The Batavians are Germans established between the two arms of the mouth of the Rhine (insula Batavorum, currently the island of Betuwe). Excavations have revealed a small village of 6 to 12 houses which probably lived from agriculture. This village had stables. A Batavian center was also found on the south bank of the Waal, it was razed during the Batavian revolt.
According to Tacitus, they had been established there for a long time and were part of the people of the Cats. The word "Batavian" comes from the name that the Romans gave to the region they occupied:Batavia.
Auxiliaries of the Romans, they revolted in 69/70 under the leadership of Gaius Julius Civilis. They were only subjugated under Vespasian. The discovery of wooden tablets shows that some of them mastered Latin.
Invaded by the Franks at the end of the 3rd century, they mixed with them.
The Batavians are mistakenly seen as the ancestors of the Dutch. In the 18th century, the adjective "Batavian" tended to supplant the term "Dutch" among supporters of the ideas of the Enlightenment, in memory of these distant elders. After the fall of William V of Orange-Nassau, the United Provinces became the "Batavian Republic".
When Indonesia was a colony of the Netherlands, the capital Jakarta was named Batavia