TunggaL

Once upon a time Medan City was known as Tanah Deli and it was a Marshland ranged over 4000 Ha. Some rivers are crossing Medan City and every of them are ended in Malaka Strait. These rivers are Sei Deli, Sei Babura, Sei Sikambing, Sei Putih, Sei Badra, Sei Belawan and Sei Sulang Saling/Sei Kera.
In the beginning the Founder of Medan Village was Guru Patimpus, it is located in Tanah Deli, Thus since the age of colonial people always linked Medan with Deli(Medan-Deli). After the age of Independence the word of Medan Deli is no longer used as it was less popular and faded in time.

A long time ago people called Tanah Deli ranged from Ular River(Deli Serdang) all the way to Wampu River in Langkat while Deli Sultanate Which rule on that time does not rule in the land between these rivers.

Generally the land in Deli territory consist of clay land ,sand land, mixed land ,black land, brown land and red land. This is a result of research from Van Hissink on 1900 which continued by the research of Vriens on 1910 that says besides those land there was found another specific kind of clay. This clay which on the time of Netherlands colonial was called Bakaran Batu (Now Known as South East Medan or Menteng ) people burn high quality bricks and one of the bricks factory back then is Deli Klei.

About the rain pour in Tanah Deli is generalize in two kinds which is:Primary Maksima and Extra Maksima. Primary Maksima take place on the month of October to December while Extra Maksima take place around January to September. On details the rain pour in Medan on average 2000 per year with intensity on average 4,4 mm/hour.

According to Volker on 1860 Medan was still a jungle and especially around the river, riddled with villages of native people from Karo and Malaya Peninsula. On the 1863 the Netherlanders begin to open Tobacco Plantation in Deli which once an idol of Tanah Deli. Since then the economy keep growing until Medan became a Center of Government and Economy in North Sumatra.

On the beginning Medan was a village known as “Medan Putri”. Development of the “Medan Putri” village was chained due to it strategic position along the crossing of Deli river and Babura river, not far from Putri Hijau street at the present. In the past, both rivers was a crowded trading routes, thus “Medan Putri” village which is the foundation of Medan City, grows rapidly and transform into a very important harbor.

With time, more people came to this village and the wife of Guru Patimpus who found the Medan village born her first son and named him “Kolok”. The occupation of the people in Medan village which they called “Sepuluh Dua Kuta” was farming spices. Not for long then born the second son of Guru Patimpus named as “Kecik”.

In his time Guru Patimpus was considered as an intellectual person. This was proven when he told his sons to (learn) read Al-Qur’an to Datuk Kota Bangun and then learn furthermore about Islam in Aceh.

The facts which strengthen that Medan village does exist was the report of “H.Muhammad Said” who quotes from the book titled “Deli in Woord en Beeld” written by N.Ten Cate. The report says that the Medan village was once a Fortress and the ruins still remains in the form of two walls forming a circle located in the crossing of two rivers which is the Deli river and the Babura river. The Administrateur house was located just across the river from Medan village. If we take a look that the location of Medan village back then is the Wisma Benteng at the present and the Adminitrateur house is now the office of PTP IX Deli Tobacco.

About the 1612 after two decades of the founding of Medan village, Sultan Iskandar Muda who ruled over Aceh send his Admiral “Gocah Pahlawan” who titled as “Laksamana Kuda Bintan” to lead on the behalf of Aceh Sultanate in the Tanah Deli.

Gocah Pahlawan opens a new land on Sungai Lalang, Percut. As the representative of Sultan Aceh also by using the greatness of Aceh Imperial, Gocah Pahlawan succeed in expanding his territory, ranged across Percut Sei Tuan and Medan Deli at the present.. He also found the villages of Gunung Klarus, Sampali, Kota Bangun, Pulau Brayan, Kota Jawa, Kota Rengas Percut and Sigara-gara.

