Forced Cultivation Background: Goals, Rules, Conditions

Background to Cultivation: Objectives, Rules, Main Provisions and Impacts – On this occasion About Knowledge.co.id will discuss the background of forced cultivation and of course about other things that also surround it. Let's take a look at the discussion in the article below to better understand it.

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Background of Cultivation: Purpose, Rules, Main Provisions and Their Impact

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Forced cultivation or often known as cultuurstelsel is one of the Dutch colonial policies that had a huge impact on the Indonesian nation.

Forced Cultivation is a regulation issued by Governor General Johannes Van den Bosch in 1830 which requires each village to set aside a part of its land (20%) to be planted with export commodities, especially coffee, sugar cane, and tarum (tilapia). These crops will be sold to the colonial government at a fixed price and the harvest will be handed over to the colonial government.

Villagers who do not own land have to work 75 days a year (20%) on government-owned gardens which are a kind of tax. In practice, the regulation could be said to be meaningless because all agricultural areas must be planted with export-worthy crops and the results were handed over to the Dutch government.

Areas used for cultuurstelstel practices are still subject to tax. Residents who do not own agricultural land are required to work for a full year on agricultural land.

Cultivation was the most exploitative era in the economic practice of the Dutch East Indies. This forced cultivation system was much harsher and crueler than the VOC monopoly system because there was a target for state revenue that the government desperately needed.

Farmers who in the VOC era were obliged to sell certain commodities to the VOC, now have to plant certain crops and at the same time sell them at a price set to the government. It was these forced investment assets that contributed greatly to capital in the golden age of the liberal Dutch East Indies colonialism from 1835 to 1940.

Forced cultivation was a policy that forced the inhabitants of the Dutch East Indies to grow export commodities. These plants must then be sold to the Netherlands at a certain price, not to other parties.

Villagers who did not own land had to work in gardens owned by the Dutch government or other landlords. These residents are treated like cheap laborers with poor working conditions.

With this high production of export commodities, the Dutch government hopes to sell them on the European market at high prices.

This program aims to generate money for the Dutch state to support colonialism in the Dutch East Indies and the prosperity of its people. With this much money, the Dutch government was able to pay its debts, build infrastructure, and expand its colonial empire.

Forced Cultivation (cultuurstelsel) is a system or regulation implemented by the Dutch colonial government for the population to plant crops. certain products that are very salable in the international market and their crop products must be submitted to the Dutch colonial government through the intermediary of the authorities local.

During this forced cultivation system, residents were obliged to plant various crops including sugar cane, coffee, tea, and indigo because these plants have a very high selling value, especially in the market Europe. In addition, this system also regulates the land tax system that must be paid in the form of local residents' produce.

This system is a combination of the VOC system implemented in West Java, with the land tax system. This system was the result of a policy issued by Van den Bosch, who at that time served as Governor General of the Dutch East Indies.

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Background to the Implementation of the Cultivation System

The Dutch war with Prince Diponegoro was one of the causes of the Cultivation policy. In general, the background to the implementation of forced cultivation by the Dutch in Indonesia was because the country needed money to pay its debts in order to avoid bankruptcy. This very high Dutch debt is caused by several things, including:

• In Europe, the Netherlands was involved in the wars of Napoleon's heyday, which cost him a lot of money.
• The Belgian war of independence ended with the separation of Belgium from the Netherlands in 1830.
• The occurrence of the Diponegoro war (1825 to 1830) which was the most expensive colonial people's resistance for the Netherlands. The Diponegoro War cost ± 20,000,000 guilders.
• The Dutch state treasury was empty and the debt borne by the Dutch was enormous.
• The income from coffee cultivation is not much.
• Cessation of export crop production during the land lease system.
• Failure after practicing the liberal ideas of 1816 to 1830 in exploiting the colonized lands to provide the colonies with large profits for the mother country.
• The rebellion of many Indonesian independence fighters in various regions of the archipelago
• The practice of trading and monopolizing spices and coffee in the archipelago did not generate enough money for the Dutch
• Where the atmosphere of government between the years 1816-1830 in Java, many failed to generate profits and coffers for the mother country.
• Where the Dutch trade and shipping through the company N.H.M (Nederlansche Hwendels Maatschappij) which was founded in 1824 experienced a decline. The company handled trade, shipbuilding, and providing credit to other parties with a view to rebuilding the Dutch economy.

These factors also played a major role in destroying the Dutch economy. The country that initially controlled Asian trade, became one of the trading centers of Europe, and had a very stable economic system was heavily in debt.

At that time, the Dutch treasury was insufficient to maintain its colonies in Indonesia and the highly dispersed Caribbean region. In addition, the country was also unable to set aside funds for rebuilding after the war.

This lack of cash was caused by the Belgian revolution where they wanted independence from the Netherlands. Belgian rebels supported by the French army managed to defeat the Netherlands and was recognized as an independent country by European countries. Finally, the Netherlands admitted defeat and also ratified the independence of Belgium through the London treaty.

