In the early morning of 19 August 1816 a proclamation was made by the British in the city council of Batavia that Jawa and its subjects would belong to the Dutch again. 'Under a salute of 21 cannon shots, the English flag descended,' as was said by an eye witness,' under a same salute the Dutch flag was raised. Both anthems were listened to with great spirit, while the thunder of heavy armory on the ships in the seaport filled the silent moments, which were held between the ceremonies, and made clear that the Dutch flag was raised there as well.'

For the Europeans in Batavia it was clear that an important historic event had taken place: the raise of the Dutch Indies (again). Most local people of the Indian archipelago didn't notice the cannon shots, the proclamation and the change of flags. If they already knew that happened in Batavia, then it was usually seen as a curios ritual which was common in Europe. Some attached more value to the events and took the change for a chance to turn back what Daendels and Raffles developed. What the Dutch Indies should eventually mean for the local people in the archipelago was very unclear in 1816.

The real settlement of a colonial rule in the archipelago was for the Dutch rule, formed by commission-general existing of C. Th. Elout, A.A. Buystens and G.A.G.Ph baron van der Capellen (he also was governor general), not an easy task. They lacked a powerful army, while the original king tried to re-establish their independence after the British had left. This also happened in the Sumatran sultanate of Palembang, where the local rulers could only be subjected in July 1821. The West Sumatran Padang didn't prove to be an easy possession as well. After the Dutch resident Jamer du Puy took control from the British with several civil servants and about 150 soldiers, he remarked that the location was located very nice, but that the location was very poor and full with unrest as well.

The area northeast of Padang, the Minangkabau, was home to a complicated and large conflict between the traditional leaders and the so-called Padri’s (a word originating from the Portuguese padre), a group which demanded a strict obedience to Islamic rules. The Padri’s were supported in their religious ideas after several hajji's returned from Mecca at the end of 1803 or the beginning of 1804, and had said that the Minangkabau society was immoral. Especially the matriarchic heir for local rulers, the popular cock-fighting, the gambling and using opium were bad to them.

Besides the religiously inspired arguments between both parties - as happened so often in history - there also were economical differences. The rulers of the Minangkabau (sometimes each village was ruled by another one (penghulu, which were all subjected to three kings) based their power on the entire gold mining and -trade in the area. At the end of the 18th century, income from the mines was decreasing, while the inhabitants of the hilly areas around the royal estates got more success in trading wood, coffee, salt, gambir and textile with the British and Americans. The kings felt threatened by this economical revolution, and supported the Padri’s from then; in the hope the strict Islamic laws would protect the goods from being sold to bad traders.

The Padri’s were very successful in their conflict with the traditional rulers. Under the lead of their tuanku (religious leaders) - of them the famous Tuanku Imam Bondjol was the most important - they had murdered almost the entire royal family in 1815. Several desperate rulers called in the help from the Dutch in 1819 to battle the Padri’s, in trade they offered sovereignty over the Minangkabau estates. In fact this was an almost useless promise, since the threatened leaders didn’t have much to tell anymore. The ambitious resident Du Puy was ready to help the penghulus, besides objections from Batavia, where they didn’t like a big military operation along the relatively unimportant Sumatran west coast. Du Puy convinced the government with the argument that the penghulus would ask for support with Raffles again. With this came the fact that the Dutch thought it was a simple contrast between adat and Islam, between the secular penghulus and the religious Tuankus. Restoring the power of the ‘adat leaders’ ought to be enough to bring back peace. In 1821 it was the young lieutenant A.F. Raaff which was sent to Padang with about 500 soldiers: the start of the Padri-war.

The small army of Raaff soon proved to be useless against the Padri's. The ambitious lieutenant-general still had confidence and predicted that the Padri's would meet with the softness of the Dutch rule, and they would abandon their original faith, to subject themselves to us. This was a very optimistic view on the attraction of the western ideas in which the colonial government was guided. Reality was that in April 1823 the Dutch troops were slaughtered in Lintau. Raaff, meanwhile appointed to resident of Padang and its subjects, was forced to find a peaceful agreement with the Padri's. Among the Dutch there was a certain approval for the Padri's. 'The Padri is totally different than the Malay,' was written by a Dutch officer, J.C. Boelhouwer in his 'Memories of my stay on Sumateras West coast', in which he left no choice who he supported.

Padri's and the Dutch trusted each other and Raaff succeeded to close a 'Contract of Peace and Friendship' in January 1824 with the Padri's of Bondjol (the main center in the movement), which trusted the Dutch military commander personally. The agreement was soon heavily tested when Raaff suddenly died of heavy fever in April 1824. Under Raaff successor, the skilled H.J.J.L. Ridder de Stuers, the agreement only was an armed peace between the Dutch and the Padri's. He did fortify several Dutch fortresses in the area, like Fortress Van der Capellen and Fortress De Kock, but he couldn't deliver the final battle, certainly not after the start of the Jawa War in 1825, when he had to return a big number of his troops.

