Chapter 147: East Indies War Part VIII - Batuata Bay and Malacca
Chapter 147: East Indies War Part VIII - Batuata Bay and Malacca
1706 in the East Indies War would be defined most by two battles: a naval clash at Batuata Bay between the Japanese-Tidorese and a broad opposing fleet of the anti-Bourbons and the siege of VOC-held Malacca, conducted by France and Siam against the Dutch whom were supported by Johori sultanate as well as the English and Portuguese. The former would take place on May 7th, 1706 as two fleets crossed paths just off the tiny island of Batuata, the Japanese-Tidorese fleet headed straight towards Javanese waters and the anti-Bourbon fleet into the Banda Sea. For the anti-Bourbons, this seemed like the last chance to prevent an enemy landing upon Java, particularly the ports of Dutch Batavia and English Bantam [1], as VOC naval power had been significantly diminished in the past few years at the hands of Yamamoto Rintatsu. This anti-Bourbon fleet contained many Portuguese ships as part of a series of reinforcements sent by Goa that had arrived in early 1706, with Portuguese commander Emanuel Silveira leading them under the broader leadership of future Dutch East Indies governor Hendrick Zwaardecroon. The anti-Bourbon fleet consisted of 40 ships, including Javanese vessels as well as the European warships of the VOC, EIC, and Portugal. Their enemy, Rintatsu’s fleet, meanwhile was composed of 30 Japanese vessels and 15 Tidorese vessels.
Although the Japanese naval commander had the larger fleet, he would fail to notice the enemy fleet before Zwaardecroon and Silveira noticed Rintatsu’s own fleet. This allowed the anti-Bourbon ships to prepare for battle formation in advance. Only at the last minute did Rintatsu see the enemy fleet and hastily alerted his own vessels to prepare for battle. They would spar inside the main bay of the island. Most of the Javanese vessels were kept in the reserve, while Anglo-Portuguese and Dutch-Javanese ships formed left and right wings respectively, with Silveira and Zwaardecroon leading their respective contingents. Meanwhile, Rintatsu led a broad main contingent on the center and left while Rintatsu’s younger brother Chujiro (山本忠次郎) commanded the smaller right wing. The swifter vessels of Tidore were intermixed with the larger hobayasen and Western-style warships of Japan.
Although the Japanese naval commander had the larger fleet, he would fail to notice the enemy fleet before Zwaardecroon and Silveira noticed Rintatsu’s own fleet. This allowed the anti-Bourbon ships to prepare for battle formation in advance. Only at the last minute did Rintatsu see the enemy fleet and hastily alerted his own vessels to prepare for battle. They would spar inside the main bay of the island. Most of the Javanese vessels were kept in the reserve, while Anglo-Portuguese and Dutch-Javanese ships formed left and right wings respectively, with Silveira and Zwaardecroon leading their respective contingents. Meanwhile, Rintatsu led a broad main contingent on the center and left while Rintatsu’s younger brother Chujiro (山本忠次郎) commanded the smaller right wing. The swifter vessels of Tidore were intermixed with the larger hobayasen and Western-style warships of Japan.
Green = Dutch, Yellow = Anglo-Portuguese, Salmon = Japanese, Blue = Tidorese
The better prepared anti-Bourbons immediately took the offensive, getting the better of the first hour of cannonfire exchanges. Due to Zwaardecroon’s and Silveira’s bigger ships being at the front of their lines, the Japanese suffered heavy losses early on. Nevertheless, Japanese-Tidorese morale remained steady with Rintatsu’s men deeply loyal to someone they saw as undefeatable. Ultimately, Rintatsu would remain so at the end of the battle, as his smaller hobayasen as well as Tidorese junks miraculously maneuvered around, striking at vulnerabilities in the enemy formation. It helped that few of the Javanese ships in the reserve came to the rescue, their captains largely cut off in terms of communications. A furious Zwaardecroon signaled to the reserves to move forward, finally forcing the Javanese to engage in the naval clash. These reinforcements allowed the Anglo-Portuguese contingent to overwhelm and push the Japanese right contingent, killing Chujiro in the process. However, the reverse occurred on the other side of the battle, and the Dutch-Javanese were forced to retreat from the bay. When this happened, Silveira and his ships followed, ceding the waters to Rintatsu. The Battle of Batuatu Bay, however, had been a Pyrrhic win for the Japanese-Tidorese, casualties so great that a grief-stricken Rintatsu would cancel the naval expedition and return to the Moluccas to recuperate and possibly pursue more tangible goals.
At the same time, the French and Siamese were concentrating their efforts on besieging Malacca, the most significant of the VOC’s possessions outside of Java that remained under their control. The siege had begun on April 30th after many of the Portuguese reinforcements had departed to join Zwaardecroon’s fleet, giving a Franco-Siamese fleet led by French admiral Claude de Forbin an opening to attack the port. This pro-Bourbon fleet would be reinforced by a few Spanish warships from Manila and together would decisively defeat the opposing anti-Bourbon fleet in Malaccan waters. The Bourbon-Siamese fleet began to blockade and bombard the fortifications and docks of the key VOC port. Simultaneously, a Siamese army under the command of Khun Ongkharaksa had begun to march towards Malacca and boldly crossed over the border into the territory of the Johor sultanate. This took place, however, against the expressed wishes of Johori sultan Abdul Jalil Shah IV who had been uninvolved in the conflict until this point. Caught by surprise by the sudden intrusion into his territory, he hastily assembled an army to confront the Siamese only for the latter to speed through the sultanate’s territory and reach Malacca, making camp and beginning a siege from the land.
