Fort Oranje (Ternate)

Fort Oranje is a 17th-century Dutch fort on the island of Ternate in Indonesia.

Ternate is a volcanic island in Maluku (also known as "the Moluccas") and is the seat of the Sultanate of Ternate. The island was once the world's single major producer of cloves, a commodity which allowed the Sultanate of Ternate to become one of the most powerful Sultanates in the Malay archipelago. The Sultanate of Ternate was in continuous conflict with the nearby Sultanate of Tidore. By the end of the 15th century the people of Ternate had adopted Islam as their official religion, mainly due to influence from Java.

The first Europeans to arrive in Ternate were the members of an expedition led by Francisco Serrão. Serrão had been shipwrecked near Seram and was rescued by local inhabitants. Informed by local Ternatenese, Sultan Hairun brought the survivors to Ternate in 1512 and gave the Portuguese permission to build a fort. Construction of the fort began in 1522, but the relationship between the Portuguese and the Sultan, having been difficult since the beginning of the treaty, had deteriorated over time. Following the assassination of Sultan Hairun, the Ternatenese expelled the Portuguese in 1575 after a five-year siege. European power in the region was weak and Ternate became an expanding, anti-Portuguese Islamic state under the rule of Sultan Babullah (r. 1570–1583) and his son, Sultan Saidi Berkat.

In 1599 two Dutch ships led by Commander Wybrand van Warwijck arrived in Ternate. In 1605 the VOC succeeded in driving the Portuguese out of Ternate but in 1606 the Spanish troops captured the former Portuguese fort and deported the Sultan and his entourage to Manila. In 1607, the VOC admiral Cornelis Matelief de Jonge helped the Sultan of Ternate to expel the Spanish from Ternate, so the Sultan gave permission for the VOC for the spice trade monopoly and allowed the VOC to establish a fort. This new fort, known as Fort Malay, was established on top of an undated Malay Sultan's fortress that had been damaged. In 1609, the first Dutch authority in Ternate, Paul van Carden, renamed the fort "Fort Oranje", after the House of Orange. Despite this, the name Fort Malay remained in use after several years later.

Text adapted from “Fort Oranje (Ternate)” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort Oranje (Ternate) ranks #5,170 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #23 of the 41 mapped in Indonesia. Founded 1522, it is older than 44% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 755 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. 4 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Indonesia compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