Bantam Residency

Prior to the imposition of Dutch rule on the region, Banten was home to the Banten Sultanate; that kingdom turned away Portuguese efforts to establish a foothold there in the sixteenth century, and later clashed with the Mataram Sultanate.

[3][4][2] The British East India Company had a presence there during the seventeenth century, the Bantam Presidency.

[2] It was the period of the French and British interregnum in the Dutch East Indies that ended the rule of Banten; the northern coast was conquered in 1808, and the rest of the former sultanate came under direct European rule when Stamford Raffles invaded it 1813.

In 1881–2 there was a cattle plague which led to widespread famine, followed by a fever epidemic which killed ten per cent of the population.

[8] The Residency was connected by railway with Batavia and other parts of Java in 1900 and 1906, which increased agricultural exploitation.