:: Ambon Island Mallucas - Maluku Travel Guides ::
Ambon Island is part of the
Maluku Islands of Indonesia. The island has an area of
775 km˛ (300 sq mi.), and is mountainous, well watered,
and fertile. The main city and seaport is Ambon (1990
pop. 275,888), which is also the capital of Maluku
province. Ambon has an airport, and is home to the
Pattimura University, a state university, and few
private universities.
Geography
Ambon Isl
and
lies off the south-west coast of the much larger Seram
island. It is on the north side of the Banda Sea, part
of a chain of volcanic isles that form a circle around
the sea. It is 51 km (32 miles) in length, and is of
very irregular shape, being almost divided into two. The
south-eastern and smaller portion, a peninsula (called
Leitimor) is united to the northern (Hitoe) by a narrow
neck of land. Ambon city lies on the north-west of
Leitimor, facing Hitoe, and has a safe harbor on Amboyna
Bay.
The highest mountains, Wawani (1100 m/3609 ft) and
Salahutu (1225 m/4020 ft.), have hot springs and
solfataras. They are volcanoes, and the mountains of the
neighboring Uliasser islands, extinct volcanoes. Granite
and serpentine rocks predominate, but the shores of
Amboyna Bay are of chalk, and contain stalactite caves.
Wild areas of Ambon Island are covered by tropical
rainforest, part of the Seram rain forests ecoregion,
together with neighboring Seram. Seram, Ambon, and most
of Maluku are part of Wallacea, the group of Indonesian
islands that are separated by deep water from both the
Asian and Australian continents, and have never been
linked to the continents by land.
As a result of this isolation, Ambon has few indigenous
mammals; birds are more abundant. The insect diversity
of the island, however, is rich, particularly in
butterflies. Seashells are obtained in great numbers and
variety. Tortoise-shell is also exported.
Climate
The average temperature is 80 F., rarely sinking below
72. Rainfall can be heavy, especially after the eastern
monsoons, and the island is vulnerable to violent
typhoons. The dry season (October to April) is
coincident with the period of the west monsoon.
Economy
Cassava and sago are
the chief crops, which also include breadfruit,
sugarcane, coffee, cocoa, pepper and cotton. and hunting
and fishing supplement the diet. Nutmeg and cloves, were
once the dominant export crops, and are now produced in
limited quantities. Copra is also exported. Amboina
wood, obtained from a local tree (Pterocarpus indicus),
is highly valued for ornamental woodwork, is now mostly
grown on Seram.
Demographics
The Ambonese are of mixed Malay-Papuan origin. They are
mostly Christians or Muslims. The predominant language
of the island is Ambonese Malay, also called Ambonese.
It developed as the trade language of central Maluku,
and is spoken elsewhere in Maluku as a second language.
Bilingualism in Indonesian is high around Ambon City.
There are strong ethnic tensions on the island between
Muslims and Christians
History
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. 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 in 1609.
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
British 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
sed
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.
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