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The 1740 Batavia massacre was a pogrom against ethnic Chinese in the port city of Batavia in the Dutch East Indies. The violence inside the city lasted from 9 to 22 October 1740. Unrest in the Chinese population had been triggered by government repression and reduced income from falling sugar prices prior to the massacre. In response, at a meeting of the Council of the Indies, Governor-General Adriaan Valckenier declared that any uprising was to be met with deadly force. His resolution took effect on 7 October after hundreds of ethnic Chinese, many of them sugar mill workers, killed 50 Dutch soldiers. The Dutch dispatched troops who confiscated all weapons from the Chinese populace and placed the Chinese under a curfew. Two days later, after being frightened by rumours of Chinese atrocities, other Batavian ethnic groups began burning Chinese houses along Besar Stream and Dutch soldiers launched an assault using cannons on Chinese homes. The violence soon spread throughout Batavia, killing more Chinese. Although Valckenier declared an amnesty on 11 October, gangs of irregulars continued to hunt and kill Chinese until 22 October, when Valckenier called more forcefully for a cessation of hostilities. Historians have estimated that at least 10,000 ethnic Chinese were massacred. (more...)
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