boulger, Demetrius Charles de Kavanagh Boulger Published by H. Marshall, 1897; CHAPTER IV THE JAVA EXPEDITION; pp. 83-88

References