Response and Resilience: Aceh’s Trade in the Seventeenth Century

“Response and Resilience” questions the extent of decline of Aceh Dar al-Salam under its women sovereigns by the end of the seventeenth century. This article argues that, although Aceh was under constant pressure from the VOC and EIC, Aceh was exceptionally effective in maintaining its independence and its own trade network, and in engaging with and counteracting the Europeans. Among the reasons that explain Aceh’s success in meeting those challenges are the limited success of the VOC in establishing its trade monopoly in the northern Straits of Melaka, the EIC’s reluctance to challenge the Dutch and get involved in local politics, the resilience of the traditional Asian commercial networks and private European merchants in rivaling the European companies, and the policies of the sultanahs of Aceh and their style of leadership that provided an effective response to European encroachments in the course of the seventeenth century.