Our Shared History With The Moluccas
Looking at this 17th-century French engraving, many might ask about the distinguishing features: Who are the Moluccans? Who are the inhabitants of the Philippines?
On a more profound analogy, one tends to recall the early years of Spanish conquest when both the Moluccas and the Philippines were somehow grouped into one together with other Pacific islands. It was known then as the "Spanish East Indies." This could somehow explain why some books and journals in the 16th to the 17th Century often discussed both archipelagos collectively.
Illustrations de Nouvelle géographie / Martineau. Ca 1700.
Early travel books often illustrate inhabitants of the places discuss inaccurately, like this drawing of the people of the Philippines, Moluccas and the Sunda (the Malay Archipelago). The artists have never been to those places at all and most rely on stories relayed to them or tall tales etc. Reminds me of the illustrated Marco Polo book in the Middle Ages where it features Polo having encountered strange beings, like the wolf-headed people, monsters etc.
Steady interest on the Spice Islands grew ever since it was rumored to be the only source of some of the world's most exotic and expensive spices. European powers sent voyages to find it, they went to wars against each other and on some occasion even concluded treaties, all for the sake of spices. One unusual treaty involves the Dutch giving up to the British its prized possession in North America in exchange for an island group in the Moluccas. This Dutch possession was earlier called New Amsterdam (Lower Manhattan) which the Brits would later rename ", New York".
What such wealth the Moluccas possessed that the Dutch willingly gave up something that would someday turn out to be big? ( Probably they were saying; didn't "want to be apart of it". With the Brits answering; "If we can make it there, we'll make it anywhere").
Spain was somewhat left out by the Dutch and the Portuguese in the race to colonize the Moluccas. Towards the end of the 1500s, both nations were locked in a battle to gain control of the Spice Islands. In March 1606, Governor-General Pedro Bravo de Acuña led a fleet from Manila to help their besieged ally, the Portuguese. The governor really had his eyes on the island of Ternate. In the battle near the village called Gramalama, the Spaniards were able to drive away the Dutch. One of the aftermaths of the fight, Acuña sent the Dutch collaborating Sultan of Ternate together with some relatives in exile to Manila.
In the early 1660s, Spain left the Moluccas for good. Manila was under threat from an invasion by the Chinese pirate Koxinga. The Spanish leadership elected to leave Ternate to strengthen the defenses of Manila. Among those who decided to come along with the Spanish forces were groups of Ternate Christians. They settled on a sandy coast in Cavite, which would be later named Ternate.
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