The land that became Tapanoeli Residency had been previously essentially independent. The
Dutch East India Company as well as the British started to establish posts along the Western coast of Sumatra during that time; the British even established a fort at Tapanuli in 1752. It remained sparsely populated in the 1850s, due to the mountainous terrain; one estimate put the population in 1852 at roughly 75,000 "Sumatrans" (including
Malays and
Bataks), under 70 Europeans, roughly 250 Chinese and 350
Javanese, but more than 7,000 slaves. That estimate may be too low, as another puts the 1840 population of Tapanoeli Residency at around 350,000 in total. 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. Coffee cultivation was introduced to the Bataks on government initiative in the 1840s, and it gradually became a centre of cultivation and export. The Dutch also allowed German missionaries to set up missions in the Residency. It gained the status of a full Residency in 1906, reporting directly to
Batavia; Sumatra's West Coast, which it had formerly reported to, was demoted to the status of a
residency. == List of Residents of Tapanoeli ==