On a hot August afternoon in 1811, an army of 10, 000 British redcoats splashed ashore through the muddy shallows off Batavia (the former name of Jakarta, Indonesia`s capital) to conquer the Dutch colony of Java. They would remain there for five turbulent years. Drawing on both British & Javanese archival sources, this entertaining & highly readable narrative history-cum-biography explores the bloody battles & furious controversies that marked British rule in Java, & reveals the future founder of Singapore, Thomas Stamford Raffles
- long celebrated as a hero, a liberal & a visionary
- in a shocking new light, showing how he crushed dissent, looted palaces & incited massacres to further his own insatiable ambitions. The book features the dramatic Battle of Batavia, the sinister British expedition to Palembang, the 1812 sacking & looting of Yogyakarta, & various fights between soldiers & civilians, buffaloes & tigers, & Englishmen & Javanese.