Godert van der Capellen

Baron van der Capellen by Cornelis Kruseman

Godert Alexander Gerard Philip, Baron van der Capellen (December 15, 1778 – April 10, 1848) was a Dutch statesman from Utrecht.

Van der Capellen was the son of a cavalry colonel. He was made Prefect of Friesland in 1808 and soon thereafter Minister of the Interior and a member of the Privy Council. At his advice, King Louis Napoleon abdicated the throne in 1810 in favor of his son, Louis II. Van der Capellen did not serve Napoleon I. Wilhelm I, King of the Netherlands, appointed him Colonial Minister and sent him as Secretary of United Kingdom of the Netherlands to Brussels.

In 1815, van de Capellen was made the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, where he had to deal with both a native rebellion and a money shortage. In fact, during his tenure in Java, his power was largely ceremonial as his adjunct, Cornelis Theodorus Elout, had much of the actual power. The King decreed freedom of cultivation and trade, and the slave trade was prohibited. Van der Capellen was less progressive than other commissioners; after they left in 1819, he increased the power of native chiefs. He protected the Government’s system of coffee plantations by not allowing European planters to settle in the Priangan area of West Java, nor would he let Europeans or Chinese trade there. In 1824 he cancelled contracts of land tenancy, forcing the native chiefs to pay back the advances they had received by further exploiting the cultivators. This caused unrest in Yogyakarta. As the post-war boom in coffee and sugar exports faded, Javanese ports went into deficit. Money was spent quelling riots outside of Java in Maluku (Moluccas), Kalimantan (Borneo), Sulawesi (Celebes), Palembang, and on the west coast of Sumatra. Van der Capellen made a tour in 1824 and abolished the hated limit on the number of spice trees. Muntinghe’s proposal for a national company under King Willem was adopted in 1825 as the Netherlands Trading Society with 37,000,000 guilders in capital and paying 4.5 percent dividends. Hard-pressed cultivators had to pay taxes in money and turned to Chinese moneylenders.^[1]

He was ordered back in 1825 and named President of the Board of Trustees of the University of Utrecht in 1828. In 1838, he attended the coronation of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in London as the Dutch envoy. Van der Capellen then served as the Lord Chamberlain of King William II. He died in April 1848 in De Bilt.

Notes

References

• The Meyers Konversations-Lexikon
• Wurtzburg, Charles Edward (1953). Raffles of the Eastern Isles. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-582605-0

External links

• Media related to Godert van der Capellen at Wikimedia Commons

Ministers of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands
Ministry of Economic Affairs
Tak van Poortvliet Klerck Van den Bergh Tromp Bastert Havelaar Lely Van der Sleijden De Marez Oyens Kraus Veegens Talma Treub Posthuma Van IJsselsteyn Ruijs de Beerenbrouck Aalberse Koolen Slotemaker de Bruïne Verschuur Colijn Steenberghe Gelissen Steenberghe Colijn Steenberghe Van den Tempel Kerstens Van den Broek Gispen Vos Huysmans Mansholt Van den Brink Zijlstra De Pous Andriessen Den Uyl Bakker De Block De Jong Nelissen Langman Lubbers Van Aardenne Terlouw Van Aardenne De Korte Andriessen Wijers Jorritsma Heinsbroek Hoogervorst Brinkhorst Zalm Wijn Van der Hoeven Verhagen Kamp

Ministers of Colonial Affairs of the Netherlands
Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations
Van der Heim Cambier Van der Heim Van der Capellen Van der Hoop Goldberg Falck Elout Van Ufford Van Gobbelschroy Clifford Brocx Van den Bosch Baud Rijk Baud Van den Bosch Pahud Mijer Rochussen Lotsy De Groot van Kraaijenburg Uhlenbeck Betz Fransen van de Putte Mijer Trakranen Hasselman De Waal Brocx Van Bosse Fransen van de Putte Van Goltstein van Oldenaller Alting Mees Van Bosse Van Rees Van Goltstein van Oldenaller De Brauw Van Erp Taalman Kip Van Bloemen Waanders Weitzel Sprenger van Eyk Keuchenius Mackay Van Dedem Bergsma Cremer Van Asch van Wijck Bergansius Idenburg Fock Heemskerk Idenburg De Waal Malefijt Pleyte Rambonnet Pleyte Idenburg Ruijs de Beerenbrouck De Graaff Colijn Welter Koningsberger De Graaff Colijn Welter Van den Bussche Welter Gerbrandy Van Mook Schmutzer Logemann Jonkman Beel Jonkman Götzen Jonkman Sassen Van Maarseveen Drees Peters Kernkamp Beel Staf Helders Korthals

Governors-General of the Dutch East Indies (1610–1949)
Dutch East India Company (1610–1800)	Both (1610–14) Reynst (1614–15) Reael (1615–19) Coen (1619–23) De Carpentier (1623–27) Coen (1627–29) Specx (1629–32) Brouwer (1632–36) Van Diemen (1636–45) Van der Lijn (1645–50) Reyniersz (1650–53) Maetsuycker (1653–78) Van Goens (1678–81) Speelman (1681–84) Camphuys (1684–91) Van Outhoorn (1691–1704) Van Hoorn (1704–09) Van Riebeeck (1709–13) Van Swoll (1713–18) Zwaardecroon (1718–25) De Haan (1725–29) Durven (1729–32) Van Cloon (1732–35) Patras (1735–37) Valckenier (1737–41) Thedens (1741–43) Van Imhoff (1743–50) Mossel (1750–61) Van der Parra (1761–75) Van Riemsdijk (1775–77) De Klerck (1777–80) Alting (1780–96)
Dutch East Indies (1800–1948)	Van Overstraten (1796–1801) Siberg (1801–05) Wiese (1805–08) Daendels (1808–11) Janssens (1811) British occupation (1811–16) Van der Capellen (1816–26) Du Bus (1826–30) Van den Bosch (1830–33) Baud (1833–36) De Eerens (1836–40) Van Hogendorp (1840–41) Merkus (1841–44) Reynst (1844–45) Rochussen (1845–51) Van Twist (1851–56) Pahud (1856–61) Van de Beele (1861–66) Mijer (1866–72) Loudon (1872–75) Van Lansberge (1875–81) s'Jacob (1881–84) Van Rees (1884–88) Pijnacker Hordijk (1888–93) Van der Wijck (1893–99) Rooseboom (1899–1904) Van Heutsz (1904–09) Idenburg (1909–16) Van Limburg Stirum (1916–21) Fock (1921–26) De Graeff (1926–31) De Jonge (1931–36) Van Starkenborgh Stachouwer (1936–42) Van Mook (1942–48)
High Commissioners	Beel (1948–49) Lovink (1949)