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Willem Arnold Alting | |
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 Portrait byFriedrich Tischbein, 1788 | |
| Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies | |
| In office 1 September 1780 – 17 February 1797 | |
| Preceded by | Reynier de Klerck |
| Succeeded by | Pieter Gerardus van Overstraten |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1724-11-11)11 November 1724 |
| Died | 7 June 1800(1800-06-07) (aged 75) Batavia, Dutch East Indies (present-dayIndonesia) |
Willem Arnold Alting (11 November 1724 – 7 June 1800) was a Dutch colonial administrator who served asGovernor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1780 to 1797.
Born inGroningen, Alting studied in his hometown and graduated in law. He left on 18 October 1750 for theEast Indies on board theDe Middelburg as anonderkoopman (underbuyer or undermerchant) for theDutch East India Company (VOC). He spent the rest of his life in the Indies. In 1754 he becamekoopman (buyer or merchant) and in 1759 First Secretary to the government. In 1763 he became Counsellor-extraordinary (Buitengewoon Raad) and in 1772 full Counsellor (Raad ordinaris). In 1777, he became First Counsellor (Eerste Raad) was named Director-General.[citation needed]
From March 1780 he was acting Governor-General, because of the sickness of his predecessor,Reynier de Klerck. Following the death of De Klerck, on 1 September 1780, he was chosen by theDutch Council of the Indies as provisional Governor-General. He carried on this function for seventeen years.[citation needed]
De Klerck had wanted to bring the use ofDutch into the educational system, but Alting revoked this in 1786, so thatMalay andPortuguese were once again used. Alting's term of office was marked by a steep decline of the Dutch East India Company and its power in the Indies.
Three months after he took up post, theNetherlands went to war withGreat Britain (in the 1780–1784Fourth Anglo-Dutch War) and a great part of the territory of Dutch East India Company was occupied by the British. The government inBatavia (Jakarta) did not, on the whole, offer much resistance. Following the1784 Peace of Paris, Britain obtained the right to unhindered trade in the East Indies. The Dutch had to cedeNegapatam in India to the British. The image of the Dutch in the eyes of the local rulers was thoroughly shattered.[citation needed]
From the Netherlands, three Commissioners-General were sent to work with Alting to reorganise. On the way there, one of them died and Alting managed to get his son-in-lawJohannes Siberg to take his place. The Alting-Siberg duo dominated the Commission and, from the reports of one of the other Commissioners, it seems they worked very hard in their own interests. The Commission cost a lot of money but brought no improvement. In 1795, it became known in Batavia that their homeland (in the meantime having become theBatavian Republic) was once again at war with Great Britain.
On 17 February 1797, Willem Arnold Alting resigned as Governor-General and Commissioner-General and handed the post over toPieter Gerardus van Overstraten. Alting remained as an ordinary citizen, without official position, living on his estate atKampong Melajoe near Batavia. He died there on 7 June 1800.[citation needed]
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