Fort Marlborough (Indonesian Benteng Marlborough, also known as Malabero) is a former

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sou ...

fort located in Bengkulu City,

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

. It was built between 1713-1719 by the

under the leadership of Governor Joseph Collett as a defensive fort for the British East India Company's

Residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgrad ...

there. It was one of the strongest British forts in the eastern region, second only to Fort St. George in

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, India.

Building

The fort is made of bricks 50 to 180 centimeters in thickness. The

2000 Enggano earthquake The 2000 Enggano earthquake struck at 23:28 local time on June 4 with a moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (''Strong''). The event occurred off the coast of southern Sumatra, Indonesia near Enggano Island. There were m ...

, which registered 7.9 on the

moment magnitude scale The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pa ...

, and of 2007, with its 3.5-meter

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

, had no effect on the strongly built fort. The fort has a rectangular layout, with an arrowhead-shaped bastion on each corner. The entrance to the fort is in the southwest, protected by a

ravelin A ravelin is a triangular fortification or detached outwork, located in front of the innerworks of a fortress (the curtain walls and bastions). Originally called a ''demi-lune'', after the ''lunette'', the ravelin is placed outside a castle ...

. A dry moat follows the trace of the fort. A wooden bridge spans the ditch that separates the main building from the front building. The southwest side has an arch entrance with a wooden door. The fort encompasses 2.7 hectares, and stands on a site of 4.4 hectares.

History

COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Een drietal Europese vrouwen gekleed in sarongs met op de achtergrond Fort Marlborough te Benkoelen TMnr 60042951

The British

built the fort between 1713–1719. In 1714 Governor Collett obtained permission to build a new fort in Bencoolen. He named the new fort, which he built two miles from an older fort (

Fort York Fort York (french: Fort-York) is an early 19th-century military fortification in the Fort York neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The fort was used to house members of the British and Canadian militaries, and to defend the entrance of t ...

), Fort Marlborough. The fort was built on an artificial hill, and construction, using both convict and local labor, took several years to complete. During that period, the civil officers and the military garrison were divided between the old and the new fort. In April 1715 Governor Collett sent a copy of the plan of the first Fort Marlborough; the plan showed that the fort was walled with earth ramparts and ditch, with gun platforms on the bastions. The pace of construction was slow. In 1760, during the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...

, a French squadron under the command of

Charles Hector, Comte d'Estaing Jean Baptiste Charles Henri Hector, comte d'Estaing (24 November 1729 – 28 April 1794) was a French general and admiral. He began his service as a soldier in the War of the Austrian Succession, briefly spending time as a prisoner of war of th ...

took the fort and used it as a base to attack and subdue other British settlements on the west coast of Sumatra. Before returning to the

Mascarenes The Mascarene Islands (, ) or Mascarenes or Mascarenhas Archipelago is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of the islands belonging to the Republic of Mauritius as well as the French department of Réunion. Thei ...

, he ransomed the fort back to the British. At one time, the native people of Bengkulu burned the fort, forcing the inhabitants to flee to Madras. They returned in 1724 after an agreement was reached. In 1793, another attack on the fort occurred, killing one British officer, Robert Hamilton. Another attack happened in 1807, killing a resident, Thomas Parr. Both are commemorated with monuments in Bengkulu City erected by the British colonial government. The monument to Parr is southeast of the fortress. The British transferred Bengkulu, then known as Bencoolen, to Dutch control under the

Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, also known as the Treaty of London, was a treaty signed between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in London on 17 March 1824. The treaty was to resolve disputes arising from the execution of the Anglo-D ...

, which defined British and Dutch spheres of influence. In exchange, the Dutch ceded

Malacca Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has bee ...

to Britain and gave up their designs on the British settlement of

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. In 1837, the fort had about 60 Dutch soldiers occupying it. The Japanese occupied the fort during their occupation of the Dutch East Indies (1942–1945). Then, during the

Indonesian National Revolution The Indonesian National Revolution, or the Indonesian War of Independence, was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during postwar and postcol ...

period, the fort housed the headquarters of the Indonesian national police until the Dutch reoccupied the fort. When the Dutch left Indonesia in 1950, the

Indonesian Army The Indonesian Army ( id, Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Darat (TNI-AD), ) is the land branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. It has an estimated strength of 300,000 active personnel. The history of the Indonesian Army has its ...

took over the fort. In 1977, the fort was handed over to the then Department of Education and Culture to be restored and converted into a heritage site.

Gallery

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Uitzicht op zee vanaf het fort te Benkoelen TMnr 10002079.jpg File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Een drietal Europese vrouwen gekleed in sarongs met op de achtergrond Fort Marlborough te Benkoelen TMnr 60042951.jpg File:COLLECTIE_TROPENMUSEUM_%27Fort_%27Marlbourough%27_te_Benkulen_op_Sumatra%27_TMnr_10002140.jpg File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM De binnenkant van fort Marlborough in Bengkulu TMnr 60014515.jpg File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Het fort Marlborough in Benkulu TMnr 60014456.jpg File:Bencoleen Sumatra.png File:Bengkulu City and Fort Marlborough.jpg File:Front gate of Fort Marlborough, Bengkulu 2015-04-19 01.jpg File:Front_gate_of_Fort_Marlborough,_Bengkulu_2015-04-19_02.jpg File:The_Gate_of_Fort_Marlborough.jpg File:Fort marlborough 1.jpg File:Interior of north-east gate, Fort Marlborough, 2015-04-19 01.jpg File:Interior of north-east gate, Fort Marlborough, 2015-04-19 02.jpg File:Cannon at Fort Marlborough, Bengkulu 2015-04-19 02.jpg File:Cannon at Fort Marlborough, Bengkulu 2015-04-19 04.jpg File:Cannon_at_Fort_Marlborough,_Bengkulu_2015-04-19_01.jpg File:Cannon_and_Lamp_at_Fort_Marlborough,_2015-04-19.jpg File:Fort Marlborough Bengkulu.jpg File:Sukarno_interrogation_room,_Fort_Marlborough,_2015-04-19.jpg File:Gravestone of Richard Watts at Fort Marlborough, Bengkulu 2015-04-19.jpg File:Clock at Fort Marlborough, 2015-04-19.jpg

References

{{Coord, -3.787093, 102.251848, display=title category:bengkulu (city) Buildings and structures in Bengkulu Marlborough Cultural Properties of Indonesia in Bengkulu Tourist attractions in Bengkulu British rule in Indonesia 1714 establishments in the British Empire

Building

History

Gallery

See also

References