Ternate
Dominated by a three-peaked volcano, Ternate is around twenty-five kilometres west of Halmahera at the northern end of a chain of volcanic islands in the northern Moluccas. Alongside its longtime rival in Tidore, the Sultanate of Ternate is one of the Indonesian archipelago's oldest Muslim sultanates. As a major regional power from the 15th to 17th centuries, in its heyday, the sultanate's territory encompassed much of eastern Indonesia, including eastern Sulawesi, Ambon and Seram, Timor, parts of southern Mindanao and Papua. The sultanate's wealth and power, along with that of neighbouring Tidore, stemmed from the two islands' status as the world's major producer of cloves. However, while the inhabitants now grow copra, rice, maize, sago, coffee, pepper, nutmeg, and fruit.
Ternate was one of the earliest centres in the region to adopt Islam in the late 15th century, although the faith was initially restricted to Ternate's royal family and spread only slowly to the rest of the population. According to island tradition, Momole Cico took the title Baab Mashur Malamo when he established the sultanate in 1257. The first Europeans to arrive were part of António de Abreu's expedition that left Malacca in July 1511. After Francisco Serrão was shipwrecked near Seram and rescued by local residents, Sultan Bayan Sirrullah saw an opportunity to acquire a foreign ally and brought Serrão to the island in 1512.
Although the Portuguese were allowed to build a fort on the island in 1522, relations were strained. Poor behaviour by the Portuguese, combined with their attempts to convert the islanders, strained relations with Ternate's Muslim ruler. One sultan was deposed, deported to Goa and converted. He might have returned to the throne if he hadn't died on the return journey. After the Portuguese disposed of another in 1575, the population rebelled and expelled them after a five-year siege in 1575. Ambon became Portugal's new base in the region, while Ternate became an expanding, fiercely Islamic and anti-Portuguese state. After Spanish forces and their Filipino allies occupied Ternate and deported the sultan in 1606, when the Dutch arrived on the scene the following year, they were a useful, although not entirely welcome, ally. With Tidore firmly aligned with the Spanish camp, Ternate strengthened its control over the periphery while the Dutch set about expelling their European rivals from the islands to the south. Still, Dutch influence in Ternate grew steadily as the rulers exchanged territory for assistance in suppressing rebellions.
An unsuccessful attempt to expel the Netherlanders saw more territory conceded in a 1683 treaty, which made the sultanate a semi-independent vassal state as the VOC attempted to control the northern Molucca spice trade. Although that trade had declined substantially by the 19th century, the Dutch maintained a presence in the region to prevent other colonial powers moving in. After the Dutch government nationalised the VOC in 1800 and British forces took over the island between 1810 and 1817, it became the capital of an administrative region covering Halmahera, the entire west coast of New Guinea, and the central east coast of Sulawesi in 1824. With all Dutch New Guinea subsequently absorbed by the residency, the administrative centre was gradually transferred to Ambon. The process was completed in 1922. In the meantime, a last-ditch clandestine attempt to expel the Dutch by Sultan Haji Muhammad Usman failed. After the Dutch annexed the island and exiled the sultan in 1914, the throne remained vacant until 1929, when Iskandar Muhammad Jabir became the next Sultan. Although Muhammad Jabir played a significant role during the Indonesian Revolution and attempted to revive adat traditions in the 1960s, the sultanate lapsed after his death in 1975.
Links:
Sulawesi
Ambon
Seram
Timor,
Mindanao
Papua
Goa
VOC
Iskandar Muhammad Jabir
adat
