Dipo Negoro, Pangeran

Dipo Negoro, Pangeran (Prince)

(born c. 1785, Jogjakarta, Java—died Jan. 8, 1855, Macassar [Ujung Pandang], Celebes) Javanese leader in the 19th-century conflict known to the West as the Java War (1825–30). He was the son of the ruler of Jogjakarta, a sultanate created in 1755 by a Dutch treaty that dismembered the once-powerful Javanese kingdom of Mataram. Dutch land reforms undercut the economic position of the Javanese aristocrats, and Dipo Negoro became the aristocrats' leader against the Dutch. The Javanese saw him as a “just prince” come to save the people, and the conflict itself was seen as a Muslim holy war against the infidels. For three years Dipo Negoro's guerrilla forces had the upper hand, but the Dutch triumphed in the end. Dipo Negoro was arrested at the peace negotiations and died in exile.