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Run (also known as Pulau Run, Pulo Run, Puloroon, or Rhun – is 'island' in
Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...
) is one of the smallest islands of the
Banda Islands The Banda Islands () are a volcanic group of ten small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, about south of Seram Island and about east of Java (island), Java, and constitute an administrative district (''kecamatan'') within the Central Maluku ...
, which are a part of the
Moluccas The Maluku Islands ( ; , ) or the Moluccas ( ; ) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located in West Melanesi ...
,
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. It is located within Banda District (''kecamatan'') in
Central Maluku Regency Central Maluku Regency () is a regency of Maluku Province of Indonesia. The Regency covers an area of 11,595.57 km2, and had a population of 361,698 at the 2010 Census,Biro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 423,094 at the 2020 Census.Badan ...
. In 1616, fearing the Dutch, the natives of the island pledged their allegiance to the employees of English
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
, who accepted it on behalf of the Crown. According to historian
John Keay John Stanley Melville Keay FRGS (born 1941) is a British historian, journalist, radio presenter and lecturer specialising in popular histories of India, the Far East and China, often with a particular focus on their colonisation and explora ...
who considers Pulo Run as the genesis of the
British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...
: "As the island of
Runnymede Runnymede is a water-meadow alongside the River Thames in the English county of Surrey, bordering Berkshire and just over west of central London. It is notable for its association with the sealing of Magna Carta, and as a consequence is, with ...
is to British constitutional history, so the island of Run is to British imperial history". In the 17th century, the tiny island of Run was of great economic importance because of the value of the spices it produced:
nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed, or the ground spice derived from the seed, of several tree species of the genus '' Myristica''; fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg ('' M. fragrans'') is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fru ...
and mace.


Geography

Run is the westernmost island of the Banda Islands, with a length of and width of . The neighbouring island of Pulau Ay is about 7 km east and the small islet of Pulau Naijalaka is 0.7 km north.


History

During the history of the
spice trade The spice trade involved historical civilizations in Asia, Northeast Africa and Europe. Spices, such as cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, star anise, clove, and turmeric, were known and used in antiquity and traded in t ...
, sailors of the
English East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South Asia and Southeast A ...
of the second expedition of
James Lancaster Sir James Lancaster (c. 1554 – 6 June 1618) was an English privateer and trader of the Elizabethan era. Life and work Lancaster came from Basingstoke in Hampshire. Lancaster was brought up in Portugal as a merchant and soldier, but retu ...
, John Davis,
Sir Henry Middleton Sir Henry Middleton (died 1613) was an English sea captain and adventurer. He negotiated with the sultan of Ternate and the sultan of Tidore, competed against Dutch and Portuguese interests in the East Indies but still managed to buy cloves. ...
and his brother
John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...
who stayed in Bantam on
Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
, first reached the island in 1603 and developed good contacts with the inhabitants. A small settlement was first attempted on the islet of Pulau Naijalaka off the north end of Pulau Rhun. On December25, 1616, Captain
Nathaniel Courthope Nathaniel Courthope (born 1585;– died c. October 20, 1620) (sometimes written Courthopp) was an English East India Company officer involved in the wars with the Dutch over the spice trade. Life He was of the wealthy cloth-maker Courthope famil ...
and 1st mate Zachary Barnett Duncan reached Run to defend it against the claims of the
Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...
(VOC). A contract with the inhabitants was signed, accepting
James I of England James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 unti ...
/
James VI of Scotland James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...
as sovereign of the island. The Dutch were outraged over this threat to their monopoly on the extremely profitable spice trade. Courthope fortified the island by erecting forts to overlook approaches from the east, but lost two ships to mutiny and sinking by the Dutch, when they laid siege to the island. Courthope and 39 European defenders with their native allies held off the Dutch for 1540 days; however, after his death in a Dutch attack in 1620, the English departed the island. Finally in possession of Run, the Dutch proceeded to kill or enslave all adult men, exile the women and children and chop down every nutmeg tree on the island to prevent the English from retaking it. The VOC only allowed cattle to roam free on Run to provide food for the other islands. It was not until 1638 that the English tried to access Run again, after which VOC officials annually visited the island to check if they had secretly re-established themselves. According to the Treaty of Westminster ending the
First Anglo-Dutch War The First Anglo-Dutch War, or First Dutch War, was a naval conflict between the Commonwealth of England and the Dutch Republic. Largely caused by disputes over trade, it began with English attacks on Dutch merchant shipping, but expanded to vast ...
(1652–1654), Run should have been returned to
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. After the
Second Anglo-Dutch War The Second Anglo-Dutch War, began on 4 March 1665, and concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Breda (1667), Treaty of Breda on 31 July 1667. It was one in a series of Anglo-Dutch Wars, naval wars between Kingdom of England, England and the D ...
(1665–1667), England and the United Provinces of the Netherlands agreed in the Treaty of Breda to the status quo: the English kept the island of
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
, which the Duke of York (the future James II, brother of Charles II), had occupied in 1664, renaming the city on that island from
New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...
to
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
. In return, Run was formally abandoned to the Dutch. The Dutch monopoly on nutmeg and mace lasted up till the
Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
; when in 1810 the British led by Captain Cole invaded and captured the Spice islands. The transfer of nutmeg trees to
Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
,
Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...
, Singapore and other British colonies in 1817 led to the decline of the Dutch supremacy in the
spice trade The spice trade involved historical civilizations in Asia, Northeast Africa and Europe. Spices, such as cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, star anise, clove, and turmeric, were known and used in antiquity and traded in t ...
. Dutch control of the island ended in 1949 (as the
Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...
became Indonesia), but nutmeg trees are still growing on Run today.


