The Revolt of Prince Nuku: Cross-Cultural Alliance-making in Maluku, C.1780-1810

311 Pages·2008·3.89 MB·English

by  Muridan Widjojo

The Revolt of Prince Nuku
TANAP Monographs
on the History of
Asian-European Interaction
Edited by
Leonard Blussé and Cynthia Viallé
VOLUME 12
The Revolt of Prince Nuku
Cross-cultural Alliance-making in Maluku, c.1780-1810
By
Muridan Widjojo
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2009
The TANAP programme is funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
(NWO).
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Widjojo, Muridan (Muridan Satrio)
The revolt of Prince Nuku : cross-cultural alliance-making in Maluku, c.1780-1810 /
by Muridan Widjojo.
p. cm. — (Tanap monographs on the history of Asian-European interaction ; v. 12)
ISBN 978-90-04-17201-2 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Maluku (Indonesia—History. 2. Saidul Jehad Muhamad El Mabus Amirudin Syah,
Sultan of Tidore, 1738-1805. I. Title. II. Series.
DS646.6.W53 2009
959.8’ 52021—dc22
2008045746
ISSN 1871-6938
ISBN 978 90 04 17201 2
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SERIES EDITOR’S FOREWORD
Probably nowhere in the world have such profound changes in historio-
graphy been occurring as in the nation states of Monsoon Asia that gained
independence after the conclusion of the Pacific War in 1945. These tra-
ditionally outward-looking countries on the rims of the Indian Ocean
and the Eastern Seas have been interacting with each other through
maritime transport and trade for more than two millennia, but the exi-
gencies of modern nation-building have tended to produce state-centred
historical narratives that emphasise a distinctive heritage and foster
cultural pride and identity on the basis of such heroic themes as anti-colo-
nial resistance. No one will deny the need for and utility of such ‘nation-
building’ agendas, but an inward-directed national historiography does
not necessarily prepare one’s citizens for our present age of regional co-
operation and globalisation.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the coastal societies of
Monsoon Asia witnessed the entry of European traders, the emergence of
global maritime trading networks, and the laying of the foundations of
colonial empires that reached their apogees in the nineteenth and twen-
tieth centuries. The difficulties of studying this pre-colonial and early
colonial past should not be underestimated. Local sources are often rare
because of wars and the frequent changes of both indigenous and colonial
regimes. The hot and humid tropical climate is also unkind to the preser-
vation of manuscripts. The mass of western-language data preserved in
the archives of the former East India Companies and those of the Spanish
and Portuguese empires in Asia often have an undeniably Europe-centred
character and bias. Thus we face not only a highly imbalanced supply of
source material, but also the very complex problem of how to decode the
hidden agendas that often colour these primary materials.
Over the past fifty years there has been a pronounced effort in academ-
ic circles in North America, Australia and the former European colonial
nations to ‘decolonize’ historical writing on Asian-European interaction,
albeit for reasons totally different from those in their Asian counterparts.
Increasingly doubt has been cast on such longstanding paradigms as the
superiority of the dynamic West over static Asian societies. Historians of
international trade such as the late Holden Furber, whose description of
this period as ‘The Age of Partnership’ inspired the name of the TANAP
programme, have taken an interest in the various ways and means by
which Asian-European interaction began in various kinds of competition,
rivalry, collaboration, diplomacy, and military confrontation. This
vi SERIES EDITOR’S FOREWORD
approach has forced historians to return to the archival sources and the
places where these events unfolded with the result that new frontiers of
research have opened up in which close partnerships between Asian and
European historians, with their specific cultural tool kits and linguistic
backgrounds, are now starting to bear fruit.
In anticipation of the four hundredth anniversary of the establishment
of the Dutch East India Company in 1602, members of the History
Department of Leiden University proposed the establishment of an inter-
national research programme aimed at training a new generation of Asian
historians of Asian-European interaction in the early modern period. It
was taken for granted that any such drive towards international educa-
tional co-operation should be carried out in carefully planned collabora-
tion with the National Archives in The Hague, the Arsip Nasional of the
Republic of Indonesia in Jakarta, and the archives of Cape Town (South
