Lange was perhaps the prototype for Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim - a man who failed to pick the winning side in an internecine dynastic struggle which wracked Lombok in the first half of the 19th century, but who then settled in southern Bali and found a powerful patron in Kesiman, one of the lords of the expanding kingdom of Badung. He soon combined this patronage with a knowledge of overseas markets and familiarity with the largely female-run internal trading networks of Bali, to become extremely rich for a brief period in the 1840s.
The Dutch, determined to establish economic and political control over Bali, became embroiled during this period in a series of wars in the north of the island. They came, as they saw it, to "teach the Balinese a lesson," whereas the words of the chief minister of Buleleng best expressed the prevailing Balinese view: "Let the keris decide." The first two Dutch attacks, in 1846 and 1848, were repulsed by north Balinese forces aided by allies from Karangasem and Klungkung, as well as by rampant dysentery among the invading forces. A third Dutch attempt in 1849 succeeded mainly because the Balinese rulers of Lombok, cousins of the Karangasem rulers, used this as an opportunity to take over east Bali.
Not wishing to push their luck, the Dutch contented themselves with control of Bali's northern coast for the next 40 years. As this was the island's main export region, they did succeed in isolating the powerful southern kingdoms and in controlling much of the export trade. Lange's fortunes soon declined as a result, and he died several years later, probably poisoned out of economic jealousy.
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