Ambon was a
governorate
A governorate is an administrative division of a state. It is headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either State (administrative division), states or province, provinces, the term ''govern ...
of the
Dutch East India Company
The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
, 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 various districts ('' ...
and ten neighbouring islands.
Steven van der Hagen
Steven van der Hagen (Amersfoort, 1563 – 1621) was the first admiral of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He made three visits to the East Indies, spending six years in all there. He was appointed to the Raad van Indië. Van der Hage ...
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 the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...
. In that year
Batavia
Batavia may refer to:
Historical places
* Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands
* Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
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 fragrance in consumer products, ...
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
![COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM 'Bastion 'Groningen' van fort 'Victoria' op Amboina' TMnr 10002111](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/COLLECTIE_TROPENMUSEUM_%27Bastion_%27Groningen%27_van_fort_%27Victoria%27_op_Amboina%27_TMnr_10002111.jpg)
In 1513, the
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
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 is a city in the Indonesian province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands. It was the ''de facto'' provincial capital of North Maluku before Sofifi on the nearby coast of Halmahera became the capital in 2010. It is off the we ...
. 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 ( id, Kepulauan Banda) are a volcanic group of ten small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, about south of Seram Island and about east of Java, and constitute an administrative district (''kecamatan'') within the Central M ...
, the nearby centre of nutmeg production. The creole trade language
Portugis
Portugis, or Ternateño, was a Portuguese-based creole language spoken by Christians of mixed Portuguese people, Portuguese and Malay people, Malay ancestry in the islands of Ambon Island, Ambon and Ternate in the Moluccas (Indonesia), from the ...
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
Steven van der Hagen (Amersfoort, 1563 – 1621) was the first admiral of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He made three visits to the East Indies, spending six years in all there. He was appointed to the Raad van Indië. Van der Hage ...
took over Fort Victoria without a single shot. Ambon was the headquarters of the
Dutch East India Company
The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
(VOC) from 1610 to 1619 until the founding of Batavia, now
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
, by the Dutch. Around 1615, the English founded a settlement on the island at Cambello, which lasted until 1623.
Amboyna massacre
The Amboyna massacre was the 1623 torture and execution on Ambon Island (present-day Ambon, Maluku, Indonesia) of twenty-one men, including ten of whom were in the service of the English East India Company, and Japanese and Portuguese traders an ...
Ref to
Amboyna massacre
The Amboyna massacre was the 1623 torture and execution on Ambon Island (present-day Ambon, Maluku, Indonesia) of twenty-one men, including ten of whom were in the service of the English East India Company, and Japanese and Portuguese traders an ...
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. 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 founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southe ...
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 politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...
used embellished versions of this event, dubbed the "
Amboyna massacre
The Amboyna massacre was the 1623 torture and execution on Ambon Island (present-day Ambon, Maluku, Indonesia) of twenty-one men, including ten of whom were in the service of the English East India Company, and Japanese and Portuguese traders an ...
", as one of the pretexts to start both the
First Anglo-Dutch war
The First Anglo-Dutch War, or simply the First Dutch War, ( nl, Eerste Engelse (zee-)oorlog, "First English (Sea) War"; 1652–1654) was a conflict fought entirely at sea between the navies of the Commonwealth of England and the Dutch Republic, ...
(in 1652) and the
Second Anglo-Dutch War
The Second Anglo-Dutch War or the Second Dutch War (4 March 1665 – 31 July 1667; nl, Tweede Engelse Oorlog "Second English War") was a conflict between Kingdom of England, England and the Dutch Republic partly for control over the seas a ...
(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.
He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...
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
The Treaty of Dover, also known as the Secret Treaty of Dover, was a treaty between England and France signed at Dover on 1 June 1670. It required that Charles II of England would convert to the Roman Catholic Church at some future date and th ...
during the
Third Anglo-Dutch War
The Third Anglo-Dutch War ( nl, Derde Engels-Nederlandse Oorlog), 27 March 1672 to 19 February 1674, was a naval conflict between the Dutch Republic and England, in alliance with France. It is considered a subsidiary of the wider 1672 to 1678 ...
