Ambon (city)

Ambon
Climate diagram
	Temperature in ° C , precipitation in mm
	Source: WMO ; wetterkontor.de

The Ambon area on the island of the same name

View of Ambon City

Ambon (city) with the destruction caused by the fighting in 2001

Ambon is the largest city and the most important port on the island of the same name and at the same time the capital of the Indonesian province of Maluku . With 275,888 inhabitants (1990), the city is one of the largest cities in eastern Indonesia. Around 2000 there were repeated serious riots between Christians and Muslims here.

Ambon has an airport and is home to the Pattimura State University and the private Protestant Christian University of Maluku. The largest base of the Indonesian Navy in the east of the country is located here.

history

The Groningen bastion of Fort Victoria .

Ambon was settled by the Portuguese in 1526 , who used Ambon as an important base for the lucrative spice trade with the Moluccas . The Portuguese were replaced as a colonial power by the Netherlands in 1609 , which, with the exception of a brief British rule at the beginning of the 19th century, exercised power until the 20th century. The Dutch built Fort Victoria here, which protected the settlement, whose inhabitants were divided into orangburgers , the Dutch citizens, and orang negri , indigenous people. Arabs, Chinese and some Portuguese also settled in the city, which the Dutch developed into a naval base .

In 1942 the Japanese captured Ambon. After their expulsion, there was an independence movement against the Dutch, which ended in the sovereignty of Indonesia. But soon a resistance movement against the new centralist rule of Indonesia developed in the Moluccas. A separate state, the Republic of Maluku Selatan , was proclaimed, but Jakarta was able to forcibly suppress the 1950 rebellion within a few weeks.

Religious unrest

Christian-Muslim clashes that began on January 19, 1999 escalated so much that large parts of the city were destroyed. The Indonesian police turned out to be unable to calm the situation, but partly participated in the riots themselves, depending on the police officers' religious orientation. The Indonesian military in particular played a fatal role and, disregarding government orders, allowed thousands of fighters of the Islamist Laskar Jihad to pass unhindered on their way from Java to the Moluccas . This contributed significantly to the escalation of the fighting, which cost the lives of an estimated 10,000 people across the Moluccas, most of them Christians. In the period that followed, there were repeated riots and attacks, as well as several bomb attacks in 2004. However, since 2005 the situation has calmed down relatively.

traffic

The airport near the Laha settlement on the north bank of the Bay of Ambon is served by four scheduled airlines (as of 2015) and is now an air traffic hub for the entire east of the country with direct connections to Jakarta , Surabaya , Makassar , Manado and Sorong as well as numerous smaller ones Airports in the region. The airport is connected to the city by a two-lane expressway that has ended directly in the city center since the completion of the high bridge (Jembatan Merah Putih) over the bay (opened April 2016). Car ferries also run between Rumah Tiga and Batu Merah, every 10 minutes during rush hour. The city's port is also the hub for eight ferry lines that serve the surrounding islands.

tourism

There are several mid-range hotels for business travelers in the city itself. There are few sights for tourists on land, but the bay has earned a particularly good reputation among scuba divers for observing rare small creatures (so-called "muck diving"), so that several diving centers and small diving hotel complexes have settled. The Bay of Ambon is therefore also regularly visited by diving cruise ships.

Climate table

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Ambon

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C )	32.3	32.2	31.6	31.5	30.2	29.4	28.5	28.9	29.9	31.4	32.5	33.1	O	31
Min. Temperature (° C)	22.1	21.8	22.9	22.8	22.8	22.2	22.3	22.4	21.9	22.3	22.6	24.0	O	22.5

Precipitation ( mm )	21st	44	101	299	402	817	647	457	241	239	196	175	Σ	3,639

Hours of sunshine ( h / d )	6.2	6.6	6.8	5.9	5.1	4.0	3.7	3.6	5.0	6.2	7.3	6.5	O	5.6

Rainy days ( d )	4th	10	13	26th	22nd	27	26th	22nd	16	15th	17th	19th	Σ	217

Humidity ( % )	79	79	80	83	85	87	86	85	84	83	81	80	O	82.7

Source: WMO ; wetterkontor.de

Web links

Commons : Ambon - collection of images, videos and audio files

-3.7 128.16666666667Coordinates: 3 ° 42 ′ S , 128 ° 10 ′ E