| In 1513, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to land in Ambon,
and it became the new centre for Portuguese activities in Maluku
following their expulsion from Ternate.[2] The Portuguese, however, were
regularly attacked from native Muslims on the island's northern coast,
in particular Hitu, which had trading and religious links with major
port cities on Java's north coast. They established a factory in 1521,
but did not obtain peaceable possession of it until 1580. Indeed, the
Portuguese never managed to control the local trade in spices, and
failed in attempts to establish their authority over the Banda Islands,
the nearby centre of nutmeg production.
The Portuguese were dispossessed by the Dutch already in 1605, when
Steven van der Hagen took over the fort and without a single shot. Ambon
was the headquarters of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) from 1610 to
1619 until the founding of Batavia (now Jakarta) by the Dutch.[3] About
1615 the English formed a settlement on the island at Cambello, which
they retained until 1623, when it was destroyed by the Dutch. Frightful
tortures inflicted on its unfortunate inhabitants were connected with
its destruction. In 1654, after many fruitless negotiations, Oliver
Cromwell compelled the United Provinces to give the sum of 300,000
gulden, as compensation to the descendants of those who suffered in the
"Ambon Massacre", together with Manhattan.[4] In 1673 the poet John
Dryden produced his tragedy Amboyna; or the Cruelties of the Dutch to
the English Merchants. In 1796 the British, under Admiral Rainier,
captured Ambon, but restored it to the Dutch at the peace of Amiens, in
1802. It was retaken by the British in 1810, but once more restored to
the Dutch in 1814. Ambon used to be the world center of clove
production; until the nineteenth century, the Dutch prohibited the
rearing of the clove-tree in all the other islands subject to their
rule, in order to secure the monopoly to Ambon.
During the Dutch period, Ambon city was the seat of the Dutch
resident and military commander of the Moluccas. The town was protected
by Fort Victoria, and a 1911 encyclopedia characterized it as "a clean
little town with wide streets, well planted". The population was divided
into two classes orang burger or citizens, and orang negri or villagers,
the former being a class of native origin enjoying certain privileges
conferred on their ancestors by the old Dutch East India Company. There
were also, besides the Dutch, some Arabs, Chinese and a few Portuguese
settlers.
Ambon city was the site of a major Dutch military base, which was
captured from Allied forces by the Japanese in the Battle of Ambon
(1942), during World War II. The battle was followed by the summary
execution of more than 300 Allied POWs, in the Laha massacre.
Indonesia declared its independence in 1945. As a result of ethnic
and religious tensions, as well as President Sukarno's making of
Indonesia a centralised state, Ambon was the scene of a revolt against
the Indonesian government, which resulted in the rebellion of Republic
of the South Moluccas in 1950. |