. 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 ( nl, Bataafse Republiek; french: République Batave) was the successor state to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on 19 January 1795 and ended on 5 June 1806, with the accession of Louis Bona ...
was established with the help of French forces in the territory of the
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
. The latest stadtholder,
William V, Prince of Orange
William V (Willem Batavus; 8 March 1748 – 9 April 1806) was a 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
The Kew Letters (also known as the Circular Note of Kew) were a number of letters, written by stadtholder William V, Prince of Orange between 30 January and 8 February 1795 from the "Dutch House" at Kew Palace, where he temporarily stayed after hi ...
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
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.
Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
. The territory was restored to the Dutch at the
Peace of Amiens
The Treaty of Amiens (french: la paix d'Amiens, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it se ...
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
The Kingdom of Holland ( nl, Holland (contemporary), (modern); french: Royaume de Hollande) was created by Napoleon Bonaparte, overthrowing the Batavian Republic in March 1806 in order to better control the Netherlands. Since becoming Emperor ...
.
Ambon was retaken by the British in 1810, but once more restored to the Dutch by virtue of the
Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814
The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 (also known as the Convention of London; nl, Verdrag van Londen) was signed by the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in London on 13 August 1814.
The treaty restored most of the territories in Java that B ...
. It then remained, as part of the
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
, a colony of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands
, national_anthem = )
, image_map = Kingdom of the Netherlands (orthographic projection).svg
, map_width = 250px
, image_map2 = File:KonDerNed-10-10-10.png
, map_caption2 = Map of the four constituent countries shown to scale
, capital = ...
, 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
The Invasion of Ambon was a combined Indonesian military operation which aimed to seize and annex the self proclaimed Republic of South Maluku.
Background
Following the Dutch-Indonesian Round Table Conference, the Netherlands recognized the ...
.
List of governors
* 1605–1611:
Frederick de Houtman
Frederick de Houtman ( – 21 October 1627) was a Dutch explorer, navigator, and colonial governor who sailed on the first Dutch expedition to the East Indies from 1595 until 1597, during which time he made observations of the southern cel ...
* 1611–1615: Caspar Janszoon
* 1615–1616:
Adriaen Maertensz Block
Adriaen Maertensz Block (c.1582, Gouda – 7 March 1661, Lisse) was successively captain, commander, and governor of Ambon between 1614 and 1617, administrator of the '' Raad van Indië'' for the Kamer of the Dutch East India Company in Amsterd ...
* 1616–1618:
Steven van der Hagen
Steven van der Hagen (Amersfoort, 1563 – 1621) was the first admiral of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He made three visits to the East Indies, spending six years in all there. He was appointed to the Raad van Indië. Van der Hage ...
* 1618–1625:
Herman van Speult
Herman van Speult (?? – Mocha, Yemen, August 1626) was a merchant in service of the Dutch East India Company. Van Speult left the island Texel in 1613, heading for Bantam and arrived after a journey of ten months. He was formerly employed in ...
* 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
Jacob Hustaert was a Governor of Dutch Ceylon during the Dutch period in Ceylon. He was the son of Pieter Hustaert from Antwerp and Elisabeth Moucheron from Middelburg. In 1645 he was stationed on the Moluccas
The Maluku Islands (; Indonesia ...
* 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
Joan Paul Schaghen (variable spellings include Jan/Johan(nes), Paulus, and Schagen) (2 November 1689 in Malacca – c. 10 December 1746 in Amsterdam) was an acting Governor of Ceylon in 1725 and 1726 and director-general of the council of the Dut ...
* 1697–1701: Willem van Wijngaarden
* 1701–1706:
Balthasar Coyett
* 1706–1720: Adriaan van der Stel
* 1721–1725: Pieter Gabrij
* 1725–1727:
Stephanus Versluys
Stephanus Versluijs or Versluys (20 August 1694, in Middelburg – 27 February 1736, in Batavia, Dutch East Indies) was the 21st Governor of Dutch Ceylon.
Versluijs was the son of Adriana de Muncq and Cornelis Versluijs, mayor of Middelburg and t ...
* 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:
See also
*
Invasion of Ambon
The Invasion of Ambon was a combined Indonesian military operation which aimed to seize and annex the self proclaimed Republic of South Maluku.
Background
Following the Dutch-Indonesian Round Table Conference, the Netherlands recognized the ...
References
Sources
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ambon, Governorate of
Dutch East India Company
European colonisation in Asia
1605 establishments in the Dutch Empire