With the coming of Gocah Pahlawan, Deli Kingdom begun to grow and at 1632 Gocah Pahlawan married with the daughter of Datuk Sunggal. With this marriage the Kings of Medan Village surrender to Gocah Pahlawan. Gocah Pahlawan died on 1653 and replaced by his son Tuanku Panglima Perunggit, who later on perform the indepence of Deli Sultanate from Aceh Sultanate on 1669, with Labuhan as it capital, approximately 20 km from Medan.

An Englishman Jhon Andreson gave a visit to Medan Village at 1823 and recorded in his book “Mission to the East Coast of Sumatera” that the villagers of Medan village back then was just 200 people but he only saw the people who lived in the crossing of the two rivers. Anderson said in his book “Mission to the East Coast of Sumatera”(published by Edinburg in 1826) that across the Deli river to the wall of the Medan village Mosque was builded with some square form granite stones. These stone was taken from an ancient Hindu Temple in Java.

The rapid growth of “Medan Putri” village, was also chained due to the incredibly famous tobacco plantation for they Deli tobacco, which is the best tobacco for cigars wrap. On the 1863, Sultan Deli gave a 4000 shoulders(1 shoulders = 0.74 ha) land to NienHuys Van der Falk and Elliot from the Van Keeuwen en Mainz & Co firm on erfpacht 20 years in Tanjung Sepassi, near Labuhan. On March 1864, the sample of Deli tobacco was sent to Rotterdam in Holland for examination. It turn out that these tobacco was very good with very high quality for cigars wrap.

Then on 1866, jannsen, P>W CLemen, Cremer and Nienhuys found the “de Deli Maatscapij” in Labuhan. Then expanded to a new plantation in Martubung, Sunggal (1869), Beras River and Klumpang (1875), until there are approximately 22 plantation company on 1874. Because the tobacco trading activity has been very vast and well developed, Nienhuys moved his company office from Labuhan to “Medan Putri” village. With that “Medan Putri” village became more crowded and furtherly developed with a better known name as “Medan City”

3. The Legends of Medan

According to legends, in the past there was once a very beautiful princess lived in Deli Sultanate in Deli Tua approximately 10 km from Medan Village, for her beauty she was called as “Putri Hijau”. The princess’s beauty is renowned everywhere from Aceh to the distant of the northern end of Java island. Sultan Aceh fell in love to the princess and wished for her to be his queen. But the request was rejected by both of the princess’s brother. Sultan Aceh was very furious with the rejection and consider it as an insult to him. Thus break a war between the Aceh Sultanate with the Deli Sultanate.

According to the legend, by the magical power owned by her brothers one of the brothers turned himself into a dragon and the other turned into a cannon who never stop firing at the Aceh Army to the end. But at the end The Deli Sultanate was defeated in that war and by disappointment one of her brother who turns into a cannon exploded and break in two, on explosion the back end was thrown to Labuhan Deli and the front was thrown into the highland of Karo approximately 5 km from Kabanjahe.
The princess was held captive and imprison in a glass container which carried by a ship that sails to Aceh. While the ship docked at Ujung Jambo Aye, the princesses plead to hold a ritual for her before she left the ship to land. By her request, there should be an offering of a number of rice and thousands of eggs and the request of the princess was fulfilled. But when the ceremony has just begun there was an immense storm with incredibly high waves. And from the sea emerges the other brother of the princess who turns into a dragon, and with his big jaws he took the princess crate and carry it to the sea.

This legend still remain to tell in the people of Deli and even in the people of Malay in Malaysia. In Deli Tua there is still remains of the fortress ruin and castle from the age of the “Putri Hijau”, while the cannon remains from the princess’s other brother can be seen in front of Maimun Palace Medan inside an altar.

