[3] The Dutch expanded into Sumatra more aggressively into the 1820s and 1830s; the region that became Tapanoeli Residency had little contact with Westerners before that time, except in some coastal areas.

[6] Its economy at that time was based mainly on the small-scale extraction of resources using traditional methods, including frankincense, resin, camphor, gambier, coconut oil, rattan, gold ore, as well as the farming of cattle, goats, and so on.

[2][4] As plantation industries were developed in Sumatra in the late nineteenth century, the demographics of Tapanoeli changed as Javanese and Chinese workers were imported as labour.

[1][2] There was not much large-scale economic development on behalf of the Dutch until after 1908, when the area was opened up to European exploitation; after that, a number of rubber, coffee, and other plantations were built.

During the Indonesian National Revolution, the region was very contested and fell under the rule of various warlords; it was only after April 1948 that the Republic of Indonesia started to assert its control and included the area of Tapanuli in the newly created province of North Sumatra.