Editing Aceh (section)

=== Aceh War ===
{{Main|Aceh War}}

[[File:Generaal Kohler sneuvelt in de Mesigit.jpg|thumb|[[Johan Köhler|General Köhler]], commandant of Dutch troops, died from a shot by an Acehnese sniper during the first attack on Aceh.]]
Pirates operating from Aceh threatened commerce in the [[Strait of Malacca]]; the sultan was unable to control them. Britain was a protector of Aceh and gave the Netherlands permission to eradicate the pirates. The campaign quickly drove out the sultan but the local leaders mobilized and fought the Dutch in four decades of guerrilla war, with high levels of atrocities.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Nicholas Tarling |editor-link=Nicholas Tarling |title=The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia: Volume 2, the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pBfsaw64rjMC&pg=PA104 |year=1992 |publisher=Cambridge U.P. |page=104 |isbn=978-0-521-35506-3 |access-date=15 December 2015}}</ref> The Dutch colonial government declared war on Aceh on 26 March 1873. Aceh sought American help but Washington rejected the request.<ref name="ricklefs2001p185" />

The Dutch tried one strategy after another over the course of four decades. An expedition under Major General [[Johan Harmen Rudolf Köhler]] in 1873 occupied most of the coastal areas. Köhler's strategy was to attack and take the sultan's palace. It failed. The Dutch then tried a naval blockade, reconciliation, concentration within a line of forts, and lastly passive containment. They had scant success. Reaching 15 to 20 million guilders a year, the heavy spending for failed strategies nearly bankrupted the colonial government.<ref>E.H. Kossmann, ''The Low Countries 1780–1940'' (1978) pp&nbsp;400–401</ref> During the course of the war, the Dutch set up the [[Gouvernment of Atjeh and Dependencies]] under a governor, although it did not establish wider control of its territory until after 1908.

The Aceh army was rapidly modernized, and Aceh soldiers killed Köhler. Köhler made some grave tactical errors and the reputation of the Dutch was severely harmed. In recent years, in line with expanding international attention to human rights issues and atrocities in war zones, there has been increasing discussion about some of the recorded acts of cruelty and slaughter committed by Dutch troops during the period of warfare in Aceh.<ref>Linawati Sidarto, "Images of a grisly past", ''[[The Jakarta Post]]: Weekender'', July 2011 {{cite web |url=http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/06/23/grisly-images.html |title=Grisly Images &#124; the Jakarta Post |access-date=26 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110627150918/http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/06/23/grisly-images.html |archive-date=27 June 2011}}</ref>

Hasan Mustafa (1852–1930) was a chief ''penghulu'', or judge, for the colonial government and was stationed in Aceh. He had to balance traditional Muslim justice with Dutch law. To stop the Aceh rebellion, Hasan Mustafa issued a fatwa, telling the Muslim population there in 1894, "It is Incumbent upon the Indonesian Muslim to be loyal to the Dutch East Indies Government".<ref>Mufti Ali, "A Study of Hasan Mustafa's 'Fatwa: 'It Is Incumbent upon the Indonesian Muslims to be Loyal to the Dutch East Indies Government,'" ''Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society,'' April 2004, Vol. 52 Issue 2, pp 91–122</ref>