Colonial era In 1512, the
Portuguese were the first Europeans to land in Ambon, and it alongside Timor became a center for Portuguese activities in Maluku following their expulsion from
Ternate. 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 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, for example Muskita and De Fretes. The Dutch dispossessed the Portuguese in 1605, when
Steven van der Hagen took over the fort without a single shot. Ambon was the headquarters of the
Dutch East India Company (VOC) from 1610 to 1619 until the founding of Batavia (now
Jakarta) by the Dutch. About 1615 the English formed a settlement on the island at
Cambello, which they retained until 1623, when the Dutch destroyed it. 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. In 1673, the poet
John Dryden produced his tragedy
Amboyna; or the Cruelties of the Dutch to the English Merchants. Meanwhile, the VOC imposed a monopoly on clove production that was concentrated in Ambon and a few adjacent islands. The Dutch dispositions created great displeasure among local populations. The Muslim state Hitu, in the north of Ambon, was especially recalcitrant, while the southern peninsula Leitimor was largely Christianized and mostly stayed in the European orbit. Moreover, the autonomous governors for the
Sultanate of Ternate in Hoamoal in western
Seram Island held a generally anti-Dutch stance. All this led to a series of colonial wars during the 17th century. The leader of Hitu, Kakiali, led the resistance from his stronghold Wawani but was murdered by a traitor in 1643, after which Wawani was stormed by the VOC troops and their local allies. A last stand was made by Telukibesi who held out with 300 fighters in the elevated and inaccessible fortification Kapahaha. In July 1646, finally, the VOC troops found a steep track to scale the rock and conquered Kapahaha after a bitter fight. The defeat and death of Telukibesi broke resistance on Ambon Island. However, another conflict involving Hoamoal and several surrounding islands broke out in 1651, known as the Great Ambon War. Although the rebels were assisted by Makassarese auxiliaries, the rebellion was eventually defeated by the VOC commander Arnold Vlaming van Oudshoorn with great loss of life, in 1656. The colonial administration and regulated economy was then conscientiously upheld by the Dutch until European rivals arrived on the scene. Christian Ambonese often served in minor clerical position and as colonial troops in various parts of the Archipelago. The British, under Admiral
Peter Rainier, captured Ambon in 1796, but they restored it to the Dutch at the
Peace of Amiens in 1802. They
retook the island in 1810 but once more restored it 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 on all the other islands subject to their rule, in order to secure the monopoly to Ambon. Under the
Dutch Empire, Ambon city was the seat of the Dutch resident and military commander of the Moluccas. The town was protected by Fort Victoria, and a 1902 Encyclopædia 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 that
Imperial Japanese forces captured from
Allied forces in the
World War II Battle of Ambon in 1942. The battle was followed by the
summary execution of more than 300 Allied
prisoners of war in the
Laha massacre. A large Far East prisoner of war camp was situated in the north near Liang. This was made up of British men of the 77th HAA, 3rd Kings Own Hussars and some RAF volunteers. Approximately 1,000 men arrived in April 1943 and were marched from Ambon town over two days without food or water (see 1000 men of Liang to follow). The FEPOWs built the camp including a water pipeline. They were ordered to build an airfield and runway alongside the beach and cleared coconut trees for the task. They did all they could to sabotage construction. Conditions were horrendous and many men died due to disease, starvation and ill treatment by the Japanese. Many men also suffered blindness due to working chipping at the coral.
Conflicts since independence Indonesia won its independence in 1945–49. As a consequence of ethnic and religious tensions, and President
Sukarno making Indonesia a
unitary state, Ambon was the scene of a revolt against the Indonesian government, resulting in the rebellion of the
Republic of South Maluku in 1950. In April and May 1958 during the
Permesta rebellion in
North Sulawesi, the USA supported and supplied the rebels. Pilots from a
Taiwan-based
CIA front organisation,
Civil Air Transport, flying CIA
B-26 Invader aircraft, repeatedly bombed and machine-gunned targets on Ambon. From 27 April until 18 May there were
CIA air raids on Ambon city. Also, on 8 May 1958 CIA pilot
Allen Pope bombed and machine-gunned the
Indonesian Air Force base at Liang in the northeast of the island, damaging the runway and destroying a
Consolidated PBY Catalina. The Indonesian Air Force had only one serviceable fighter aircraft on Ambon Island, a
North American P-51 Mustang at Liang. Pope's last air raid was on 18 May, when an Indonesian pilot at Liang, Captain Ignatius Dewanto, was scrambled to the P-51. Pope had attacked Ambon city before Dewanto could catch him, but Dewanto intercepted him just as Pope was attacking one of a pair of troop ships in an Indonesian fleet west of Ambon Island. The B-26 was brought down by fire from both Dewanto and shipborne anti-aircraft gunners. Pope and his Indonesian radio operator bailed out and were captured, which immediately exposed the level of CIA support for the Permesta rebellion. Embarrassed, the
Eisenhower administration quickly ended CIA support for Permesta and withdrew its agents and remaining aircraft from the conflict. Between 1999 and 2002, Ambon was at the centre of
sectarian conflict across the Maluku Islands. In 2007, Ambon resident Leonard Joni Sinay was sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment for treason after he and other activists protested a visit by President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono with a dance and a raising of the banned regional flag; both
Human Rights Watch and
Amnesty International called for his release, the latter organization designating him a
prisoner of conscience. ==See also==