The Second Bone WarThomas Gibson, ''And the Sun Pursued the Moon: Symbolic Knowledge and Traditional Authority Among the Makassar'' (University of Hawaii Press, 2005), pp. 200ff. was fought from 20 February 1859 until 20 January 1860 between the forces 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 ...

and the Kingdom of Bone."The Netherlands–Bone War of 1859–1860", in Meredith Reid Sarkees and Frank Whelon Wayman, ''Resort to War: A Data Guide to Inter-state, Extra-state, Intra-state, and Non-state Wars, 1816–2007'' (CQ Press, 2010), pp. 231–32 On 16 February 1858, the king of Bone, Ahmad Saleh, died and was succeeded by his widow, Basse Arung Kajuara. The new queen ordered Bone ships to fly the Dutch flag upside down, an act of deliberate provocation. The Dutch mounted a punitive expedition in response under General C.P. C. Steinmetz. Command of Bone troops was entrusted to Ahmad Singkarru Rukka Aru Palakka, the estranged brother-in-law of the late king.Thomas Gibson, ''Islamic Narrative and Authority in Southeast Asia: From the 16th to the 21st Century'' (Springer, 2007), p. 117. The Dutch sent a fleet from

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

Makassar Makassar ( ), formerly Ujung Pandang ( ), is the capital of the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, ...

to embark troops, which were then landed at Bajoe. On 19 February 1859, a small squadron detached from the main fleet to reconnoiter the Cenrana river, the northern boundary of Bone, and punish the villages along its banks.Sirtjo Koolhof and Roger Tol
"The Delight of the Dutch ''Compagnie'': On the ''Toloqna Musuq Boné'' by Daéng ri Aja"
''Jambatan'' 11, 3 (1993), pp. 99–108. At the same time, against heavy resistance, the Dutch troops marched inland and seized the capital,

Watampone Watampone is a town in South Sulawesi province of Indonesia and the capital of Bone Regency. Known colloquially as ''Bone'', it has a land area of 126.35 km2 and had a population of 149,336 at the 2020 Census;Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021. t ...

. The queen fled. Following an outbreak of cholera, the Dutch withdrew in April, leaving only a small garrison behind.J. A. de Moor, "Warmakers in the Archipelago: Dutch Expeditions in Nineteenth Century Indonesia", in ''Imperialism and War: Essays on Colonial Wars in Asia and Africa'' (Brill, 1989), pp. 60–61. In the aftermath, Ahmad Singkarru Rukka was accused of treason for an insufficiently robust defence and fled to Barru. There he made a deal with the Dutch to raise an army of

Bugis The Bugis people, also known as Buginese, are an Austronesian ethnic groupthe most numerous of the three major linguistic and ethnic groups of South Sulawesi (the others being Makassarese and Torajan), in the south-western province of Sula ...

from Sinjai to attack Bone. In return, he would receive

Kajang Kajang is a city in Hulu Langat District, Selangor, Malaysia, located southeast of Kuala Lumpur. Kajang, along with much of Hulu Langat District, is governed by the Kajang Municipal Council. Kajang town is located on the eastern banks of the L ...

and Sinjai as fiefs from the Dutch after the war. Since their garrison had been decimated by disease, the Dutch landed a second larger expedition under General Jan van Swieten on 28 November 1859. They quickly seized the coastal forts and marched on Watampone, joined by Rukka's native contingent 1500 strong. Again the queen fled to Soppeng, but this time Bone representatives surrendered on 20 January 1860. The war had resulted in about 500 deaths on each side. The Dutch installed Ahmad Singkarru Rukka as the new king with the throne name Ahmad Idris. He signed a new treaty on 13 February that reduced Bone from a sovereign state allied with the Netherlands to a feudatory and turned over Sinjai, Kajang and

Bulukumba Bulukumba Regency is a Regency (Indonesia), regency in the southeast corner of South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. It covers an area of 1,175.53 km2, and had a population of 394,757 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 4 ...

. A Buginese named Daeng ri Aja from the village of Pampanua wrote a poem about the war, ''Toloqna Musuq Bone'' ("Poem on the Bone War"), shortly after the events. It was published at Makassar in 1862 by Benjamin Frederik Matthes of the Dutch Bible Society, who described it as a "Bugis heroic poem on the first Bone expedition of 1859". It specifically deals with the Cenrana expedition of 1859.

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