Mole Majimu
Mole Majimun | |
---|---|
Sultan of Tidore | |
Reign | 1599-1627 |
Predecessor | Gapi Baguna |
Successor | Ngarolamo |
Died | 23 May 1627 |
Father | Gava of Tidore |
Mother | Ternate princess |
Religion | Islam |
Mole Majimun (
Ascent to the throne
Kaicili (prince) Mole was, according to the contemporary chronicler
Spanish conquest of Maluku
The Dutch, arch-rivals of the Spanish, showed up in Ternate in 1599 to partake in the
The loss of Maluku immediately alerted the Spanish governor Pedro Bravo de Acuña who dispatched a new fleet in 1606. This time the Spaniards were entirely successful. Mole contributed with a fleet of korakoras (outriggers) manned with 600 men and a successful landing was made on Ternate. Sultan Saidi Berkat was forced to capitulate, while the Spanish groomed Mole and "made this king, who had always been our friend, emperor of those islands"[10] Mole took over or received back a number of territories previously held by Ternate, such as parts of Makian, Mayu island, and a section of Morotai.[11] He also secured friendly ties with the Sultan Alauddin II of Bacan in the south of Maluku Proper by marrying his daughter.[12]
The VOC returns
In fact the new Spanish-Tidorese hegemony was of short duration. Already in 1607 a Dutch fleet appeared in North Maluku and made a treaty with the new Sultan of Ternate. A fort was constructed in Ternate so that the island was divided into a Spanish and a VOC-allied sphere. In 1613 the allies joined forces to invade Tidore in order to push out the Spanish, strengthened by Japanese mercenaries. The Ternatan Sultan explicitly told the Dutch of his intention to capture Mole and finishing him off with a sword. The VOC forces quickly overwhelmed the Spanish fort at Marieko after a tenacious battle where the wounded Spaniards were disposed of per el filo de l'espada. Mole preferred not to intervene in the fight, but the allies proceeded to attack the royal settlement. However, they were now in turn defeated by a determined Tidorese troop armed with muskets, shields and swords and had to withdraw.[13] In the next year 1614, the allies struck again and two more Spanish fortresses in Tidore were captured. However, the Iberians could not be expelled from Tidore, nor from their main fort Gammalamo in Ternate.[14] In the same year Tidorese fleets of korakoras slew the VOC-affiliated regent of Bacan and raided Morotai.[15]
The Dutch presence on Tidore Island was moreover shortlived as Marieko was eventually abandoned by the VOC in 1621.[16] The inconclusive results of the invasions made for an uneasy balance between Tidore and Ternate and their respective European allies that lasted for several decades. The VOC constantly admonished the Ternatan allies to keep pressure on the Tidorese and was keen to prevent attempts by the two spice Sultanates to make peace.[17] In that way the traditional rivalry between Tidore and Ternate became a war by proxy where the two were treated as pawns in a global game for power.[18] In this the VOC became increasingly dominant in Maluku as they defeated English attempts to establish bases in the region, as well as recalcitrant indigenous polities.[19]
Although he hang on to his vassalage to the Spanish king and was said to be a friend of the Portuguese, Mole himself was not entirely appreciated by the Spanish authorities in Manila. As an author had it, "his respect is fear and his love is selfishness". When anti-Spanish resistance broke out in Jailolo in Halmahera in the wake of the Spanish conquest, he reportedly made various excuses and pretexts to abstain from intervening.[20] His policy of trying to conclude a separate peace with Ternate indicates that the Spanish alliance was more strategical than cordial.[21]
From Mole's reign come the earliest explicit references to Tidore's relation with the lands of the
Death
Sultan Mole Majimun passed away on 23 May 1627 at a very advanced age.[25] In spite of the official state of war, Ternate sent a customary burial gift, but the envoy was arrested since a Ternatan prince had recently attacked a ship sent by the King of Makassar to his Tidorese counterpart.[26] By this time the royal clan had split into two competing lineages. His son Ngarolamo was reportedly accepted as heir more due to respect for Mole than for any affection on the part of the populace, since he regularly slept with other persons' wives. By contrast, his nephew Kaicili Gorontalo was a popular figure who stayed with the Sultan of Ternate and was considered the more legitimate heir.[27] As it was, Ngarolamo managed to secure the throne although he would loose it after a brief reign.
See also
- List of rulers of Maluku
- Spice trade
- Tidore Sultanate
- Sultanate of Ternate
- Sultanate of Bacan
References
- ^ F.S.A. de Clercq (1890) Bijdragen tot de kennis der Residentie Ternate. Leiden: Brill, p. 154.[1]
- ^ Marques de Miraflores & Miguel Salva (eds) (1868) Coleccion de documentas inéditos para la historia de España. Madrid: Imprenta de la Viuda de Calero, p. 78.[2]
- ^ Bartholomew Leonardo de Argensola (1708) The discovery and conquest of the Molucco and Philippine Islands. London, p. 97-8.[3]
- ^ Diogo do Couto (1777) Da Asia, Decada X:2. Lisboa : Na Regia Officina Typografica, p. 49,[4] Considered to be "more than seventy" in 1617; see Marques de Miraflores & Miguel Salva (eds) (1868), p. 429.[5]
- ^ Hubert Jacobs (1980) Documenta Malucensia, Vol II. Rome: Jesuit Historical Institute, p. 10.
- ^ Bartholomew Leonardo de Argensola (1708) The discovery and conquest of the Molucco and Philippine Islands. London, p. 97-103.
- ^ Antonio de Morga (1868) The Philippine islands, Moluccas, Siam, Cambodia, Japan, and China, at the close of the sixteenth century. London: Hakluyt Society, p. 197.[6]
- ^ Willard A. