Moluccas Islands

The Moluccas Islands (Indonesian: Maluku), also known as the Spice Islands, Spice Islands b> or the Spice Islands, are an Indonesian archipelago. It consists of numerous islands covering a large area bounded on the west by Celebes Island and the Lesser Sunda Islands, and on the east by the island of New Guinea.

These islands became famous during the 15th and 16th centuries, when the Portuguese, Spanish, English and Dutch fought battles to control them, due to the fact that they obtained the precious spices that Europe needed. It was the only nutmeg-producing region and the only one, along with Madagascar, where cloves were collected.

Geography

These islands occupy the eastern part of an important biogeographical region located between Indonesia and the island of New Guinea, called Wallacea. They are also considered as part of the Melanesian region. They are located in the well-known Pacific fire ring, which is why they are frequently affected by seismic movements.

Fauna and flora

Their flora and fauna are very similar to those found in the Lesser Sunda Islands and share elements with New Guinea and Australia. The fragmentation of the region into small islands separated by deep sea trenches has made the migratory passage of fauna difficult, which is why endemic species are numerous. Although large areas of the islands have been declared nature reserves, the pressure of human development in such small territories is increasingly endangering their fragile ecosystems.

Administration

From 1950 to 1999, all the Maluku islands formed a single province of Indonesia, but in 1999 the northern part became the province of North Moluccas (Maluku Utara) while the rest of the Moluccas would keep the name of the province of Moluccas, Maluku.

The main islands of the North Moluccas province are Halmahera, Tobalai, Ternate, Tidore, Bacan, and Sula. The main islands of the Moluccas province are Ambon, Buru, Ceram, Aru, Babar, Kai, Tanimbar and Liran.

Economy

Its economy is based on the products of the sea, but the exploitation of nickel and manganese, oil and wood also contribute. Another of the supports of its economy is tourism, although it has been strongly hampered by the religious conflicts of the last years of the 20th century.

The most common way to reach the islands is by air, but communication between the islands is mainly by sea. This province has 25 airports and 79 ports, and only 4 km of roads.

Population

The people of Maluku are a mix of Austronesians, Indonesians, Malays and Papuans. Many of the people on the islands also have Portuguese origins as a result of colonization.

Religion

The Arabs introduced Islam to the Moluccas from the Island of Java in the 15th century. Catholicism appeared in the following century with the Portuguese missions. According to official statistics, 55% of the population of the Moluccas Islands was Muslim in the year 2000.

A civil and religious war broke out in 1998 between Christians and Muslims, with a large number of deaths in massacres, which led to the intervention of the international community in the year 2000.

Pear farm grown in Ceram.

Etymology

The name of Moluccas comes from the Arabic Jazirat al-Muluk (Island of the Kings), a name given by the first Arab merchants that the Portuguese converted into "Ilhas Malucas", as it appears in the cartography of the XVIIth century. In Spanish texts of the time, the name appears as "Malucos" or "Malucas" indistinctly (for example, in the letter in which King Felipe II asks Urdaneta to organize an expedition).

History

Pre-colonial history

Colonial Period

16th century: Portugal, Spain and the Spice Wars

Before the 14th century, Indian, Arab and Chinese merchants visited these islands in search of the spices with which, almost exclusively, they supplied the world.

The Portuguese discovered the islands in 1512 under the command of Francisco Serrão (the Spanish aspired to control the Moluccas from the West, the Portuguese from the East). The Portuguese established their first fortress on the island of Ternate.

In 1519 Ferdinand Magellan began the adventure of reaching the Moluccas sailing west, located beyond the limit of the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, trying to prove that these islands belonged to Castilla and not to Portugal. In 1521, Magellan crossed the interoceanic passage that bears his name, in the extreme south of America and headed northwest. The Spanish expedition made landfall on several of the islands now known as the Philippines, confronting many of them with the indigenous people. Magellan and his second in command, Juan Sebastián Elcano, were killed in one of these clashes, and managed to complete the journey, reaching the Moluccas islands at the end of 1521. He returned to Spain from the islands in 1522, after going around the world, always sailing towards the west.

Some time later Elcano returned to the Moluccas, accompanying the expedition of García Jofre de Loaisa, the new Captain General and Governor of the Moluccas. The Spanish created a fort on the island of Tidore, but the Portuguese, led by Jorge de Meneses, landed on the island and defeated the Spanish in 1529, who had to withdraw:

"Don Jorge de Meneses, who was in charge of the Moluccas, sent a force to Tidore against the Spaniards; but in the Caminho.... gathered an important allied force [indigenous]... and with this small number of Portuguese [120 chosen men, according to the chronists Barros and Castanheda], Menes disembarked in Tidore, where he defeated the Spaniards. Then Meneses attacked and took the city of Tidor, which was caught and set on fire; immediately he packed the Spanish fortress [which had 6 pieces of thick artillery and 25 cannons of iron] and encouraged surrender to the Spanish commander, Fernando de Torre. Not being able to resist further, the Spanish captain agreed to withdraw from Tidore to the city of Camafo [on the far east coast of the island of Geilolo], committing himself not to harass the Portuguese or their allies, nor to trade with any nail-producing island. After this, the king of Tidore had to pay tribute to the Portuguese, and Meneses returned victorious to Ternate [in possession of two Spanish galeots and a Portuguese one that had been captured, as well as all the spices stored by the Spanish]."

