Plan de la Ville et du Chateau de Batavia [Jakarta, Indonesia]

Batavia, capital of the Dutch East India Company.

This detailed plan of Batavia (modern-day Jakarta, Indonesia) shows the capital of the Dutch East India Company in the mid-18th century, as the joint-stock firm (the first in the world) attempted to maintain control over the lucrative Southeast Asian trade markets. The city was established on the island of Java by the Dutch in 1619, who gradually expanded control across the region over the following century. In 1740, thousands of local Chinese residents, many sugar mill workers, were killed in a pogrom for fear of domestic unrest.

The image, oriented with north to the left, provides a wonderful overview of the colonial capital. Thirty-one different points of interest are identified according to the key in the upper left. They are grouped by the Castle, Eastern, and Western parts of the city and include administrative buildings, company headquarters, bastions, canals, and more.

The view was published in Paris in 1750 as part of Jacques Nicholas Bellin’s ‘L’Histoire General des Voyages.”

Source.