One of the causes of the war was Governor-Generalvan Imhoff's humiliation of Prince Mangkubumi, the younger brother of Pakubuwana II of Surakarta's, by demanding the lease of the Javanese northern coast for an annual payment of 20,000 reales. Van Imhoff and Patih Pringgalaya then persuaded Pakubuwana II to cancel the grant of a fief in Sukawati (now Sragen) which had been promised to Mangkubumi as a reward for defeating Raden Mas Said's rebellion there in 1746. In response, Mangkubumi left Surakarta and rose up against the Dutch East India Company and Pakubuwana II joined forces with his nephew and former enemy, Raden Mas Said.[1]
War and settlement
In the midst of the Mangkubumi rebellion in 1749, Pakubuwana II fell ill and asked Johan Andries, Baron Van Hohendorff to assume control over the kingdom. Van Hohendorff requested written confirmation. On 11 December 1749, Pakubuwana II signed an agreement in which the "sovereignty" of Mataram was given to the Dutch East India Company. They installed a powerless puppet, Pakubuwana III, on the throne. Mangkubumi, who considered himself to be the rightful heir to the throne, demanded the title of ruler. The people of Mataram, who called him Hamengkubuwono, regarded him as the true ruler of Mataram.[2]
After years of battles including at Grobogan and Demak, the Dutch under de Clerck suffered a crushing defeat at the Bogowonto River. Governor-General Mossel entered peace negotiations with Hamengkubuwono. Eventually in 1755 the Treaty of Giyanti was concluded, named after the place east of Surakarta where the negotiations took place. The Kingdom of Mataram was divided between the two warring parties. The old capital of Kartasura, which after years of fratricidal war had come to be thought of as doom-laden, was abandoned. Pakubuwana III became ruler of the eastern part of Mataram [(Kasoenanan Solo or Surakarta) (1750–1788)], and built a new kraton in Surakarta. Hamengkubuwono became Sultan Hamengkubuwono I, reigning over the western half of Mataram, and north of Kartasura built his new kraton at Yogyakarta (Kasultanan Yogyakarta) (1755–1792). He also gave Mas Said a south-eastern part of Mataram as the 'princely state' of Mangkunegara (1757–1796), where he ruled as Mangkunegara I and built his own kraton near Surakarta.[3][4]
References
^Ricklefs, M. C. (2018). Soul catcher: Java's fiery Prince Mangkunagara I, 1726–95. Asian Studies Association of Australia. Singapore. ISBN978-981-325-069-7. OCLC1062361413.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Putten, Jan van der; Kilcline Cody, Mary, 1961- (2009), Lost times and untold tales from the Malay world, NUS Press, ISBN978-9971-69-454-8{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - chapter of Founding of Surakarta
^Pemberton, John (1994), On the subject of "Java", Cornell University Press, ISBN978-1-5017-2936-2