Ambon was a

governorate A governorate or governate is an administrative division headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either states or provinces, the term ''governorate'' is typically used to calque divisions ...

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 ...

, consisting of

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 ...

and ten neighbouring islands. Steven van der Hagen captured Fort Victoria on 22 February 1605 from the Portuguese in the name of the Dutch East India Company. Until 1619, Ambon served as the capital of the Dutch possessions in

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

. In that year Batavia was founded to function as the staple port for the Dutch East India Company in Asia. The island was the world center of

clove Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring, or Aroma compound, fragrance in fin ...

production until the 19th 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.

History

In 1513, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to land on Ambon Island, and it became the new centre for Portuguese activities in Maluku following their expulsion from

Ternate Ternate (), also known as the City of Ternate (; ), is the List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city with the largest population in the province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands, Indonesia. It was the ''de facto'' provi ...

. The Portuguese, however, were regularly attacked by 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 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 ...

, the nearby centre of nutmeg production. The creole trade language Portugis however was spoken well into the 19th century and many families still have Portuguese names and claim Portuguese ancestry. The Portuguese were dispossessed by the Dutch on 22 February 1605, when Steven van der Hagen took over Fort Victoria without a single shot. Ambon was the headquarters of the

(VOC) from 1610 to 1619 until the founding of Batavia, now

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

, by the Dutch. Around 1615, the English founded a settlement on the island at Cambello, which lasted until 1623.

Amboyna massacre

In 1623, the Dutch uncovered a plot by VOC-employed Japanese mercenary soldiers to seize Fort Victoria and assassinate the governor, purportedly in conspiracy with the English merchants. During questioning most suspects were

waterboarded Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water torture, water is poured over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized captive, causing the person to experience the sensation of drowning. In the most common method ...

. Among those who confessed, 10 VOC mercenary soldiers and 10

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 ...

employees were found guilty of treason and were executed by a local Dutch court. On request of England, the involved judges were recalled to the Netherlands and put on trial, but were finally (in 1632) judged to have acted lawfully. Decades later,

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...

used embellished versions of this event, dubbed the " Amboyna massacre", as one of the pretexts to start both 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 ...

(in 1652) and 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 ...

(in 1665), while

John Dryden John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration (En ...

produced his tragedy ''Amboyna; or the Cruelties of the Dutch to the English Merchants'' on request of one of the English negotiators of the Secret Treaty of Dover during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. The 17th-century propaganda of a deliberate and gruesome slaughter of innocent merchants surfaces even in modern popular historical narratives. Milton, G., ''Nathaniel’s Nutmeg: How one man's courage changed the course of history'', Sceptre, 2000,

Capture by the British

In 1795, the

Batavian Republic The Batavian Republic (; ) was the Succession of states, successor state to the Dutch Republic, Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on 19 January 1795 after the Batavian Revolution and ended on 5 June 1806, with the acce ...

was established with the help of French forces in the territory of the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

. The latest stadtholder,

William V, Prince of Orange William V (Willem Batavus; 8 March 1748 – 9 April 1806) was Prince of Orange and the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. He went into exile to London in 1795. He was furthermore ruler of the Principality of Orange-Nassau until his death in ...

, asked the British in the Kew Letters to temporarily occupy the Dutch colonies. Indeed, in 1796, British Admiral Rainier sailed to Ambon to take the colony, which was accepted by governor of Ambon, Alexander Cornabé. The territory was restored to the Dutch at the Peace of Amiens in 1802, but the Dutch East India Company had been nationalized in the meantime, which meant that Ambon become a colony of the Batavian Republic and later the Kingdom of Holland. Ambon was retaken by the British in 1810, but once more restored to the Dutch by virtue of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814. It then remained, as part of 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 ...

, a colony of the

Kingdom of the Netherlands The Kingdom of the Netherlands (, ;, , ), commonly known simply as the Netherlands, is a sovereign state consisting of a collection of constituent territories united under the monarch of the Netherlands, who functions as head of state. The re ...

, until in 1949 Maluku was transferred to Indonesia, under agreements that Moluccans could choose or opt out of the new country. After a proclamation of independence the Moluccan islands were invaded by the Indonesian army in 1950 during the Invasion of Ambon.

List of governors

* 1605–1611: Frederick de Houtman * 1611–1615: Caspar Janszoon * 1615–1616: Adriaen Maertensz Block * 1616–1618: Steven van der Hagen * 1618–1625: Herman van Speult * 1625–1628: Jan van Gorcum * 1628–1631: Philip Lucaszoon * 1631–1634: Artus Gysels * 1634–1635: Antoni van den Heuvel * 1635–1637: Joachim Roelofsz van Deutekom * 1637–1641: Johan Ottens * 1642–1642: Antoni Caan * 1642–1647: Gerard Demmer * 1647–1651: Arnold de Vlaming van Outshoorn * 1651–1654: Willem Verbeek * 1654–1656: Arnold de Vlaming van Outshoorn * 1656–1662: Jacob Hustaert * 1662–1664: Simon Cos * 1664–1665: Johan van Dam * 1666–1667: Pieter Marville * 1669–1672: Jacob Cos * 1672–1678: Anthonio Hurdt * 1678–1682: Robbert de Vicq * 1682–1687: Robbert Padbrugge * 1687–1691: Dirk de Haas * 1691–1696: Joan Paul Schaghen * 1697–1701: Willem van Wijngaarden * 1701–1706: Balthasar Coyett * 1706–1720: Adriaan van der Stel * 1721–1725: Pieter Gabrij * 1725–1727: Stephanus Versluys * 1727–1733: Johannes Bernard * 1733–1738: David Johan Bake * 1738–1743: Jacob de Jong * 1743–1748: Nathaniël Steinmetz * 1748–1750: Cornelis Roosenboom * 1750–1752: Nicolaus Jongma * 1752–1757: Gerard Cluysenaar * 1757–1763: Meyert Johan van Idsinga * 1763–1763: Goderd Ludolf van Beusechem * 1764–1767: Willem Fockens * 1767–1770: Hendrik Breton * 1770–1775: Johan Abraham van der Voort * 1775–1785: Bernardus van Pleuren * 1785–1788: Adriaan de Bock * 1788–1794: Johan Adam Schilling * 1794–1796:

References

Sources