Dutch Malacca in 1665
The initial success enjoyed by the French and Siamese, however, would not last. News of the Malaccan blockade would quickly spread, including to the battered fleet of Silveira and Zwaardecroon from the Battle of Batuata Bay. Warships least damaged, mostly those manned by the Portuguese, would be gathered along with a smattering of other European warships and indigenous vessels into a new fleet, this one primarily commanded by Emanuel Silveira, and set to embark to the rescue of the besieged Malacca. In Malacca itself, the Dutch-Johori garrison led by the port’s governor Karel Bolner withstood the besiegers from both sides, assisted by supply lines extending into Johori territory despite numerous attempts by the Siamese army to completely cut off the port from land. Ongkharaksa’s men themselves would be attacked in the rear by a sizable Johori army in June and although it managed to hold on and continue its siege, the casualties suffered undermined its ability to continue doing so. At sea, rather than conducting a full-scale assault upon the besieging Bourbon-Siamese fleet, Silveira ordered smaller contingents to sail and fire upon it at unexpected times. The anti-Bourbon tactics resulted in the French, Siamese, and Siamese besiegers getting grinded down from pure attrition. Eventually, their positions became untenable as supplies began to run out and both the fleet and land army retreated in August after it became clear that Malacca could not be held even if captured from the VOC.
The conflict was more subdued for the rest of the year, major actions taking place in secondary theaters like southern Dai Viet and Sulawesi. Siamese successes on the mainland in 1705 prompted Nguyen Phuc Chu to engage in a renewed offensive against his Trinh counterpart, accompanied by Japanese and Spanish troops. With over 25,000 men at his disposal, the Nguyen lord once again marched northwards, seeking to topple the Trinh lords once and for all. By now, however, cities in northern Dai Viet had seen their defenses strengthened and garrisons expanded by Hoi An. Additionally, Trinh Can authorized the deployment of several small armies that shadowed ahead and behind the path of Phuc Chu’s forces, prodding their foe through a series of small-scale raids and assaults and undermining the army’s supply lines. The Nguyen army was thus forced to retreat only a few months into the campaign as it began to succumb to mounting losses from said attacks and lack of supplies as well as disease. Elsewhere on the Indochinese mainland, Siam made small and steady gains in Lan Xang and Cambodia but not enough to decisively decide any of those theaters in favor of them.
Meanwhile, Japanese and Tidorese forces under Tsuda Nobushige and Alam Iskandar had turned towards taking out the Ternatan remnant on the island of Sulawesi, now nominally under the rule of the 14 year old Raja Guna. As the youngest son of the late Sibori Amsterdam, he had survived the subjugation of the rest of the sultanate and now represented the last hope of Ternate. The anti-Bourbons landed forces in Sulawesi in the spring of 1706, only to be immediately bogged down in the jungle terrain which still proved to be a challenge for Japanese troops that were more accustomed to open fields of battle. Furthermore, the Bone sultanate sent aid and reinforcements to bolster Raja Guna, undermining any effective means by which the Japanese or Tidorese could isolate holdout Ternatan forts and settlements. Like on many other fronts, this state of affairs would continue as a stalemate for months to come.
What became clear by the end of the year, however, was that both sides were becoming exhausted from the war. Siam and Dai Viet, the two contenders over the disputed succession of Lan Xang that had triggered the entire conflict in the first place, had chewed off more than they could. Both polities now faced unexpected and serious threats to their power close to home at the hands of a rebellious Cambodia for Siam and a resurgent Nguyen Phuc Chu for the Trinh lords. Despite its gains in the Moluccas, Japan’s involvement in the war had cost the realm as well, the expulsion of the VOC disrupting trade and hurting the commerce of major ports like Sakai and Kagoshima. The military occupation of Satsuma and Shuri in the Ryukyu Kingdom was straining Azuchi’s coffers, with the latter’s occupation also having been politically controversial at home and abroad in the courts of other Asian realms. All of this had fueled many daimyo and nobles to pressure Nobuie for a swift and satisfying end to the war and the urban councils of Sakai and Azuchi to petition the daijo-daijin in favor of a similarly swift conclusion to the conflict.
Portrait of Phra Pi, king of Siam
Trinh Can, the Trinh lord during the East Indies War
Outside of native powers, European colonial powers and trading companies were suffering as well due to the war disrupting trade throughout the region. This was especially the case for the Dutch Republic and its VOC, as they had lost significant territories in the Moluccas, access to Japanese markets, and influence over native kingdoms and sultanates in Southeast Asia. As a result, Dutch trade and revenue was being dealt a significant blow in a way that began to push Dutch leadership towards negotiating peace with the Bourbons despite the Republic’s ongoing successes against the French alongside the rest of the anti-Bourbon Grand Coalition in continental Europe. This, along with the financial strain other powers were experiencing and the calcification of the conflict, was rapidly pushing the East Indies War as well as the Bourbon Wars as a whole towards an inevitable peace and conclusion.
[1]: ITTL the EIC continues to maintain a large presence in Bantam due to the greater profitability of Southeast and East Asia.
