The Corts Foundation, in collaboration with the Arsip Nasional Republic Indonesia and Leiden University, has finally published 8,568 diplomatic letters to and from Batavia Castle from the 17th and 18th century on the website of Sejarah Nusantara. These letters were found in the archive series of Daily Journals of Batavia Castle (inv.nr. 2495-2623), and an additional series 'Incoming and Outgoing Missives from Indigenous rulers' (inv.nr. 3567-3593). A database was created to provide access to an index to letters that were send to and from Batavia. Also all the letters were mapped geographically and visualized in charts and maps. Additionally scans were made to complete the archive inventory numbers that contain diplomatic letters. 

For the first time we display a so far hidden collection of letters from mainly Indonesian sultans and radja’s. In fact, this is the biggest collection of archival materials originating from Indonesian rulers, only discovered in 2013 and a true historian's treasure. 

All diplomatic letters can be accessed here:
> [browse] > [search] > [rulers] > [locations] > [visualizations]

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Dr. Hendrik E. Niemeijer received a personal invitation from the Rector of Universitas Diponegoro, Prof. Dr. Yos Johan Utama, to attend the 58 Dies Natalis celebration on 15th October and receive a special Award for his contributions to the development of the Maritime & Global History curriculum at the Faculty of Humanities (FIB). After speeches by the Rector and the Minister of Home Affairs the tokens were distributed. Dr. Niemeijer would like to share this Award with all the colleagues in the Department of History and thank them for their warm support and hospitality.

On the photo Dr. Niemeijer stands next to other award winners, Bapak Sigit Pramono Ketua Perhimpunan Bank-bank Nasional (Perbanas, the Chairman of the Indonesian Banks Association) and the Dean of the Faculty of Law.

The Corts Foundation has concluded her first Senshi Sōsho project on September 21st with a publication in print and in Open Access by Leiden University Press of "The invasion of the Dutch East Indies".

This translation from the Japanese language covers the capture of the Dutch East Indies, resulting in the capitulation of the KNIL (the Royal Netherlands Indies Army) on Java. The translation is done by Dr. Willem Remmelink with a team of Japanese historians. On September 21st the first copy of the book was presented by the president of The Corts Foundation mr. Egbert Jacobs to the Dean of the Humanities Faculty of the University of Leiden Prof.dr. Wim van den Doel, in the presence of the Japanese Ambassador and other representatives from Japan, Indonesia and the Netherlands.

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In the DASA project by The Corts Foundation and the National Archives of Indonesia (ANRI, Jakarta) an important milestone has been reached and a new archival series has been published online. After the Daily Journals of Batavia also the Resolution books of the Castle of Batavia are available and accessible online now.

The Resolutions were created by the General Secretary of the Governnor-General the Council of Dutch Asia (the Supreme Government in the VOC’s headquarters in Asia: Batavia Castle) and chronologically recorded and stored.

All 330 volumes of 1613-1810 are digitalized in Jakarta by The Corts Foundation and ANRI the last year and currently available on the website of http://www.vocindonesie.nl via the overviewpage of this series. More than 232.000 scans have been added to the webste with the publication of this important series!

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