Fort Marlborough is a legacy of British rule in the country. Especially in Bengkulu, Sumatra. The fortress was founded by the East India Company (EIC) in 1714–1719 under the leadership of Governor Joseph Callet as a bastion of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Built on an artificial hill, its position faces the city of Bengkulu, with its back to the Indian Ocean.
The fort was a very strong defensive base in the British Bencoolen, the Britain's second strongest stronghold in the East, after Fort St. George in Madras, India. The name Fort Marlborough refers to the name of the Duke of Marlborough I who at that time became a hero in the Anglo-French war.
From historical point of view, Bengkulu Province deserves to be remembered as the first British colony in the archipelago. The British arrived in Bencoolen, the British name of Bengkulu, to set up a stronghold in 1685 as their base of operation to extract the spices form the archipelago, making it then Bengkulu among “the spice routes of British” in the East linking the network of British ports before reaching the buyers in the West (https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/content/what-are-spice-routes).
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Three Tombs of British Servicemen at the front.
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This fort was once burned by the people of Bengkulu; so the residents
fled to Madras. They then returned in 1724, after a treaty was
concluded. In 1793, another attack was launched. In this incident, a
British officer, Robert Hamilton, was killed. A few years later, 1807,
resident Thomas Parr and his assistant Charles Murray also died. To
commemorate the services of both, the British government erected
monuments in the city of Bengkulu. As the final resting place, three old
tombs were made at the front of the fort.
Covering an area of 44,100 meters², the fort still looks sturdy and elegant, clean and well-maintained. Standing 8.5 meters above sea level. Its size is 240 x 170 m, facing to the south and back to the
Indian Ocean. The height of the walls varies, from 8.00 to 8.50 meters, with a thickness of 1.85 to 3.0 meters. The defense of the fort consisted of 72 cannons.
The architecture is similar to a turtle, there is a
bridge connecting the head and body, a bridge over the moat that forms
the tail and the bridge that connects the entrance to the outside. First
third of this bridge can be raised and lowered. Until now the outer
boundary wall is still visible in the form of trenches.
Inside the fort there are several rows of buildings with triangular roofs. The building has a terrace with rows of iron pillars. This building consisted of a detention room, armory, offices, several cannons, bunkers, tunnels along a 6 m wide and 2 m. In the center there is a large field the size of half a football field that serves as an inner courtyard.
As is typical of British forts, the outside of the fort is surrounded by an artificial moat. If you look at the architectural design, the performance of this fort is symmetrical, especially when viewed from the air. Fort Marlborough was once the headquarters of the East Indian Company, a British trading company. At that time they controlled the Bengkulu black pepper commodity trading system. Spices that were very important at that time they got to be brought to the Great Britain.
When Britain and the Netherlands clashed over the territory, the fort was overthrown through the London Treaty, March 17, 1824.In the agreement, the Netherlands was represented by Hendrik Fagel and Anton Reinhard Falck, while the UK was represented by George Canning and Charles Watkins Williams Wynn. As a result, the Dutch handed over Malacca and the Malay Peninsula including Penang, plus Singapore as a small island with no man's land, to the British. Meanwhile, Britain (Britain) handed over its factories in Bengkulu, Fort Marlborough and all of its ownership on the island of Sumatra to the Dutch.
Source : http://majalahpeluang.com
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