From the 15th century to the 17th century, driven by both economic and political interests, European fleets began to explore the ocean, and colonialism and free trade emerged with the opening of new shipping routes. In 1619, Dutch colonists occupied the Indonesian region of Jakarta and renamed it Batavia.
Because of the lack of labor, the Dutch colonial authorities lured Chinese from all over Nanyang, many of them from Fujian, Guangdong and other places.
The courage to open up the nature and the habit of hard work have enabled the Chinese to develop rapidly in the local area and gradually consolidate their economic position. This growing influence was seen as a threat to the rule of the colonists. At the end of the 17th century, the colonial authorities issued immigration bans against the Chinese. Since then, it has become increasingly demanding, and all but the "useful talents" deemed by the authorities are repatriated.
By 1740, the decline of the sugar industry, a large number of Chinese unemployment, affecting social stability. Since most of the criminals arrested by the police were "Tang people in black shirts", the colonial authorities went so far as to order all Chinese wearing black clothes and black pants to be arrested and exiled to Ceylon and other places to work as coolies.
At that time, there were rumors that the coolies who got on the ship would be thrown into the sea, which was confirmed by some Chinese who escaped from the sea. In order to protect themselves, some Chinese who were unwilling to sit still fled outside the city under the leadership of Huang Ban and others to prepare for self-defense.
However, because of the betrayal of the traitor Lin Chu, on October 9, the colonial authorities searched and slaughtered the Chinese who were still in the city, and the old and weak women and children could not escape the poison. The massacre lasted for a week, and in just a few days from the 9th to the 12th, more than 10,000 Chinese people were killed in Batavia, and only more than 150 people escaped by chance, and the property damage could not be estimated. The Chinese outside the city eventually failed to attack the city due to the disparity in strength, and had to retreat to Central Java, and the battle lasted until 1743.
The History of the Colonization of the Chinese Nation in Nanyang records: "... Old and young women and children, all anointed with dutch axes. The blood flow was poured, the river was red, and the killing stopped until the twenty-second day (lunar calendar). More than 10,000 people died, and the so-called Battle of the Red River was also. ”
It is also said that there is a river near the place of the incident called Red Creek, so it is also called "Red Creek Massacre".
Even the colonial authorities, later had to admit that "this is the most horrific thing that has ever happened to the city of Batavia, and perhaps to mankind all over the world".
After the massacre, the Dutch government and the colonists feared that the Qing government would retaliate against the economic interests of trade between the Netherlands and China, so they sent envoys to China while removing Adriaan Valckenier, then governor of the Dutch East India Company, from his post and imprisoned.
At the same time, the governor of Fujian, Celen and The Viceroy Wang Jun, received a message that the fold played to Qianlong contained "The murdered Han people have lived in Fandi for a long time, abandoned themselves as kings, and now they have been killed many people. These words show that in the bureaucratic government at that time, overseas Chinese were still regarded as foreigners.
In the fifty-sixth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1717), he issued an edict to the overseas Chinese to return to China and grant a general amnesty; in the first year of yongzheng (1723), the people were also allowed to trade abroad, but they were guaranteed to return to China, the so-called "grace of forgiveness". Since the overseas Chinese "abandoned themselves as kings," being slaughtered was "self-inflicted."
What was the attitude of the emperor at that time, Qianlong, who best flaunted the martial arts of Wenzhi?
After a long discussion, the opinion of the whole court was that the overseas Chinese who were killed were all sinners who abandoned the motherland and were not worth seeking justice for them.
"If the land is born, it is no different from the people... There is no need to blame the pilgrimage. "The Heavenly Dynasty abandoned the people, did not hesitate to betray the tombs of their ancestors, and went abroad to seek profits, and the imperial court did not pay any attention to them." Meaning, they deserve it.
At that time, it was the so-called Qianlong prosperous era, and it should be able to protect overseas Chinese. Arrogant, such as the Netherlands and Spain, they are afraid of China. However, since the Qing Dynasty regarded overseas Chinese as outcasts, it naturally could not talk about protection.
In fact, the Qing government did not have a single word of condemnation for the murderer.
At that time, there were two opinions, one was that the Dutch were good at killing, "afraid of disturbing merchant ships in the future, please ban the Nanyang merchants, only to be afraid", and requested to ban trade; the opposition opinion was that the prohibition of overseas trade affected fiscal revenues - at that time, The Southeast Asian trade was mainly monopolized by the emperor and the big merchants.
Ironically, the two sides of the argument were only glued to the prohibition of trade with the Dutch, and no one cared about the more than 10,000 expatriates who had been killed.