Preanger Regencies Residency

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the area of Preanger (Parahyangan) had belonged to the Mataram Sultanate.[2] In the late seventeenth century, the Dutch East India Company allied itself with Mataram, but demanded territorial and trade concessions.[2] During this time, the Dutch started to exert more and more influence in the Western part of Java.[2] Mataram finally ceded all control of Cheribon and regions to the south, including the Preanger region, in 1705.[1][2] The eastern part of what would become this residency was at first ruled from Cirebon in a residency called the Cheribonsche Preanger Regentschappen, while the western parts were allowed to remain under the control of local princes.[1] That situation remained until 1808, when Napoleonic governor Herman Willem Daendels reorganized the territory in a prefecture (the Batavian and Priangan Regencies) and connected it to Batavia via the Great Post Road.[3]

In 1818, after the short French and British interregnum in the Dutch East Indies, the territory was reestablished by the Dutch as the Preanger Regencies Residency.[1][3]

The residency as established in 1818 consisted of three major divisions:

• Cianjur and Sukabumi, ruled directly by the resident whose seat was at Cianjur;
• Bandung;
• Sumedang, Sukapura and Limbangan.

The capital of the residency was transferred from Cianjur to Bandung in 1856, but the seat of the resident himself was not moved there until 1864.[1] In 1866, Limbangan was also separated to be its own division with an Assistant Resident.[1]

1909 Malay-language map of Preanger Regencies

During the early twentieth century, the residency had a number of Tea estates in its mountainous areas, as well as being a center of Tapioca flour production in the Indies.[4] It was also one of the earliest areas in the Indies to industrialize significantly.[5] During this time, Bandung was also the location of the first university in the Indies and the place where a number of important printing presses were located, including the popular newspaper De Preangerbode.[6]

In 1915, Garut Regency was transferred from the Cheribon Residency to Preanger.[1] In 1925, the four residencies of western Java were subdivided into nine new residencies.[3] The former Preanger Regencies Residency was broken up into three smaller residencies: West-Priangan, Midden-Priangan en Oost-Priangan.[3] However, in 1931 they were reorganized once again, with parts of the former residency now being divided between Buitzenzorg Residency and the renamed Priangan Residency.[3] Those borders were kept by the Japanese during their occupation of Java during World War II, and for a short time by the Republic of Indonesia after 1945.[3]