An English government does not need the articles of a capitulation to impose those duties which are prompted by a sense of justice: Lord Minto's brand of benevolent imperialism in Java

The British occupation of Java that began in 1811 and lasted until 1816 has been written about and discussed at length by several scholars (Carey, 1992; Hannigan, 2012; Noor, 2016.a); and there exist many accounts of how British power was exercised and projected across the island, culminating in the violent attack on the royal city of Jogjakarta and the killing of many of the inhabitants there. The first quarter of the 19th century was indeed a turbulent period in Southeast Asian history, for many political changes would take place, spurred on by wider geopolitical realities at the time. Back in England life was about as normal as it could be according to the new normal of the Regency period: In May 1812 Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was shot in the House of Parliament by the Liverpool merchant John Bellingham, while George IV busied himself with the latest trends in fashion and architecture. Britain's armies were caught up in the bloody wars on the continent while London dandies like Beau Brummell battled the fashion police on the home front. Tory Prime Ministers were being blown away, Catholics were spooking all and sundry, the Prince Regent's gout and dropsy would only get worse, but none of that would stop the East India Company – Willson's company of the Ledger and Sword (1903) – from doing its business abroad.

The Napoleonic Wars in Europe pitted Britain against its enemies on the continent as well as further afield, and in 1806 Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew led a squadron of seven British warships on an attack against the Dutch in Batavia – dubbed by some as the First Java Campaign of 1806-1807.