Back Batavia ACE Batavia Afrikaans Betawi BEW Batavia (Niederländisch-Indien) German Batavia (Indias Orientales Neerlandesas) Spanish Batavia (Indes néerlandaises) French Batavia Frisian Batavia HAK Batavia ID Batavia (Indie orientali olandesi) Italian
Batavia | |
|---|---|
Former capital city (1619–1949) | |
| City Municipality of Batavia Stadsgemeente Batavia | |
| Other transcription(s) | |
| • Chinese | 勿礁維 (Traditional) 勿礁维 (Simplified) |
Kali Besar in 1938 Statue of Jan Pieterszoon Coen in front of Grote Huis building Aerial view of Batavia Zuid railway station | |
 Flag | |
| Motto(s): | |
 Map of Batavia, c. 1920 | |
| Territory | Dutch East Indies |
| Governorate | West Java |
| Residency | Batavia |
| Establishment | 30 May 1619 |
| Japanese occupation; renamed to Jakarta | 1942–1945 |
| Dutch re-occupation | 1946–1949 |
| Independence | 17 August 1945 |
| Government | |
| • Type | Gemeenteraad Batavia |
| • Mayor | G. J. Bisschop (first) Sastromoeljono (last) |
| Population (1920) | |
• Total | 253,800 |
1619–1949 | |
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Batavia was the capital of the Dutch East Indies. The area corresponds to present-day Jakarta, Indonesia. Batavia can refer to the city proper or its suburbs and hinterland, the Ommelanden, which included the much larger area of the Residency of Batavia in the present-day Indonesian provinces of Jakarta, Banten and West Java.
The founding of Batavia by the Dutch in 1619, on the site of the ruins of Jayakarta, led to the establishment of a Dutch colony; Batavia became the center of the Dutch East India Company's trading network in Asia. Monopolies on local produce were augmented by non-indigenous cash crops. To safeguard their commercial interests, the company and the colonial administration absorbed surrounding territory.
Batavia is on the north coast of Java, in a sheltered bay, on a land of marshland and hills crisscrossed with canals. The city had two centers: Oud Batavia (the oldest part of the city) and Weltevreden (the relatively newer city), on higher ground to the south.
It was a European colonial city for about 320 years until 1942, when the Dutch East Indies was occupied by Japan during World War II. During the Japanese occupation and after Indonesian nationalists declared independence on 17 August 1945, the city was known as Jakarta. It remained internationally known by its Dutch name until Indonesia achieved full independence in 1949, when the city was renamed Jakarta.