Banda Islands
| Banda Islands | |
|---|---|
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| Waters | Banda Lake |
| archipelago | Moluccas |
| Geographical location | 4 ° 32 ′ S , 129 ° 50 ′ E |
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| Number of islands | 6 to 10 |
| Main island | Banda Neira |
| Total land area | 180 km² |
| Residents | 15,000 |
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The Banda Islands (Indonesian: Kepulauan Banda ) are an Indonesian group of islands in the Moluccas archipelago , Maluku province and are located in the Banda Sea .
Since the nutmeg tree only grew here in the past, they belonged to the “spice islands” world-famous for their wealth; on engravings from the 17th century , the name of the islands was shown in disproportionately large letters. The run belonging to the Banda Islands was exchanged by the Dutch in 1667 for economic reasons from the English for the island of Manhattan .
geography
The islands are about 2,000 kilometers east of Jakarta , about 160 kilometers north are the islands of Seram and Ambon . To the east are the Gorom , Watubela , Kei and Tanimbar Islands . Over 100 kilometers to the south is the island of Manuk with the active 282 m high volcano Gunung Manuk .
The information in the literature varies from usually six to ten volcanic and coral islands , which extend in a west-east direction:
- To the west lies the island of Run, which is about 4 kilometers long and not quite a kilometer wide . 700 meters north is the small island Pulau Nailakka , about 200 meters long .
- About 7 kilometers to the east is Ai Island , which is similar in size to Run. The place Ai is on the north coast.
- Another 15 kilometers to the east lie - close to each other - the three central islands. They are grouped around two nested calderas . The smaller caldera with a diameter of three kilometers is located in the southwest of the larger caldera with a diameter of seven kilometers:
- The main island of Banda Neira is located on the eastern edge of the inner caldera. Here is a small airfield and the main town of the same name, with around 7,000 inhabitants the largest town in the archipelago. The Dutch Fort Belgica has now been fully restored.
- Banda Besar , 800 meters south of Banda Neira, is the largest of the islands with a length of 12 kilometers and a width of 3 kilometers. Other names for the island are Lontar or Lonthoir . The largest settlements are Lonthoir , Selamon and Waer . One kilometer to the north is the small island of Pualu Kraka , about 200 meters long . Banda Besar and Pula Kraka are located on the south and east edges of the larger caldera.
- Banda Api , 200 meters west of Banda Neira, with its 640 m high active volcano Vuurberg , when the last eruption in 1988 the residents had to be evacuated. Band Api lies in the middle of the smaller caldera. 1200 meters north is the small island Pulau Pisang , also called Pulau Syahrir , about 800 meters long . Again a little to the northeast is the small islet of Batu Kapal .
- To the east, 15 kilometers east of Banda Neira, is Hatta (formerly Rozengain ), which is similar in size to Run. 4 kilometers south-east is a small island about 800 meters long.
- 30 kilometers north of Run is Manukang , also called Suanggi , a circular island about 1 kilometer in diameter.
Earthquakes are common in the Banda Islands area; The archipelago was hit by tsunamis several times . For example, in August 1629 an earthquake triggered a tsunami with a 16 meter high tidal wave on Banda Neira. In November 1852, 60 people died as a result of a tsunami with a two-meter high tidal wave.
In June, August and September one can observe a sea glow between East Seram and the Banda Islands, the so-called "white sea". The cause of the sea glow are microorganisms that swim near the surface of the water.
population
After the Dutch conquest in 1621, the entire population of the islands was killed or enslaved if they could not escape to other islands. Slaves were brought here from other parts of Indonesia to work on the plantations. Today's inhabitants are descendants of these slaves. Today 15,000 people live on the islands, they are called Bandanese.
history
On the Banda Islands, nutmeg was already harvested thousands of years ago by the indigenous people in order to trade with the larger Moluccas Islands, which in turn had to offer Palmsago . At that time the spice tree only grew on the Banda Islands, which are said to have been one of the actual goals of Christopher Columbus' voyages of discovery at the end of the 15th century .
First European
The Portuguese explorer and navigator António de Abreu was probably the first European who reached the islands in 1511 but did not map them at the time. The locals were able to successfully defend themselves against the Portuguese attempts to establish a base on the islands and to spread the Catholic faith.
In 1599 the Dutch reached the islands for the first time. In the developing race with the other nations, Holland founded the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1602 .
The name "Banda Islands" goes back to the Dutch merchant Jacob van Neck , who took nutmegs there and sold them in his home country at a price premium of 32,000 percent . In the mid-17th century, English traders bought ten pounds of nutmeg for less than a penny and sold it in England for more than two pounds and ten shillings (more than the weekly wage of a worker), a price ratio of 1/600.
For the locals under the leadership of the Orang Kaya (that means: "rich person") the Dutch were welcome allies against the Portuguese at the beginning. When the VOC expelled the Portuguese and set up a base on Banda Neira, they asked the Bandanese to only trade with them. But they continued to sell to traders from Java , Makassar and England. The English had set up a base on Nailaka and made claims on all of Run. Conflicts arose; In 1609 the Bandanese killed a delegation of 46 Dutch led by Pieter Verhoeven. In 1615/1616 the Dutch conquered the island of Ai against fierce resistance.
