The 1848 Batavia incident generated documents citing treason and communist intrigue.

Evidence

Here, in 1848, the included documents reached low and deep onto the streets of Batavia and far to the outskirts of the city where soldiers were ready with arms. There are those between the Assistent Resident of Batavia and its Resident, the Resident and the Governor-General, the Governor-General and the Minister of Colonies, and the Minister of Colonies and the Netherlands’ King. But many other forms of communication swept across Batavia over that month: petitions, letters, and announcements that placed the threat of European treason, communist influence, Indo-European revolt, revolution in Europe, and state concerns over the political potential of outraged “parental feel- ings” at the heart of administrative fears and on virtually every page. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 96

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Relevant to 1848 revolutionary dynamics and colonial administration’s fear of contagion from Europe.

Related

• The 1848 Batavia demonstration spawned conflicting multi-level reports and phantasmic speculation (similarity 0.87)
• Colonial secrets were often public to people on the ground in Batavia (similarity 0.78)