4. The Netherlands Colonial in Tanah Deli

The Netherlands who ruled over Indonesia for approximately a half of century but to rule over the Tanah Deli they encounter a lot of challenge. They encounter a war in Java with Prince Diponegoro around 1825-1830. The Netherlands are also at war agains Aceh, Minangkabau, and Sisingamangaraja in Tapanuli.
Thus the Netherlands only control Tanah Deli for approximately 78 years from 1864 to 1942. After the Javanese war ended the Dutch Governor General J. Van den Bosch then mobilized his troops to Sumatra and he estimated that it will take 25 years to have total control of Sumatra.
The Dutch conquest on Sumatra was stopped in the middle of the road because of Minister of Netherlands Colonial at that time J. C. Baud tell the Dutch troops in Sumatra to retreated although they overcame the Minangkabau in a war that was known as the Paderi war (1821-1837).
Sultan Ismail who ruled over Riau became suddenly attacked by the British band under the lead of Adam Wilson. Due to his limited strength at that time, Sultan Ismail asked for the protection from the Netherlands. Since that time the opportunity for the Netherlands to control the Siak Sri Indrapura Kingdom ruled by Sultan Ismail was opened. On February 1 st 1858 the Netherlands urged Sultan Ismail to signed the agreement so that the territory ruled by the Siak Sri Indrapura kingdom including Deli, Langkat and Serdang in East Sumatra will be under Dutch authority. Thus the Deli area was under the Dutch authority and automatically the Medan village became the Dutch colony, but the Dutch presence had not yet physically controlled the Tanah Deli.

Also in1858 Elisa Netscher was appointed to be the Resident of Riau Territory and since then she also appointed herself as the defence counsel of Sultan Ismail who ruled the Siak kingdom. Netscher aim by pointing herself as the defence counsel of Sultan Ismail was to be politically bounded so that she would find it easy to control the territory ruled by the Siak kingdom namely Deli including the Medan Putri Village.
The development of Medan Putri into the trade centre had pushed it to became the centre of the government. In 1879, the capital of the Assistant Deli Resident was moved from Labuhan to Medan, on March 1 1887, the capital of the East Sumatra Resident was also moved from Bengkalis to Medan, the Deli Sultanate Palace that originally was in the Kampung Bahari (Labuhan) also moved with the finishing construction of the Maimoon Palace on May 18 1891, and therefore the Deli capital has official moved to Medan.
In 1915 The East Sumatra Resident was improved in rank into “Gubernemen”.

In 1918 the Medan City officially became Gemeente (the Jurisdiction City) with the mayor Baron Daniel Mac Kay. Based on "Acte van Schenking" (the Grant certificate) number 97 notaries J. M. de-Hondt junior, on November 30 1918, Sultan Deli handed over the Medan city land to Gemeente Medan, so this territory became officially under direct Dutch East Indies authority. In this Gemeente early period, Medan was still consist of 4 villages, that is the Kesawan Village, the Sungai Rengas Village, the Village Petisah Hulu and the Village Petisah Hilir.
In 1918 the Medan populations were recorded totalling 43.826 lifes which consist of European 409 people, Indonesian 35.009 people, Chinese 8.269 people and Other East Foreigners 139 people.

Since then the Medan City had developed increasingly fast. Various facilities were developed. Several among them were the Trial station OfficeAVROS in the Kampung Baru (1919), now known as RISPA, the Brandan Relational Train Base - Besitang (1919), the American Consulate (1919), the Indonesian's Teacher School in H. M. Yamin street today (1923), Weekly Soematra (1924), the Medan Association of Swimming (1924), the Centre of the Market, Elizabeth Hospital, the Eye Clinic and the Kebun Bunga Field of Sport(1929).
Historically the development of Medan City, from the beginning had positioned into a trade centre (export-import) since the past. When Medan became the capital of Deli, it was also made the Medan City developed as the centre of the government. Until today, besides being one of the Cities, it is also at the same time as the capital of the North Sumatra province.

5. Medan City during the Japanese Invasion

In 1942 the Dutch colonization in Sumatra ended which at that point the Japanese landed in some of the territory like Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and especially in Sumatra the Japanese landed in East Sumatra.
The Japanese troops that landed in Sumatra was the XXV troops which was based in Shonanto that better known as Singapore, to be precise they landed on the nights of 11 on March 12 1942. These troops consisted of the 2nd Guard Division of the Empire along with the 18th Division which was led directly by Lieutenant General Nishimura. There were four landing places of their troops which is Sabang, Ulele, Kuala Bugak (close to Peurlak East Aceh now) and Tanjung Tiram (the Batubara region today).
The Japanese troops which landed in the region of the Tanjung Tiram was the troops that entered the Medan City, they got on the bicycle that was bought from the people around their landing sites in a manner of bartering. Their slogan was that they would help Asians because they were the older relatives of the Asians so they were cheered upon their arrival.

