Dark history of the Netherlands in Aceh

On April 8, 1873, colonial forces, around three thousand people, actually set foot on land for the first time. The commander's war plan, Major General GM Köhler, is simple. Someone will set up a base near the mouth of the Aceh River and then advance to the Kraton, fortified sultan's palace in Banda Aceh, as well as the "capital city". If someone had it, then in the eyes of the Dutch Indian Army (officially called the Dutch East Indies Army, KNIL) was officially named the Dutch East Indies Army in 1933, Akeh would surrender automatically, but KNIL did not know exactly where the palace was. April 1873 on reinforcement which was considered previously, it turned out not to be a palace, but missigit (mosque), which was maintained very hard, missigit was burned and conquered at the expense of heavy losses. Leaving the reinforcer, because according to him the troops were too tired to defend them, the missigit was immediately re-occupied by the Acehnese, an unusual return to the colonial war, Köhler forced the building complex to be recaptured three days later at the expense of heavy losses. He himself was a victim of this error: standing in position, Köhler was beaten and killed by a bullet (April 14, 1873).

The so-called "Köhler tree"

The tree, called the "waringin", entered history as the "Köhler tree" by the death of the commander. Next to the tree there is a strong guarded mosque. Here the progress of the Dutch troops stopped. The mosque has a wall of 65 centimeters thick. And he was given additional barriers and fences. What initially seemed easy, turned out to be a difficult job. The building was raided twice, and was only captured four days later. More than one hundred people died.

A moment that was very discouraging for the troops. His successor, Colonel Van Daalen, blew up the expedition. Of 4500 men, 56 were killed and 430 were injured. On April 25, 1873, the KNIL left Aceh, the proposal failed, the First Aceh war was lost (Kohler boom)