The Newsletter 70 Spring 2015

New discoveries on Southeast Asia's maritime and diplomatic history 1600-1800

Hendrik E. Niemeijer

At the international conference of the Southeast Asia Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (SARBICA), 27 September 2013, the National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia launched a new website which gives online access to one of its most valuable collections: the archives of Batavia Castle, the former headquarters of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Since then, with a daily speed of 1,000 pages, a massive amount of information has become available on the website www.sejarah-nusantara.anri.go.id. A select group of international historians have long surmised that the Batavia Castle archives would off er surprises, but nobody expected so much new data on the region’s maritime and diplomatic history. Old collections off er new research perspectives.