Islands And Archipelagos Codexery

Maluku Islands

The Spice Islands at the crossroads of Asia and Oceania.

Last updated

Maluku Islands

via Wikipedia: Maluku Islands · see source

Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the Maluku Islands were the exclusive global source of nutmeg, mace, and cloves, commodities whose high value spurred European colonial ambitions.[1][2] The archipelago spans 850,000 km², with 90% of that being water, and comprises roughly 1027 islands.[3] According to the 2020 census, Maluku Province had 1,848,923 residents and North Maluku Province had 1,282,937, giving a combined regional total of 3,131,860.[4]

Last updated 2026-10-08 from the source article.

Geography and history

The Dutch arrived in 1599 and, allied with the Sultan of Ternate, expelled the Portuguese from Ambon and Tidore in 1605.[5] The Dutch monopolized spice production through a ruthless policy, including the genocidal conquest of the Banda Islands in 1621.[6] From Indonesian independence until 1999 the Maluku Islands formed a single province, then split into North Maluku and Maluku provinces.[7] Halmahera and Seram are the two biggest islands, whereas Ambon and Ternate, though smaller, are the most urbanized.[3]

Seram's Mount Binaiya, rising to 3027 meters, is the tallest peak in the region.[8] The earliest known reference to Maluku appears in the Nagarakertagama, a 1365 Old Javanese poem.[9] After seizing Malacca in August 1511, the Portuguese dispatched a three-vessel expedition under António de Abreu, Simão Afonso Bisigudo, and Francisco Serrão to locate the Banda Islands; Serrão was later shipwrecked on Hitu island in 1512.[10][11] Fighting along religious and ethnic lines broke out across the islands in January 1999, and over the following 18 months roughly 500,000 people were forced from their homes.[12]

What the cited sources add

A 2011 Jakarta Post article notes that the Banda Islands were the only source of nutmeg and mace in the Middle Ages, driving early European colonialism.[13] The Dutch exiled anti-colonialists Mohammad Hatta and Sutan Sjahrir to the Banda Islands in the 1930s.[13] A 2017 Okezone Travel article reports that a Balinese envoy of Gajah Mada named Kasdev, his wife, and eight children settled on Kai Kecil.[14][15] The Lonely Planet guide describes Maluku as playing a hugely important role in global geopolitics between the 16th and 18th centuries.[2]

A BBC News report from 2000 states that the Dutch exerted strong influence over the islands up to Indonesia's war of independence in the late 1940s.[16] Muslim leaders believed Christian militants had a plan to drive out recent Muslim immigrants.[16]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Maluku Islands" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Welcome to Maluku", Lonely Planet (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. "Welcome to Maluku", Lonely Planet. facts only, no text reused. lonelyplanet.com
  3. Wikipedia, "Maluku Islands" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Monk, "The Ecology of Nusa Tenggara and Maluku", Periplus Editions Ltd., 1996, p. 9; Witton, "Indonesia", Lonely Planet, 2003, p. 818; Witton, "Indonesia", Lonely Planet, 2003, p. 818 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Maluku Islands" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Jumlah Penduduk Hasil SP2020 menurut Wilayah dan Jenis Kelamin (Orang), 2020", Badan Pusat Statistik (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Maluku Islands" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Maluku province, Indonesia Britannica", www.britannica.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Maluku Islands" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Milne, "Banda, the nutmeg treasure islands", Jakarta Post, 16 Jan 2011, p. 10–11 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Maluku Islands" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: IRJA.org (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Maluku Islands" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Witton, "Indonesia", Lonely Planet, 2003, p. 818 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Maluku Islands" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pigeaud, "Java in the 14th Century: A Study in Cultural History, Volume III: Translations", Martinus Nijhoff, 1960c; Pigeaud, "Java in the 14th Century: A Study in Cultural History, Volume IV: Commentaries and Recapitulations", Martinus Nijhoff, 1962 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Maluku Islands" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ricklefs, "A History of Modern Indonesia Since c.1300", MacMillan, 1991, p. 26 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Maluku Islands" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Abendanon, "Missing Links in the Development of the Ancient Portuguese Cartography of the Netherlands East Indian Archipelago", The Geographical Journal, December 1919, p. 347–355 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Wikipedia, "Maluku Islands" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Troubled history of the Moluccas", BBC News, 26 June 2000 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  13. Milne, "Banda, the nutmeg treasure islands", Jakarta Post, 16 Jan 2011, p. 10–11. facts only, no text reused. thejakartapost.com
  14. Wikipedia, "Maluku Islands" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Riyani, "TERUNGKAP! Sejarah Hubungan Bali dan Kepulauan Kei yang Tak Banyak Diketahui Orang : Okezone Travel", travel.okezone.com/, 2017-07-21 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  15. Riyani, "TERUNGKAP! Sejarah Hubungan Bali dan Kepulauan Kei yang Tak Banyak Diketahui Orang : Okezone Travel", travel.okezone.com/, 2017-07-21. facts only, no text reused. travel.okezone.com
  16. "Troubled history of the Moluccas", BBC News, 26 June 2000. facts only, no text reused. news.bbc.co.uk

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Maluku Islands (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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