Africa), Colombo (Sri Lanka), and Chennai (India), which together hold
several kilometres of archival records from the former Verenigde Oost-
indische Compagnie. The TANAP—Towards a New Age of Partnership
—educational and archival preservation programme was started in 2000
thanks to generous grants from the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture
and Science, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands Organi-
zation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Netherlands Foundation for
the Advancement of Tropical Research (WOTRO), the Netherlands
UNESCO Commission, and Leiden University. Twelve universities in
Asia sent some thirty young lecturers to Leiden during 2001-2003. Under
the auspices of the Research Institute for Asian-African and Amerindian
Studies (CNWS), these historians participated in an advanced master’s
programme that included intensive courses on historiography, palaeo-
graphy, and the old Dutch written language.
With additional funding from several Asian foundations, in 2002
seventeen of the TANAP graduates from Sri Lanka, India, Singapore,
Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Africa, and
the Netherlands began working towards a Ph.D. degree at Leiden. Three
others went on to pursue their doctorates at universities elsewhere in the
world. The TANAP Monographs on the History of Asian-European Inter-
action, which include two studies on early modern South African society,
are the offspring of their doctoral theses defended at Leiden.
Leonard Blussé, Leiden University
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements xi
Abbreviations xv
Glossary xvi
Maps xx
Introduction 1
Geographical and historical setting 1
Previous studies 3
Theme and outline of this study 5
Chapter One: The VOC in Maluku: Imposing the Spice Monopoly 9
The European presence before the Dutch 9
Establishing monopoly and the making of VOC power 12
Banda 15
Ambon 19
Ternate and Tidore 21
Chapter Two: Ruling the Local Rulers: Maintenance of the Spice
Monopoly 27
Expanding structure and rule 27
Exploiting local forces 33
The decline of the VOC 37
Handling rebellious Tidore 39
Chapter Three: Tidore and the Rise of Prince Nuku 47
Organization and leadership of the Sultanate 47
The Seram Dispute: the beginning of turmoil 52
The Treaty of 1780: loss of independence 55
Initial contest (1780–1783) 57
The ‘Tidoran Revolution’ 60
Sultan Tidore versus Sultan Papua and Seram 63
A temporary decline and epidemic (1785–1790) 65
Resurgence of forces (1791–1796) 69
Chapter Four: From Rebel to Sultan 75
The conquest of Tidore 75
The conquest of Ternate (1798–1801) 77
Negotiations for an independent Tidore (1803–1805) 84
viii CONTENTS
The post-Nuku struggle: the decline of Tidore (1805–1810) 88
Chapter Five: Papuans and Halmaherans: Raiders and Warriors 95
The Papuans of Raja Ampat 96
Raja Ampat and Geelvink Bay 98
The myth of the raiding leaders and Tidore 99
Papuans of the Onin and Kobiai areas 105
Gamrange 108
The long history of raiding 110
Chapter Six: The Raiders, Tidore, and Nuku 115
Prince Nuku and the Papuan–Gamrange warriors 119
Gamkonora and the renewed loyalty from Tidore’s periphery 122
Raiding (and trading) networks 127
Chapter Seven: The East Seramese: Traders and Rebels 131
East Seram Trading Networks 133
The East Seram–Dutch relationship in the seventeenth century 139
East Seram under Tidore (1700–1769) 141
East Seram and Nuku 145
Chapter Eight: Leadership and Local Politics in East Seram 149
Leadership 149
Type of leaders 151
The West and South Seramese 155
The North Seramese 158
Chapter Nine: The English and Nuku: Guns and Spices 165
English interests in Maluku 165
A French interloper 167
Captain Forrest and political turmoil 168
Initial encounter 171
An envoy to Bengkulu and Bengal 173
John McCluer and John Hayes 175
English country traders 177
The English occupation 180
Chapter Ten: The English Monopoly and the Anti-climax
in Nuku’s Struggle 187
The clove monopoly contested again 187
The English residents and the capture of Ternate 193
Aborted recognition 200
The anti-climax in Nuku’s struggle 202
CONTENTS ix
Tidore–English relations in post-Nuku politics 204
Conclusion 209
Notes 217
Appendices
1. List of Sultans of Tidore 251
2. List of Sultans of Ternate 252
3. List of Dutch Governors in Ternate 253
4. List of Portuguese Governors in Ternate 255
5. List of Governors of Ambon 256
Bibliography 259
Index 269
List of Maps
1. East Indies xx
2. Eastern East Indies xxi
3. Ternate and Tidore xxii
4. Halmahera xxiii
5. Raja Ampat xxiv
6. Ambon and West Seram xxv
7. Hitu and Leitimor xxvi
8. Lease Islands xxvii
9. North and Middle Seram xxviii
10. East Seram xxix
11. West coast of New Guinea xxx
List of Illustrations
1. Fort Tolukko 26
2. Fort Orange 46
3. Soa Sio, the capital of the Sultanate of Tidore 186
4. Nuku’s grave 208