- This article is about a historic kingdom on Java in what is now Indonesia. For the modern city on Lombok island, see Mataram (city).
Mataram was the last major independent Javanese empire on Java before the island was colonized by the Dutch. It was the dominant political force in interior Central Java from the late sixteenth century until the beginning of the eighteenth century.
The rise of Mataram
Mataram is the historic name for the area now occupied by the modern city of Yogyakarta, in south-central Java. Details in Javanese sources about the early years of the kingdom are limited, and the line is unclear between the historical record and the efforts of later rulers, especially Agung, to establish a long line of legitimate descent by inventing predecessors. However, by the time more reliable records begin in the mid-seventeeth century the kingdom was so large and powerful that most historians concur it had already been established for several generations.
According to Javanese records, in the 1570s Kyai Gedhe Pamanahan became the ruler of the Mataram area with the support of the kingdom of Pajang to the east, near the current site of Surakarta (Solo). Pamanahan was often referred to as Kyai Gedhe Mataram after his ascension.
Pamanahan's son, Panembahan Senapati Ingalaga, replaced his father on the throne around 1584. Under Senapati the kingdom grew substantially through regular military campaigns against Mataram's neighbors. Shortly after his accession, for example, he conquered his father's patrons in Pajang.
The reign of Panembahan Seda ing Krapyak (circa 1601-1613), the son of Senapati, was dominated by further warfare, especially against powerful Surabaya, already a major center in East Java. The first contact between Mataram and the Dutch East India Company (VOC) occurred under Krapyak. Dutch activities at the time were limited to trading from limited coastal settlements, so their interactions with the inland Mataram kingdom were limited, although they did form an alliance against Surabaya in 1613. Krapyak died that year.
Mataram under Sultan Agung
Krapyak was succeeded by his son, who is known simply as Sultan Agung (Great Sultan) in Javanese records. Agung was responsible for the great expansion and lasting historical legacy of Mataram due to the extensive military conquests of his long reign (1613-1646).
After years of war Agung finally conquered Surabaya. The city was taken not through outright military invasion, but instead because Agung surrounded it on land and sea, starving it into submission. With Surabaya brought into the empire, the Mataram kingdom encompassed all of central and eastern Java, and Madura; only in the west did Banten and the Dutch settlement in Batavia remain outside Agung's control. He tried repeatedly in the 1620s and 1630s to drive the Dutch from Batavia, but his armies had met their match, and he was forced to share control over Java.
In 1645 he began building Imogiri, his burial place, about fifteen kilometers south of Yogyakarta. Imogiri remains the last resting place of the royalty of Yogyakarta and Surakarta to this day. Agung died in the spring of 1646, with his image of royal invincibility shattered by his losses to the Dutch, but leaving behind an empire that covered most of Java and stretched to its neighboring islands.
Struggles for power
Upon taking the throne, Agung's son Susuhunan Amangkurat I tried to bring long-term stability to Mataram's realm, murdering local leaders that were insufficiently deferential to him, and closing ports so he alone had control over trade with the Dutch.
By the mid-1670s dissatisfaction with the king was turning into open revolt, beginning at the margins and creeping inward. Raden Trunajaya, a prince from Madura, lead a revolt fortified by itinerant fighters from faraway Makassar that captured the king's court at Mataram in mid-1677. The king escaped to the north coast with his eldest son, the future king Amangkurat II, leaving his younger son Pangeran Puger in Mataram. Apparently more interested in profit and revenge than in running a struggling empire, the rebel Trunajaya looted the court and withdrew to his stronghold in East Java leaving Puger in control of a weak court.
Amangkurat I died just after his expulsion, making Amangkurat II king in 1677. He too was nearly helpless, though, having fled without an army or treasury to build one. In an attempt to regain his kingdom, he made substantial concessions to the Dutch, who then went to war to reinstate him. For the Dutch, a stable Mataram empire that was deeply indebted to them would help ensure continued trade on favorable terms. They were willing to lend their military might to keep the kingdom together. Dutch forces first captured Trunajaya, then forced Puger to recognize the sovereignty of his elder brother Amangkurat II.
Mataram as Dutch client
By providing help in regaining his throne, the Dutch brought Amangkurat II under their tight control. Amangkurat II was apparently unhappy with the situation, especially the increasing Dutch control of the coast, but he was helpless in the face of a crippling financial debt and the constant threat of superior Dutch military power. The king engaged in a series of intrigues to try to weaken the Dutch position without confronting them head on; for example, the court sheltered people wanted by the Dutch for attacking colonial offices or disrupting shipping. By the end of his reign, Amangkurat II was deeply distrusted by the Dutch, but they were similarly uninterested in provoking another costly war on Java.
Amangkurat II died in 1703 and was briefly succeeded by his son, Amangkurat III. However, this time the Dutch believed they had found a more reliable client, and hence supported his uncle, who became Pakubuwana I upon his accession. The conflict between Amangkurat and Pakubuwana, the latter allied with the Dutch, the First Javanese War of Succession, dragged on for five years before the Dutch managed to install Pakubuwana.
With the installation of Pakubuwana, the Dutch substantially increased their control over the interior of Java. The last years of Pakubuwana's reign, from 1717 to 1719, were dominated by rebellion in East Java against the kingdom and its foreign patrons. Amangkurat IV took the throne in 1719, and, with Dutch help, was barely able to put down the rebellion.
The kingdom of Mataram was divided in 1755 under an agreement between the Dutch and rebellious prince Mangkubumi. The treaty divided nominal control over central Java between Yogyakarta, under Mangkubumi, and Surakarta, under Pakubuwana.
References
- Carey, Peter. 1997. Civilization on loan: the making of an upstart polity: Mataram and its successors, 1600-1830. Modern Asian Studies 31(3):711-734.
- Ricklefs, M.C. 2001. A history of modern Indonesia since c.1200. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804744807.
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