Elsewhere in the archipelago the Dutch had to deal with movements which didn't want to accept the new colonial rule just as it was. In the west of Borneo there was a threat from the powerful Chinese congsi - almost all independent Chinese organizations which were mainly in the gold- and diamond mining - which didn't acknowledge the Dutch colonial rule, for sure after the Dutch forced the Chinese to buy opium and salt from the government. A military expedition in 1823 only brought temporarily results. After de departure of the troops the congsi went on doing their own business. The Chinese didn't have any reason for listening to the colonial rule which only demanded things without something in trade. The Dutch just could not accept that. Van der Capellen got frustrated over the situation in Borneo, and said the following: 'The ongoing reluctance of the Chinese population in the mining districts, which are only the very worst and don't obey to orderly rule.'

It was nothing different in Southern Celebes. The sultanate of Bone wasn't prepared to undergo the colonial rule, so the Dutch had only some influence on Makassar. A military expedition in 1825 didn't bring in much here too. The capital of Bone was occupied and completely destroyed, but as soon as the troops went again, Bone declared full independence right away. This was no miracle to the governmental-commissioner for Makassar, J.H. Thobias. The Dutch troops which were very good in looting and demolishing were not feared and trusted. The Dutch warnings to Bone they could expect 'total destruction' if they defied the Dutch rule only was a handful of words. The Dutch simply didn't have enough means to settle the colonial state outside Jawa and Madura. 'We don't have civil servants and marines,' Tobias said. 'I don't know why they think a ship and a soldier is enough to subject entire Celebes, where they still have to organize everything. I can live with it, but I don't understand it.

Maluku (the Moluccas) also had bad Dutch rule, also because the British had ruled Ambon from 1796 to 1803 and between 1810 and 1817, in which in the last period resident Byam Martin was holding a very light regime over the island. The local economy he had stimulated by abolishing the pasar-rent and to let the population be free in planting clove trees, which was subject to strict rules during the VOC time. The clove monopoly was maintained however: the Ambonese were only allowed to sell clove to the British government, which gave a decent price for it in return. Resident Martin also founded a corps of 400 Ambonese soldiers which were paid well and of which the Ambonese members got more civil rights.

Because of the British actions there were only a few Ambonese waiting for the Dutch to return. The so-called ‘Commissie of Twee’ (Commission of Two) which had to take over control of Maluku from the British in 1817 – consisting of the already known N. Engelhard and J.A. van Middelkoop – was doing little to favor the local population for them. The Ambonese soldiers were only allowed to transfer to the Dutch army when they agreed on being sent out all over the archipelago. The others left for their villages disappointed, with their weapons. The Christian Ambonese were angry because Engelhard and Van Middelkoop only brought more soldiers and servants to Maluku and no preachers or teachers.

The Dutch government made a big mistake with this by doubting about these larger civil rights, authorized by Martin. The 27-year-old resident of Saparoea, J.R. van den Berg (son-in-law of the former governor of Alting) asked every civilian with those rights for their letter which gave him that status. Nothing special until this moment, but Van den Berg held the documents a little too long for himself, according to the people. On 14 May 1817, the bomb exploded. Hundreds of armed residents of Saparoea attacked the old Dutch VOC fortress ‘Fort Duurstede’, where Van den Berg and his family had sought refuge. The resistance was lead by a kapitan; Thomas Matoelesia, a resident with those expended rights born in 1783 and former sergeant-major in the Ambonese corps of Martin, which also was named Pattimoera. The VOC-fortress ‘Fort Duurstede’ was soon occupied and resident Van den Berg was murdered, including his family and personnel. Only his six-year-old son Jean Lubbert survived the attack miraculously. He was taken by a former slave of the house and was later rescued and given the right to name himself ‘Van den Berg of Saparoea’.

The events were enough for the Dutch government in Batavia to fire Engelhard and Van Middelkoop and to send an expeditionary force to the area, lead by Buyskens. He allowed his troops to loot villages, to ‘punish the reluctant Indians and to help out the looting frenzy helping troops’. On the island of Haroekoe more than 20 people were executed without any compassion when they were caught resisting against the Dutch and having surrendered after his arrival any how. A navy officer, Q.M.R. Ver Huell, told that they had to do this anyway: ‘we had to deal with dumb and superstitious people’ which ‘didn’t listen at all to subject themselves voluntarily’.

The occupation of Saparoea was very violent. On 11 November the last place of resistance, formed by the village Oelat and Ouw, were occupied, against fierce resistance of Martha Christina Tiahagu (or Triago), a 17-year-old woman, which fought against the Dutch until the very last moment. Six days later Matoelesia was captured and however the resistance on Ceram would last for a while, the outcome was already known. Matoelesia was finally sentenced to death by the ‘Raad van Justitie’ (‘Council of Justice’) on Ambon. The sentence was complied on 16 December 1817 on the Esplanade in front of the city house. Matoelesia was said to climb on the scaffold ‘without hesitation’. Once on top and after he was tied to the rope he said goodbye to the judges is a very low manner: ‘Slamat tinggal, Toean Toean’ (‘Live good, my gentlemen’).