A General History and Collectio of Voyages and Travels

Shortly thereafter, the Spanish ship "la Florida" she found the island in the hands of the Portuguese and also surrendered with her crew. Finally, in 1533, the Portuguese viceroy in Goa sent a fleet to the island of Geilolo, which, after defeating the forces of the local king (an ally of the Spanish) and burning its capital, accepted the surrender of the last Spanish, who were transferred to Spain after being stripped of their weapons and spices.

To reaffirm its claims, Spain sent on November 1, 1542, a strong military expedition to the area, made up of 370 men in 6 ships, which was captured by the Portuguese in Tidore in 1544, which allowed Portugal to to be the dominant power in the Moluccas for the remainder of the 16th century.

On March 11, 1526, Emperor Carlos marries Isabella of Portugal, which strengthens the ties between the two crowns, and allows an agreement on the Moluccas. Added to this was the Emperor's interest in avoiding problems with Portugal in order to focus on Central European politics and the fact that it was not yet known how to bring the spices from the Moluccas to Europe by sailing to the East (the first "return voyage" 34;, made by Andrés de Urdaneta, is from 1565).

The treaty fixed the spheres of influence of Portugal and Spain at 297.5 leagues to the east of the Moluccas. This line of demarcation was therefore near the meridian 135° east.

In 1529, after four years without reaching an agreement, Spain signed the Treaty of Zaragoza and renounced any possible rights to the Moluccas in exchange for 350,000 gold ducats, ending the first stage of Spanish navigation on the Peaceful. In addition, the pact included a clause whereby the king of Spain could invalidate it in exchange for returning the Portuguese payment.

Philip II determined that the route from Mexico to the Moluccas Islands had to be explored and commissioned an expedition of two ships to Luis de Velasco, second viceroy of New Spain, and the Augustinian friar Andrés de Urdaneta, who was a relative of Miguel López of Legazpi, and that he had already traveled through those seas. The letter in which the king asks Urdaneta to join the expedition reads as follows:

The king: Devoto Father Fray Andrew of Urdaneta, of the order of Sant Agustin:

I have been informed that you were in the Loaysa Navy and passed to the Strait of Magellan and Espaceria, where you were eight years in our service. And for now We have entrusted Don Luis de Velasco, our Viceroy of that New Spain, to send two ships to the discovery of the islands of the West, to the Maluchs, and to command them what to do according to the instruction that is sent to him; and because according to much news that ye have of the things of that land and understand, as ye understand well, the navigation of it would be great for the namographer, I pray and command you to go in these ships and do whatever Virrey said is ordained to you, that in addition to the service that you will do to Our Lord I will be very served, and I will command you to have an account of it so that you may receive mercy in whatever place.
From Valladolid to September 24, 1559 years.

I am the King

After the Treaty of Zaragoza, the second stage of Spanish penetration into the Pacific Ocean began. The expeditions, already organized from New Spain (Mexico) now have two objectives: the establishment of a permanent base in the Philippine archipelago and the opening of a return route that connects both sides of the Pacific. With each westward expedition, new islands and roads are drawn. The return route will still take time to arrive. Miguel López de Legazpi complies with the order received and sanctions the Spanish control of the Philippine Islands, named after the Spanish monarch. Its initial settlement will soon be supplanted by the city and port that will come to centralize the Spanish possessions in the East for several centuries: Manila.

"Moluccæ Insulæ Celeberrimæ". Map of Blaeu de las Molucas, which first appeared in 1630 in the Atlantis Appendix. It was the first large-scale detailed map of the islands at the time of the Netherlands. It shows the forested nature of the islands and the strong of recent construction. The box shows the map of Batjan Island. The decoration of the edges shows the instruments of a seaman on one side and on the other the instruments of war. There are several European and Asian boats as well as a couple of sea monsters. There is a battle at sea near Ternate, where the Dutch defeated the Portuguese.

17th, 18th and 19th centuries: the Dutch East India Company

The English and Dutch also had claims to the islands, since they were already on the large island continent, Oceania.

In 1599 the Dutch India Company arrived in the Moluccas, beginning to take possession of lands and towns with the force that gives terror, destroying any enemy that opposed it. Every attempted rebellion was savagely suppressed. Such was the terror of the inhabitants that they were willing to kill their leaders themselves to appease the invader's wrath.^{[citation needed]} In 1655, the inhabitants of Kelan captured and they offered the Dutch the Prince of Ternate in order to save their city. The city was saved, but the inhabitants suffered the consequences with the loss of their freedom.

In 1575, the Islamized Indians of Ternate drove the Portuguese off this island, but in 1606 a Spanish expedition (Portugal at the time was ruled by the Spanish King Philip III) captured the fortress of Ternate, then on Dutch power.

In 1663 the Spanish left the islands, abandoning their last stronghold at Tidore in the northern Moluccas.

The English briefly occupied the Moluccas during the Napoleonic Wars, but they were restored to Dutch rule in 1814 and until 1863 they maintained compulsory spice cultivation.

Contemporary history

The Moluccan Islands, which were part of the Dutch East Indies, were invaded by Japan in World War II. Two days after Japan's surrender in 1945, Sukarno, an influential nationalist leader, declared independence and was named president.

The Netherlands tried to re-establish control over the country, leading to an armed and diplomatic struggle that ended in December 1949, when, under international pressure, the Dutch formally recognized the independence of all of Indonesia, a country in which which are the Moluccas today.