Maluku (Moluccas): The Origin of the Spice Trade

The Maluku islands — the Banda Islands, Ternate, Tidore, Ambon — are where the global spice trade originated. Nutmeg (*Myristica fragrans*) grew only in the Banda Islands before the Dutch monopoly period; clove (*Syzygium aromaticum*) was endemic to Ternate and Tidore. These were the most valuable commodities in the world between the 13th and 18th centuries — more valuable per kilogram than gold — and the violence of their control (the Dutch VOC's massacre of the Banda population in 1621 to enforce the nutmeg monopoly is one of history's most extreme examples of resource-driven genocide) shaped the entire trajectory of Indonesian, Dutch, and global history. The food culture of Maluku, paradoxically, uses these world-famous spices as background notes rather than centrepieces — the locals developed a cuisine in which the spices that destroyed and rebuilt the world economy are simply ingredients.

Masakan Maluku — Cooking at the Source of the World's Spice History

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