Administration

Run Island is part of the
Banda Islands The Banda Islands () are a volcanic group of ten small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, about south of Seram Island and about east of Java (island), Java, and constitute an administrative district (''kecamatan'') within the Central Maluku ...
group which had a total population of 20,924 at the 2020 census.Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021. The main town of the group is Banda Naira on Banda Naira Island. Administratively, Run Island is included in the Banda District (''kecamatan'') which is one of 18 districts within the
Central Maluku Regency Central Maluku Regency () is a regency of Maluku Province of Indonesia. The Regency covers an area of 11,595.57 km2, and had a population of 361,698 at the 2010 Census,Biro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 423,094 at the 2020 Census.Badan ...
(population 423,094 at the 2020 census). The Regency is in turn part of the province of
Maluku Maluku may refer to: Places * Maluku Islands, an archipelago that is part of Indonesia ** List of the Maluku Islands * Maluku (province), a province of Indonesia comprising the central and southern parts of the archipelago * North Maluku, a provin ...
(population 1,848,923 at the 2020 census), the capital city of which is Ambon on
Ambon Island Ambon Island is part of the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. The island has an area of and is mountainous, well watered, and fertile. Ambon Island consists of two territories: the city of Ambon, Maluku, Ambon to the south, and three districts (''k ...
. Banda Naira is connected by sea and air transport to Ambon. Bandanaira airport is one of the smaller airports in Indonesia, used mainly by administrative staff or by tourists who visit Banda Islands for the snorkeling and diving opportunities in the region.


See also

*
Banda Neira Banda Neira (also known as Pulau Neira) is an island in the Banda Islands, Indonesia. It is administered as part of the administrative Banda Islands District (''Kecamatan Kepulauan Banda'') within the Central Maluku Regency in the province o ...
*
British Bencoolen British Bencoolen, variously known during its existence as Fort York, Fort Marlborough, Bencoolen, Benkulu, or "the West Coast", was a possession of the British East India Company (EIC) extending nearly 500 miles (800 km) along the southwestern c ...
* Bantam Presidency


References


Further reading

* * *


External links

* *{{cite EB1911, wstitle=Banda Islands , volume=3 , short=x
The Spice Traders Forgotten Island
1616 establishments in the British Empire History of New York City Banda Islands Former English colonies Central Maluku Regency History of Manhattan