Forced Conquest
After the trade monopoly could not be enforced with contracts, Jan Pieterszoon Coen opted for a violent solution. After securing the base in Batavia he dispatched 19 ships with 1,655 men of European and 286 men of Asian origin in 1620, which were reinforced in Banda by 36 ships and troops from local allies. In bloody battles they conquered Lonthor and broke the power of the Orang Kaya; 48 were beheaded and about 790 women, men and children were deported to Jakarta.
After the destruction of the settlements on the coast, many locals fled into the interior of the island and fought against the attackers in months of fighting. Many starved to death or died by suicide. Only a few managed to escape by ship to the Kei Islands, Seramlaut and Kisar or the Gorom Islands. Of the originally estimated 15,000 inhabitants, only about 1,000 lived on the islands after the fighting, including the residents of Run, protected by the presence of the English. The inhabitants of Rosengain, like those of Run later, were dispersed to the other Banda Islands and had to work on the plantations.
Today this genocide is considered to be one of the darkest chapters in Dutch colonial history.
Rebuilding a society
The nutmeg trees on Run were destroyed and the English left the islands after the Peace of Breda in 1667. The VOC now had full power on the Banda Islands, but nutmeg production was on the floor. The old society was destroyed, a new one had to be created; this process in the Banda Islands was unique in Asia, but is comparable to the story in many Caribbean islands.
Coen pursued the goal of a colonial order with European settlers; the VOC provided transportation and food. The land, called Perken (after a Dutch measure of area), was distributed to European emigrants, the Perkeniers , until 1628 . As a result, slaves were brought in from all the countries with which the VOC traded: India , Malaysia and the Indonesian islands. In the first decades, the VOC had to ensure a constant supply of slaves, as many died or fled.
The administrative centers of the VOC were Fort Nassau on Neira and Fort Revenge on Ai. The VOC used judges in both locations.
Later events
In 1770, Pierre Poivre , then governor of the then French island of Île-de-France , now Mauritius , had a few specimens of the nutmeg tree brought from the Moluccas to Africa to be grown on Mauritius and Réunion . That was the beginning of the end of the Dutch monopoly.
In 1811 the British conquered the islands during the Napoleonic Wars and held them until 1816. During this time they dug up numerous nutmeg trees and transplanted them to English colonies. This was another blow to the nutmeg monopoly that the Netherlands wanted to maintain. It was not until 1873 that the Dutch monopoly on nutmeg was declared ended.
Before the First World War, the Banda Islands were within the administration of the Dutch East Indies of the Afdeeling (department) Ambonia and formed the Onderafdeeling (subdivision) D; this also included the islands of Manuk, Serua, Nila and Teun further south. The islands were connected to the islands of Ambon, Seram and Wokam by ships of the Dutch KPM , while North German Lloyd operated a line from Wilhelmshafen in German New Guinea via Banda and Ambon to Makassar .
From January 1936 to February 1942, the two independence fighters and later Indonesian politicians Mohammad Hatta and Sutan Syahrir were exiled to Banda Neira by the Dutch colonial power. Previously, since January 1935, they had been exiled to Boven Digoel on Papua .
Today the islands are visited by sailors, anglers and especially divers because of the extraordinary fish world. The English traveler and zoologist Alfred Russel Wallace was the pioneer here.
On January 30, 2015, the Banda Islands were placed on the tentative list for World Heritage in Indonesia .
economy
The cultivation of nutmeg is still the most important industry. Except for Banda Api, it is operated on all islands. On the numerous plantations that have been in operation for centuries, the bushes are planted in the shade of the tall canary trees and unwanted undergrowth is removed.
Traffic routes
The chain of islands can be reached via the administrative center of the Moluccas, the city of Ambon . Most visitors land in small twin-engine planes at the only airport in the region in the town of Bandaneira. The islands are connected by boats (island taxis), Bandaneira forms the junction.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Banda Islands in the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution (English)
- ^ Christopher G. Newhall, Daniel Dzurisin: Historical unrest at large calderas of the world . USGS Bulletin 1855, 1988 (English, PDF; 37.0 MB), pp. 339-344.
- ↑ entry in the Global Historical Tsunami Database of NOAA (Accessed February 9, 2013).
- ↑ entry in the Global Historical Tsunami Database of NOAA (Accessed February 9, 2013).
- ↑ Richard Semon : In the Australian bush and on the coasts of the Coral Sea. (1903).
- ^ National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (ed.): Sailing directions (enroute): New Guinea. Pub. 164, 12th edition, 2011, p. 60 (English, PDF; 3.9 MB).
- ^ A b Vincent C. Loth: Pioneers and Perkeniers: The Banda Islands in the 17th Century. (PDF).
- ↑ Helmut A. Köhler, Ainring-Feldkirchen: 5000 years of herbal medicine. Bad Reichenhall 1975, OCLC 632678860 .
- ↑ Richard Semon: In the Australian bush and on the coasts of the Coral Sea. (1903).
- ↑ The Historic and Marine Landscape of the Banda Islands on UNESCO's tentative list (English).
- ↑ Richard Semon: In the Australian bush and on the coasts of the Coral Sea. (1903).