History of Bali
Enthusiastic, they would declare this island. New Holland. As power shifted in the coming years, the Dutch would eclipse the Portuguese in the war of spices. Bali a small island with few harbors and no spices of note was forgotten to the world. After the death of Watu Renggong, the power of Klungkung would diminish and the numerous local rajas, while still paying respects to the Dewa Agung, an honorary title given to the raja of Klungkung, would rule independently. Often bloody internecine warfare was incessant.
This would change in the 19th century when a series of confrontations would result in the Dutch consolidating their hold on the peripheral regions of the their far flung island empire. The Balinese would develop a sordid reputation as being war-like barbarians. For a short moment the Balinese held their own under the command of the brilliant Gusti Djelantik and even managed to defeat the power ful colonial army on one occasion by feigning retreat only to lead the over confident troops up into the hills of Jagaraga in north Bali where they were ambushed. The Dutch, however, would prevail.
The end came in tragedy when on three occasions the proud kings of Denpasar in 1906 and Klungkung in 1908 chose death over surrender by mounting a hope- less attack against the modem weapons of the expeditionary forces in the belief that they would immediately gain glorious entrance into the paradise of their illustrious ancestors. Pacification came quickly and with it tourism. By the 1930s, the once primitive island was ringed with modem roads. The royal families that once fought foreigners now rented automobiles to visitors. Once a week a large passenger ship would arrive and drop oft’ tourists wanting to see the last paradise on earth, the island of the gods, the island of artiste, the island of the bare breasted beauties and magic (guna- guna), trance and exotic dances. A number of now famous expatriates such as the German painter Walter Spies had settled on the island. New arts, most notably painting and sculpture, grew up catering to the tourists. Several books such as Miguel Covarrubia’s, The Island of Bali and films like the Island of Demons and Guna-Guna would make the island famous lodging an image of a paradisical island somewhere between the South Seas and the exotic Orient.