The governor-general of the Dutch East Indies, Herman Willem Daendels (1762-1818), fortified the island of Java against possible British attack. In 1810 a strong British East India Company expedition under Gilbert Elliot, first earl of Minto, governor-general of India, conquered the French islands of Bourbon (Réunion) and Mauritius in the Indian Ocean and the Dutch East Indian possessions of Ambon and the Molucca Islands. Afterwards, it moved against Java, captured the port city of Batavia (Jakarta) in August 1811, and forced the Dutch to surrender at Semarang on September 17, 1811. Java, Palembang (in Sumatra), Macassar (Makasar, Celebes), and Timor were ceded to the British. Appointed lieutenant governor of Java, Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) ended Dutch administrative methods, liberalized the system of land tenure, and extended trade. In 1816, the British returned Java and other East Indian possessions to the Dutch as part of the accord ending the Napoleonic Wars.
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