Bengkulu (city)

Bengkulu City (Indonesian: Kota Bengkulu; English historic name: Bencoolen, Dutch historic: Benkulen or Benkoelen) is a city on the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. It had a population of 308,756 at the 2010 Census, the latest estimate (for January 2014) is 328,827. The city is the capital and largest city of Bengkulu Province.

History

The British East India Company founded Bengkulu (named Bencoolen by the British), in 1685, as their new commercial center for the region. In the 1600s, the British East India Company controlled the spice trade in the Lampung region of southern Sumatra from a port in Banten, in the north west of the neighbouring island of Java. In 1682, a troop of the Dutch East India Company attacked Banten. The local crown prince submitted to the Dutch, who then recognized him as Sultan. The Dutch expelled all other Europeans present in Banten, leading the British to establish Bengkulu. In 1714, the British built Fort Marlborough at Bengkulu.

The trading center was never financially viable, because of its remoteness and the difficulty in procuring pepper. Despite these difficulties, the British persisted, maintaining a presence there for over a century, ceding it to the Dutch as part of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 to focus their attention on Malacca. Edmund Roberts, the first U.S. envoy to the Far East, visited Bengkulu in 1832. Like the rest of present-day Indonesia, Bengkulu remained a Dutch colony until World War II.

Ethnic Malays

Malays (Malay: Melayu, Jawi: ملايو) are an ethnic group of Austronesian peoples predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, eastern Sumatra and coastal Borneo, as well as the smaller islands which lie between these locations — areas that are collectively known as the Malay world. These locations today are part of the modern nations of Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and southern Thailand.

There is considerable genetic, linguistic, cultural, and social diversity among the many Malay subgroups, mainly due to hundreds of years of immigration and assimilation of various regional ethnicity and tribes within Maritime Southeast Asia. Historically, the Malay population is descended primarily from the earlier Malayic-speaking tribes that settled in the region, who founded several ancient maritime trading states and kingdoms, notably Brunei, Kedah, Langkasuka, Gangga Negara, Chi Tu, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Melayu and Srivijaya, and the later Cham and Austronesian settlers.

Bengkulu language

Bengkulu (Besemah, Pesemah), or Central Malay, is a Malayan language spoken on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, around the city of Bengkulu. It is more closely related to other Malay variants in Sumatra such as Col, Jambi Malay and Palembang Malay as well Minangkabau spoken in neighbouring West Sumatra than to Rejang, which is also spoken in the province.

References

Bengkulu

Bengkulu is a province of Indonesia. Located in the southwest coast of Sumatra, It borders the provinces of West Sumatra, Jambi, South Sumatra and Lampung. The province also includes Enggano Island. The capital and largest city is Bengkulu city.

The city was formerly the site of a British garrison, which they called Bencoolen.

History

The English East India Company established a pepper-trading center and garrison at Bengkulu (Bencoolen) in 1685. In 1714 the British built Fort Marlborough, which still stands. The trading post was never profitable for the British, being hampered by a location which Europeans found unpleasant, and by an inability to find sufficient pepper to buy. It became an occasional port of call for the EIC's East Indiamen.

Despite these difficulties, the British persisted, maintaining their presence for roughly 140 years before ceding it to the Dutch as part of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 in exchange for Malacca. Bengkulu remained part of the Dutch East Indies until the Japanese occupation in World War 2.

Bengkulu (disambiguation)

Bengkulu may refer to: