(1630)
Early history Australo-Melanesians were the first people to inhabit the islands at least 40,000 years ago. A later migration of Austronesian speakers arrived around 2000 BC. Archaeological finds in Ternate include a
Parvati statue with lotus flowers on the bottom, which indicate the statue is from the
Majapahit era and indicate the early period of
Hinduism and
Buddhism. Other archaeological finds showed possible Arab merchants began to arrive in the fourteenth century, bringing
Islam. The
conversion to Islam occurred in many islands, especially in the centres of trade, while aboriginal
animism persisted in the hinterlands and more isolated islands.
Archaeological evidence here relies largely on the occurrence of pigs' teeth, as evidence of pork eating or abstinence therefrom. Remnants of
Majapahit expeditions were also found in oral as well as archaeological sites. A story from Letvuan on the island of
Kai Kecil tells of a Balinese envoy of Gajah Mada by the name of Kasdev, his wife Dit Ratngil, and eight of their children. Archaeological sites of ancient tombs found in Sorbay Bay, south of Letvuan, seem to support the story, as well as some cultural practices of Kei of Balinese origin. Other archaeological finds in the
Kei Islands include a
Shiva statue from the island of
Kei Besar. An oral story reports of a 14th-century Majapahit expedition to Negeri Ema,
Ambon Island, by an envoy named Nyi Mas Kenang Eko Sutarmi alongside 22 people among her retinue and a spear-bearer trying to form an alliance and trading relationship with Negeri Ema's leader by the name of
Kapitan Ading Adang Anaan Tanahatuila. The meeting was facilitated by
Malessy Soa Lisa Maitimu; however, it failed to reach an agreement. As Sutarmi failed, she decided to stay in exile while her retinues settled and married locals of Ema, and her spear bearer settled on the coast but was killed later by Gunung Maut troops. Archaeological finds relating to this expedition include a water source with
Sun symbols with nine rays, and heirlooms of spears and
Totobuang kept by the Maitimu family and village office of Negeri Ema, alongside many potteries.
Portuguese by a presumably Dutch artist. Inset shows Saint John Baptist Portuguese-built fort on the island , a common traditional sailing vessel of the Maluku Islands In August 1511 the
Portuguese conquered the city-state of Malacca. The most significant lasting effects of the Portuguese presence were the disruption and reorganization of the Southeast Asian trade, and in eastern Indonesia—including Maluku—the introduction of Christianity. One Portuguese diary noted, "It is over thirty years since they became
Moors".
Afonso de Albuquerque learned of the route to the
Banda Islands and other 'Spice Islands', and sent an exploratory expedition of three vessels under the command of
António de Abreu, Simão Afonso Bisigudo, and
Francisco Serrão. On the return trip, Serrão was shipwrecked at
Hitu island (northern
Ambon) in 1512. There he established ties with the local ruler who was impressed with his martial skills. The rulers of the competing island states of
Ternate and
Tidore also sought Portuguese assistance and the newcomers were welcomed in the area as buyers of supplies and spices during a lull in the regional trade due to the temporary disruption of
Javanese and
Malay sailings to the area following the 1511 conflict in Malacca. The spice trade soon revived but the Portuguese would not be able to fully monopolize or disrupt this trade. Allying himself with Ternate's ruler, Serrão constructed a fortress on that tiny island and served as the head of a
mercenary band of Portuguese seamen under the service of one of the two local feuding sultans who controlled most of the
spice trade. Both Serrão and
Ferdinand Magellan, however, perished before they could meet one another. Following Portuguese missionary work, there have been large Christian communities in eastern Indonesia through to contemporary times, which has contributed to a sense of shared interest with Europeans, particularly among the Ambonese. The
Dutch East India Company in the course of
Dutch–Portuguese War allied with the
Sultan of Ternate and conquered
Ambon and
Tidore in 1605, expelling the Portuguese. A Spanish counterattack from the
Philippines restored Iberian rule in parts of
North Maluku up to 1663. However, the Dutch monopolized the production and trade of spices through a ruthless policy. This included the
genocidal conquest of the nutmeg-producing Banda Islands in 1621, the
elimination of the English in Ambon in 1623, and the subordination of Ternate and Tidore in the 1650s. An anticolonial resistance movement led by a Tidore prince, the
Nuku Rebellion, engulfed large parts of Maluku and
Papua in 1780–1810 and co-opted the British. During the
French Revolutionary Wars and again in the
Napoleonic Wars, British forces
captured the islands in 1796–1801 and 1810, respectively, and held them until 1817. In that time they uprooted many of the spice trees for
transplantation throughout the
British Empire. warriors
After Indonesian independence With the declaration of a single republic of
Indonesia in 1950 to replace the federal state, a
Republic of South Maluku (Republik Maluku Selatan, RMS) was declared and attempted to secede, led by
Chris Soumokil (former Supreme Prosecutor of the Eastern Indonesia state) and supported by the Moluccan members of the Netherlands
KNIL special troops. This movement was defeated by the Indonesian army and by special agreement with the Netherlands the Moluccan troops were ordered to move to the Netherlands. Decades later, descendants of these Moluccan KNIL soldiers participated in the
1975 Dutch train hostage crisis, the
1977 Dutch train hijacking, and the
1977 Dutch school hostage crisis to bring attention to their plight for an independent Republic of South Maluku. Maluku is one of the first provinces of Indonesia, proclaimed in 1945 and lasting until 1999 when the Maluku Utara and Halmahera Tengah Regencies were split off as a separate province of
North Maluku. Its capital used to be
Ternate, on a small island to the west of the large island of
Halmahera, but has been moved to
Sofifi on Halmahera itself. The capital of the remaining part of Maluku province remains at
Ambon.
1999–2003 inter-communal conflict Religious and ethnic conflict erupted across the islands in January 1999. The subsequent 18 months were characterized by fighting between local groups of Muslims and Christians against jihadist groups from Java and the Indonesian military backing them leading to the destruction of thousands of houses, the displacement of approximately 500,000 people, the loss of thousands of lives, and the segregation of Muslims and Christians. ==Geography==