When the transition from the Dutch authority to the Japanese, Medan City was in chaos, the native people used this opportunity to take revenge on the Dutch.This situation was immediately controlled by the Japanese troops by mobilizing his troops which were named “ Kempetai “ (the Japanese Military Police).With the Japanese entering the Medan City the situation immediately changed especially the civil government which at the Dutch time was acknowledged as“Gemeente Bestuur “ by the Japanese was changed into “Medan Sico“ (the Jurisdiction City Government).
The one who appointed to the office of the civil government in this Jurisdiction City of Medan from that point through to the Japanese authority ending was “Hoyasakhi”. For the Resident in East Sumatra because of the heterogeneous community was called as “Syucokan” which at that point was held by T. Nakashima, the servant of the Resident was called Gunseibu.
The Japanese grip over Medan City become increasingly tighten, turns the community increasingly poorer, because according to them with that condition it would be easier to control all of the Indonesian Archipelago, the slogan Old relative was left only as a slogan. On the East side of Medan City (called Marindal today) was built Kengrohositai a kind of collective agriculture. On the region of Titi Kuning Medan Johor,( not far from the Polonia airfield today) was built the Japanese fighter base.

Everywhere all over Indonesia in 1945 reverberated preparations for the Proclamation likewise in the Medan City the leading figures of Medan’s young men did not ignore the moment, they did various preparations. They heard that the atomic bomb hit the Hiroshima City, meaning the Japanese strength has been paralyzed. While the allied troops wanted to occupy Indonesia again.
Especially in the Medan city and the surrounding area, when the Japanese ruler realized their defeat, they immediately stopped all of their activities, especially which were connected with the management and the mobilization of the young man. What they done until now to recruit the youth mass as Heiho, Romusha, Gyu Gun and Talapeta were detached by them or returned to the community. Officially this activity was detached on August 20 th 1945 because on that day also the Japanese ruler in East Sumatra that was acknowledged as Tetsuzo Nakashima announced the Japanese defeat. He also mentioned that the task of their troops to the ex-occupied territory was to guard the status quo before they hand it over to allied troops. Most of former Heiho members, Romusha, Talapeta and the Gyu Gun Exercise felt confused because their life was squeezed where they were only given limited pocket money, so as they run around with the brown uniform in the middle of the city.

Several leading figures of the young men noticed the problem and then took the initiative to deal with it. Especially the ex-officer of Gyu Gun, one among them Lieutenant Achmad Tahir established a committee to deal with ex-Heiho and ex-Romusha that their family/their relatives were not in the Medan city. This committee was named with “the Helper Committee of the ex-Gyu Gun Unemployment “which had an office in Istana,street No.17 (the youth Building today).
On August 17 th 1945 the echo of independence arrived at the Medan city even though rather stagnant because the communication situation at that time was very very simple. The Japanese news agency “Domei” has had his delegation in Medan but they did not want to broadcast the news of this independence, as a result the community became more confused.
A small group of allied troops to be precise on September 1 1945 which was led by First Lieutenant Seaman Brondgeest arrived in the Medan city and had an office in the De Boer Hotel (now the Dharma Deli Hotel). His task was to prepare the takeover of the authority from Japan. At that point also the Dutch troops that was led by Westerling was accompanied by the allied liaison officer Mayor Yacobs and Lieutenant Brondgeest succeeded in forming Dutch police for the East Sumatra region which the member was taken from ex-KNIL and Japanese police who support the Netherlands.

Finally with the winding trip, the young men held various actions so that in anyway the independence must be upheld in Indonesia likewise in the Medan city also take a part. They were Achmad Tahir, Amir Bachrum Nasution, Edisaputra, Rustam Efendy, Gazali Ibrahim, Roos Lila, A. Malik Munir, Bahrum Djamil, Marzuki Lubis and Muhammad Kasim Jusni

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