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‘Negotiations in Bismarckian Style’: The Debate on the Aceh War and its Legitimacy, 1873–18741
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 June 2011
Extract
During a parliamentary debate in April 1874, the Dutch conservative politician Nierstrasz made this provocative statement on the war in Aceh. He was supported by the former conservative Minister of Foreign Affairs, Van Zuylen van Nijevelt, who dismissed the negotiations held with Aceh on the basis of a strict ultimatum condescendingly as ‘negotiations à la Bismarck’, and unworthy of a Dutch statesman. Nierstrasz maintained the Dutch were pursuing a ‘utilitarian’ policy in Aceh which they would abominate seeing implemented on themselves in Europe. The Aceh War was a disgrace to a Christian nation. Furthermore, the moral issue put forward by the Dutch authorities: that the state of Aceh was guilty of piracy and slavery, was no more than a pretext.
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