In addition, the Dutch also fought a lot in their colonies against the rebels. Especially, the rebellion initiated by Prince Diponegoro.

The country had to spend a lot of money paying mercenaries, hiring local troops, and paying local kings to quell rebellions.

The Dutch colonial empire that should have made a lot of money, according to the motto of gold, glory, gospel, actually spent a lot of money. In fact, Indonesia is very rich in Natural Resources, both biological and non-biological.

Therefore, we need a source of income that can quickly generate money and provide income for the Dutch state.

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The Basic Provisions of the Cultivation System

The main provisions of the forced cultivation system in Indonesia are regulated in the Dutch State Gazette (Staatsblad) No. 22 of 1834. The regulation reads:

• Residents are required to plant one-fifth of their land with crops required by the government.
• The land is exempt from land tax claims.
• The land will be worked for one fifth of the year (66 days in a year)
• All investment risks are borne by the government.
• The results from this mandatory crop must be transported by themselves to the factory and compensated by the government.
• The excess of the required results will be fully reimbursed by the government.
• The time for planting this obligatory crop should not be longer than the work of planting rice.
• Those who do not own land will be required to work on government-owned plantations for more than 60 days.

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The Purpose of Establishing the Cultivation System

In general, the main purpose of the implementation of the forced cultivation system by the Dutch in Indonesia was to fill the Dutch state treasury. In detail, the following are some of the objectives of establishing this system of forced cultivation in Indonesia:

• Filling the empty Dutch state treasury
• Rebuilding infrastructure in the war-torn Netherlands
• Raising funds to strengthen the army and colonial rule in the Dutch East Indies and the Caribbean
• Paying the debts owned by the Dutch because they had to fight the rebellion of the Indonesian freedom fighters

We can conclude that at that time, the Netherlands was on the verge of bankruptcy because many misfortunes had struck. To avoid bankruptcy, this country forced Indonesia as one of its colonies to work hard to pay off its debts.

This is done by forcing the Indonesian people to grow spices and other export commodities. Then, this commodity will be controlled by the Dutch with a monopoly scheme, so that only they can buy and resell to the European market.

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Forced Cultivation Rules

The basic rules of forced cultivation are contained in the Staatblad (State Gazette) of 1834 No. 22 which was legalized several years after the forced cultivation was carried out. There are several rules in the sheet which include:

Agreements will be made with the residents for them to provide a portion of their land for growing export crops that can be sold on the European market.
The agricultural land provided by the residents should not exceed one fifth of the agricultural land owned by the villagers.
The work required to grow these crops should not exceed the work required to grow rice crops.
The land provided by the residents is free from land tax.
The results of these plants were handed over to the Dutch East Indies government; If the estimated price exceeds the land tax that must be paid by the people, then the excess is given to the residents.
Harvest failure that is not the fault of the farmers, will be the responsibility of the government
Those who do not own land, will be employed on plantations or government-owned factories for 65 days each year.

In general, if we observe, these regulations do not seem too burdensome and detrimental to the people of the Dutch East Indies.

We can see that the land provided is no more than one fifth of the land belonging to the villagers. This means that farmers can still cultivate crops as normal because only 1/5 of the land is used for forced cultivation.

In addition, crop failures will also be borne by the government so as to reduce the burden on farmers. Landless people would also be employed in Dutch plantations, thus creating job opportunities for the unemployed.

Lands allocated to Cultuurstelsel are also exempt from land tax. Thus, reducing the burden that needs to be borne by farmers. However, the reality of the implementation of forced cultivation in Indonesia at that time was not as beautiful as these regulations.

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Impact of the Cultivation System

The following are two (2) impacts of the forced cultivation system, including:

• For the Netherlands

For the Netherlands includes several impacts, as follows:

• • The increase in export crops from colonial countries and sold by the Dutch on the market in Europe.
  • The Dutch shipping company, which initially collapsed after the forced cultivation, got a bigger profit.
  • The sugar factory which was originally provided by the Chinese private sector was later also developed by the Dutch.
  • The Netherlands has a huge advantage in slots. The first profit of forced cultivation in 1834 was 3 million guilders, the following year it was about 12 million to 18 million guilders.

• For Indonesia

For Indonesia there are impacts, as follows:

• • Negative impact
    • Poverty and prolonged physical and mental suffering.
    • Agriculture, especially rice, experienced many crop failures.
    • Hunger and death occur everywhere, as happened in Cirebon 1834 as a result of the harvest
    • additional tax in the form of rice. In Demak (1884) and in Grobogan (1849 to 1850) as a result
    • crop failure.
    • Indonesia's population is declining.
    • Heavy tax burden.
  • Positive impact
    • Indonesian people are familiar with the technique of growing new types of plants.
    • The people of Indonesia began to recognize export-oriented trading plants.

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