Prehistory The region of the future Buitenzorg Residency was a part of the
Sunda Kingdom from the fifth century onwards, with its capital at
Pakuan Pajajaran (located roughly around present-day Bogor). As the
Banten Sultanate grew in influence, the Sunda Kingdom gradually lost territory to it, until 1579 when its capital was sacked by Banten and the kingdom ceased to exist; the city itself became depopulated as well. In 1745 the area of the future city of Buitenzorg was gifted to Governor General
Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff, who gave it its name and established it as the site of the Governor General's residence for the following two centuries.
First Buitenzorg Residency (1817–1867) After the departure of the British from Java, the Dutch reorganized the island into a new set of subdivisions called Residencies. The borders established in 1925 were changed again in 1931, with many of the new Residencies being abolished; Buitenzorg was expanded to absorb the former
West-Priangan Residency, more than doubling its size, and with Pieter Marinus Letterie as the new Resident. In November 1933 Alexander Hendrik de Jong became the new Resident. Finally, in March 1937 Cornelis van Rossen became the final Resident, holding office until the Japanese invasion in 1942. The larger Buitenzorg Residency borders remained in place for the final years of Dutch rule in Java; its borders were retained during the
Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies but it was renamed to the Indonesian name
Bogor; in the early years of Indonesian independence it briefly existed as well, but it was eventually abolished and its territory incorporated into the new
West Java province. ==Resident==