Blora Residency () was an administrative division (

Residency Residency may refer to: * Artist-in-residence, a program to sponsor the residence and work of visual artists, writers, musicians, etc. * Concert residency, a series of concerts performed at one venue * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or m ...

) of

Central Java Central Java (, ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogya ...

province of the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

with its capital at

Blora Blora () is a regency in the northeastern part of Central Java province in Indonesia. Its capital is the town of Blora. The regency is located in the easternmost part of Central Java and borders the Bengawan Solo River and the East Java pr ...

, which existed between 1928 and 1931. It was significantly larger than the present-day

Blora Regency Blora () is a regency in the northeastern part of Central Java province in Indonesia. Its capital is the town of Blora. The regency is located in the easternmost part of Central Java and borders the Bengawan Solo River and the East Java provin ...

, as it also contained

Grobogan Regency Grobogan Regency () is a regency () located in northeastern part of the Central Java province in Indonesia. Created on 4 March 1726, the Grobogan Regency has an area of 2,023.84 km2, and is the second largest regency in the Central Java Prov ...

and Purwodadi.

History

This region was part of the

Demak Sultanate The Demak Sultanate () was a Javanese Muslim state located on Java's north coast in Indonesia, at the site of the present-day city of Demak. A port fief to the Hindu-Buddhist Majapahit kingdom thought to have been founded in the last quarter o ...

in the sixteenth century; after its decline the

Mataram Sultanate The Sultanate of Mataram () was the last major independent Javanese people, Javanese kingdom on the island of Java (island), Java before it was Dutch Empire, colonised by the Dutch. It was the dominant political force radiating from the inte ...

came to claim it. As the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

(VOC) became a greater presence in Java in the seventeenth century, they allied themselves with Mataram in exchange for trade and territorial concessions; they eventually came to control most of the northern coast of central Java including

Semarang Semarang (Javanese script, Javanese: , ''Kutha Semarang'') is the capital and largest city of Central Java province in Indonesia. It was a major port during the Netherlands, Dutch Dutch East Indies, colonial era, and is still an important regio ...

and the region around

. After 1817 when the Dutch reorganized Java into Residencies, the western part of this region became part of

Semarang Residency Semarang Residency () was an administrative subdivision (Residency (administrative division), Residency) of the Dutch East Indies located on the northern coast of Central Java and named after its capital city Semarang. It existed from 1818 to 1942, ...

and the eastern part became a part of Rembang Residency. Blora Residency was created as a result of the 1925 Decree on the Administrative Organization which allowed for the subdivision of existing residencies in the Indies. However, it took time to implement and was not put in place in Central Java province () until 1928. The new Blora Residency consisted of two Regencies,

and

, and the seat of the residency was in the small city of

. Its population in 1928 was estimated to be 827,847, roughly 98% of whom were

Native Indonesians Native Indonesians, also known as ''Pribumi'' () are Indonesians whose ancestral roots lie mainly in the archipelago and consist of various ethnic groups, predominantly of Austronesian and Melanesian descent. In contrast are Indonesians of know ...

, around 1 percent

Chinese Indonesians Chinese Indonesians (), or simply ''Orang Tionghoa'' or ''Tionghoa'', are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Chinese Indonesians are the fourth largest community of Overseas Chinese in th ...

. During its existence the Residency had only two Residents. The first was Willem Ferdinand Dirk Philips (from 1 July 1928 to 2 June 1930), who had been Assistant Resident of Blora Regency before the Residency was created. The second was Jan Habbema (from 2 June 1930 to 1931), the former Resident of Rembang. The Residency was also used as a unit of measure in the 1930 Census. At that time its population was estimated to be 932,164. Blora Residency was abolished in 1931 when the Indies government restructured the Residencies in Java once again; its western part became part of Semarang Residency, and its western and northern part became a part of the new Djapara-Rembang Residency.

References

{{Reflist Residencies of the Dutch East Indies 20th century in Central Java Serang basin