Locations and Trip Reports / Maluka History

The fabled Spice Islands of legend lie in the modern day eastern province of Maluku, Indonesia.  These islands have attracted regional and international traders for more than three millennia.  Prior to 1500, no European had ever landed on the shores of Maluku.  Maluku had always attracted Asian traders that sailed to the region on the seasonal monsoons.  The biggest, most valuable prizes in Maluku were clove and nutmeg.  The huge impact that these tiny, remote islands had on the European Continent at the time was immeasurable.  After the first Portuguese vessel arrived in Maluku in April, 1512, the balance of power that had remained quite stable and little changed over the centuries changed abruptly.  The Portuguese arrival in the early 16th century and their decision to build series of Forts set a new precedent in Maluku.  The forts would be built to ensure security as an Asian trading center and goods and people would not be arbitrarily seized by the local ruler.  This pioneer idea in Maluku later evolved into the concept for the modern day foreign naval base.

Maluku was the most valuable real estate in the world five hundred years ago, but the irony is that those who were willing to pay the dearest price for it, in fact did not know where Maluku was located.  The Iberian powers of the late 15th century knew all too well that they needed to find the source of the spices themselves in order to cut out the huge profits being reaped by the Venetians as they controlled the entry of spices into Europe.  Thus, Prince Henry the Navigator, Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and Ferdinand Magellan began their fates with destiny.  The Iberians would enthusiastically exclaim that they were in Maluku in order to spread the word of God and secure as much spices as their boats would hold.  The famous saying of the time was “Jesus is Great, Trade is even better.”  The risks were indeed high for 16th century explorers in search of Maluku, but a sack full of nutmeg from Banda would put a common sailor into an early retirement if he made it home alive.

Through the centuries, European colonial powers would come and go in Maluku.  The locals continued to fish and harvest cloves and nutmeg as they had for millennium and as they still do today.  One hugely significant event that finally was settled in the halls of Parliamentary Europe in 1667 was the case of a small island swap between the Dutch and English regarding the English possession of Run Island in the Bandas and the Dutch possession of New Amsterdam on the North American continent.  This island swap, which was based on the resilience of a handful of determined British soldiers in the Banda Sea in the second decade of the 17th century, may well be the primary reason why North Americans speak English today and not Dutch!

A few famous Coen Quotes

• There is nothing in the world that gives a greater protection to human rights than backing up justice with force”
• “Despair not, spare your enemies not, for God is with us”
• After the Treaty of Defense was signed in Europe, solidifying a deal made be between the Dutch and English, he said “giving 1/3 of the proceeds of the spice profits to the English is like taking a snake in your bosom”
• “It is a sham to see such scum that arrives in your ships.”  It was quite painful for Coen to see the dregs of Dutch society arriving en masse to the Indies.  He was hoping for a much higher standard in the Dutch settlers that were needed to build the Dutch Empire.

Joining the Dutch East India Company (VOC), he made his first voyage to Indonesia in 1607.  There was a particular incident on the island of Banda Naira in May, 1609 that had a lasting effect on this determined young man.  Banda was the original home of nutmeg, which the VOC desperately wanted to control.  Coen saw 42 of his comrades murdered in cold blood on that fateful day.  Most scholars believe that this single event was the catalyst that drove Coen to eventually order the mass execution of nearly the entire adult male population of Banda on May 8, 1621.  After the Banda massacre, he recruited regional workers from throughout the archipelago to move to Banda to work the new nutmeg plantations in addition to the new arrivals from Holland known as perkeniers (plantation workers).  The title “Butch of Banda” stuck to him forever after that horrible day in Banda’s history.  In October 1613 he was appointed accountant-general of all VOC offices in Indonesia and president of the head office in Bantam and of Batavia (now Jakarta).  In 1614, he was made director-general, the second highest function.  On October 25, 1617 the Lords of VOC appointed him.

Notable Characters and Events in Maluka History

• April, 1512…….Portuguese adventurer Francisco Serrao sailed into the Banda Islands, Serrao was a very close friend of Magellan (they saved each other’s lives in battle on a few occasions) and his letter from Maluku were sent back to Magellan in Lisbon, which later inspired his journey to attempt to find the Spice Islands.

• 1519…….Ferdinand Magellan was sent on his epic circumnavigation of the globe by the Spanish crown in order to determine the exact longitudinal coordinates of the Spice Islands from the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas.  Magellan was killed in the Philippines several months before his crew’s arrival to Tidore Island, North Maluku on November 8, 1521.

• November, 1579…….The English Commander Francis Drake arrives in Ternate aboard the Golden Hind.  Drake loaded seven tons of cloves on board.  The riches he returned with whet the appetites of the next adventurous group of traders; the English.

• 1602…….Dutch companies combine to from Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) other wise known as the Dutch East India Company; The Major Shareholders known as the Lords 17, gives the VOC power to raise armies, build forts, negotiate treaties and wage war in Asia.

• March, 1603…….Englishman James Lancaster arrives on Run Island in the Bandas and raises the English flag, Run Island is the first British colony.  This island is only 10 miles from the Dutch base on Naira Island.  Dutch and English hostilities start in earnest.

• March, 1609…….The Dutch arrive in Banda in force and after several unsuccessful attempts to negotiate a monopoly over the nutmeg trade, they begin repairing the old Portuguese Fort Nassau on May 5 much to the dismay of the local chiefs.  The Bandanese are furious with this arrogance.  Verhoef and his 42 Dutch colleagues were ambushed and massacred by the locals under the orders of the Orang kayas on May 22

• December 1616…….Nathaniel Courthope arrives to the island of Run.  He becomes a major hindrance to Dutch efforts to monopolize the nutmeg trade.

• December 1616…….Nathaniel Courthope arrives to the island of Run.  He becomes a major hindrance to Dutch efforts to monopolize the nutmeg trade here and he and his small group of determined Brits hold out for nearly five years on this small, but historically significant island.

• October, 1620…….Courthope is killed by the Dutch.  His tremendous efforts on the lonely island of Run will bear fruit forty seven years later with the trade of Manhattan to the English.

• May 8, 1621…….VOC Governor General Jan Pieterszoon Coen orders the massacre of all 44 “orang kaya” or traditional leaders in the Bandas.

• July 21, 1667…The Treaty of Breda is signed between Holland and England.  Run Island in Banda is given up by the English to the Dutch for the island of New Amsterdam (Manhattan), New Jersey, and the Delaware estuary.

• 1770…….Frenchman Pierre Provost sends a small crew into Maluku to smuggle out nutmeg and clove seedlings.  The crew manages to find a good supply on the island of Gebe and they return to Mauritius Island with several hundred nutmeg and clove seedlings.  This is the beginning of the end for Dutch monopoly in Maluku

• August, 1810…..Captain Christopher Cole of England seizes Fort Belgica on Neira Island, Banda.

• 1854-1862……..Alfred Russel Wallace spends nearly 8 years in the Dutch East Indies.  Wallace was an English naturalist and collected an amazing “125,660 specimens of natural history” most of it in Maluku.  Many people believe that Darwin’s Origin of Species was largely plagiarized from Wallace’s research and scientific papers sent from Maluku during this time.