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History of Bali
In antiquity there existed on Bali many different principalities, or princedoms. The first Dutchmen to set foot on the island were the brothers Cornelis and Frederik de Houtman, who arrived in 1597, although the island did not come under Dutch control until its gradual colonisation in the middle of the 19th century.
In the time of the Dutch East India Company, Bali was an independent Hindu kingdom with a long, warlike history. All the principalities were united under one prince, the sushunan, who settled in Klung-Klung. Because the coastline of Bali is so varied, contact with the East India Company was sporadic, and even then contact was only in connection with the slave trade.
The final, bloody subjugation happened in 1906, after the Balinese royalty in Badung (men, women, and children), committed mass-Puputan (suicide) by charging into enemy fire armed with nothing more than kris and klewang.
Of the nine royal houses, only three remained. The old Bali had conclusively been defeated.
Bali is now a part of the Republic |