The Zenith and Decline of the V.O.C., 1684–1799

In 1684, when Governor-General Speelman died and was succeeded by the scholarly and unwarlike Johannes Camphuys (1684–91), the Dutch Company was a political force in Java. The sultans of the two most important states, Mataram and Bantam, had been placed on their thrones by its troops and owed it vast sums of money by way of war costs. With both rulers the Dutch had concluded agreements which apparently made them pliable clients of the Company. Quite apart from the indirect control which was thereby implied, the Dutch now possessed a belt of territory stretching across the island from Batavia southward to the opposite coast, thus completely separating the territories of the two states.

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