Ternate is an island and town in the Maluku Islands (Moluccas) of eastern Indonesia, located off the west coast of the larger island of Halmahera. In the precolonial era, Ternate was the dominant political and economic power over most of the "Spice Islands" of Maluku. Today, Ternate is the largest town in the province of North Maluku.
The island
Ternate is dominated by the volcanic Mount Gamalama (1715 m). The volcano erupts regularly, covering the island with volcanic dust. The largest recent eruption of Gamalama was in September 1980, when 30,000 of the islands 56,000 residents were forced to temporarily flee to nearby Tidore.
History
Up until the Dutch completed the colonization of Maluku in the nineteenth century, the sultans of Ternate ruled an extensive empire that at time stretched across the archipelago, from Sulawesi to Papua. It frequently engaged in fierce competition for control of its periphery with the nearby sultanate of Tidore. According to historian Leonard Andaya, Ternate's "dualistic" rivalry with Tidore is a dominant theme in the early history of the Maluku Islands.
In part as a result of its trade-dependent culture, Ternate was one of the earliest places in the region to which Islam spread, probably coming from Java in the late fifteenth century. Initially, the faith was restricted to Ternate's small ruling family, and spread only slowly to the rest of the population.
The first Europeans to stay on Ternate were part of the Portuguese expedition of Francisco Serrão out of Melaka, which was shipwrecked near Seram and rescued by local residents. Sultan Abu Lais of Ternate heard of their stranding, and, seeing a chance to ally himself with a powerful foreign nation he had heard about, he had them brought to Ternate in 1512. The Portuguese were permitted to build a fort on the island, but relations were strained from the start. Portuguese inhabitants of the fort felt free to appropriate supplies from the Ternaten population without payment, and responded violently when the local population objected. Portugal was finally expelled in 1575 amid Ternaten anger with zealous Christian missionaries, and Portuguese meddling with the Ternaten throne. At the time, European power in the region was very weak; after the expulsion of the Portuguese, Ternate was able to substantially increase its military reach across the region for a time.
Spain forces briefly captured the former Portuguese fort in 1607, but were soon driven from Ternate by the newly-formed Dutch East India Company (VOC) and their Ternaten allies. For the Ternatens rulers, the Dutch were a useful, if not particularly welcome, presence that gave them military advantages against Tidore and the potential return of the Spanish. Particularly under Sultan Hamzah (r. 1627-1648), Ternate expanded its territory and strengthened its control over the periphery. Dutch influence over the kingdom was limited, though Hamzah and his son and successor, Sultan Mandar Syah (r. 1648-1675) did concede some regions to the VOC in exchange for help controlling rebellions there.
In 1999 and 2000, Ternate suffered from the same religious violence between Muslims and Christians that wracked many parts of Maluku, particularly Ambon and Halmahera.
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