The History Of Jayakarta

Jakarta is the largest city of Indonesia and may be ranked as one of the world’s metropolis. It is the chief city of the country and covers an area of about 592 square meters. Tanjung priok, its harbour, is the largest one in the country and was built in 1877.

A lot of people know that before it was given its present name, Jakarta, this town was originally named Sunda Kalapa, the after Jayakarta and later Batavia. But most likely only few people know that Jakarta is actually an expansion of the Sunda Kalapa Port, that lies in the northern part of what is now known as “downtown kota”. It seems that not many people are anxious to know why this town has changed name so many times.

The oldest historical record about Jakarta is the inscription on the “Tugu Prasasti”, which is related to the four other ancient “prasastis” found in Java. These “prasastis” are of the period of the Purnawarman rule, king if Tarumanegara, the oldest Sunda kingdom. The “Tugu Prasasti” is very important because of it being the only written information that describes the location and borders of Jakarta in the fifth century.

The “Tugu Prasasti” is the first Hindu monument in Java. It is believed that this monument which has been buried for almost one thousand and four hundred years in a village called Batu Tumbuh near the “Gereja Tugu” in northern Jakarta was first located at what was formerly the turning corner of the river Cakung. The place where the “prasasti” used to be is now covered with asphalt, causing this monument to have lost its historical value. In 1911, this “prasasti” the oldest historical monument about Jakarta was moved to the National Museum in the center of Jakarta.
From the inscribed stone at Batutulis, Bogor, we learn that the location of the chief city of Sunda kingdom, Pakuan Pajajaran, was at Batutulis, now a suburb of Bogor. Its main port was Sunda Kalapa that is now situated in the north of the Kota District.

Sunda Kalapa at that times was a magnificent trading port. Merchants and cargo vessels anchored at this port. They not only came from Sumatra, Palembang, Tanjung Pura, Makasar and Madura but also from Malacca, India South China, Japan and many other overseas places. Merchandise from the whole kingdom came to this port. It was an administered port and has judges and clerks.

The first European ships that anchored at this port came from Portugal in about 1513. On November 13, 1596 Dutch ships under Admiral C. de Houtman came to the port. On January 8, 1509 the first English ships under the command of Captain William Keeling anchored at the port on their way to the Moluccas.

Between 1525-1526 Hasanudin and Falatehan supported by about 2.000 soldiers from Cirebon captured Banten. This success was followed with the capture of Sunda Kalapa in November 1526. Since then Sunda Kalapa was under the control of Banten authority.
In 1550, Jayakarta, which means “the city of victory”, began to appear in historical documents. Not knowing that the ruler of the Pajajaran kingdom had changed, the Portuguese still mentioned the name Sunda kalapa in their documents until the middle of the 16th century. It is assumed that the name Jayakarta has been used after the capture of the port. There is no authentic documents that reveals the exact date or year of the changing from Sunda Kalapa to Jayakarta.

At the beginning of the 17th century, both Dutch and English merchants had trading post in Jayakarta. They jostled for power and exploited the existing intrigues between local rulers. Late in 1618, the Jayakartans backed by the British, tried to capture the Dutch Vereenigde Oost Indische Compagnie (VOC) fortress. Banten, upset by the illegal agreement between the British and the Jayakartan vassals sent a force to recall the Jayakartan leaders. The Dutch celebrated their temporary victory and renamed their fortress “Batavia” after an ancient Germanic tribe, the ancestors of the Dutch.

In may 1619, the Dutch, under Jan Pieterszoon Coen, stormed the town and reduced it to ashes. A stronger shoreline fortress was built and Batavia eventually became the capital of the Dutch East Indies. It was successfully defended on a number of occasions, first against Banten in the West and then Mataram in the East. Mataram’s Sultan Agung attacked Batavia in 1628, but the Javanese suffered enormous losses and finally withdrew after executing their failed commander. Agung’s second siege in 1629 was an even greater failure, and Batavia since then was freed from any Mataram military threats.

On October 9, 1740, 5.000 Chinese in habitants who lived within Batavia were killed in a violent and cruel way. A year later all Chinese inhabitants were moved to Glodok, outside the city walls. Other Batavians, discouraged by the severe epidemics happened between 1735 and 1780, moved to any direction and the city began to spread far south of the port. The Koningsplein, now Merdeka square, was finished in 1818, and the Merdeka palace in 1879. Kebayoran baru was the last residential are to be laid out by the Dutch after World War II.
The name of Jakarta is first mentioned in a Banten’s charter. It is the oldest Indonesian document that mentions the name Djakarta for Jayakarta. When the Dutch rule came to an end, the name Jakarta was given back to the city.