Batavia (region)

For other uses, see Batavia (disambiguation).

Batavia is the Latin name for the land of the Batavians during Roman times. This was roughly the area around the city of Nijmegen, Netherlands, within the Roman Empire. The remainder of this land is nowadays known as Betuwe. During the Renaissance, Dutch historians tried to promote these Batavians to the status of "forefathers" of the Dutch people. They started to call themselves Batavians, later resulting in the Batavian Republic, and took the name "Batavia" to their colonies such as the Dutch East Indies, where they renamed the city of Jayakarta to become Batavia from 1619 until about 1942, when its name was changed to Djakarta (short for the former name Jayakarta, later respelt Jakarta; see: History of Jakarta). The name was also used in Suriname, where they founded Batavia, Suriname, and in the United States where the Holland Land Company founded the city and the town of Batavia, New York. This name spread further west in the United States to such places as Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, and Batavia, Ohio.

In popular culture

In chapter 5 of Voltaire's novella Candide, a minor character remarks that he was from this region; "I am a sailor and born at Batavia".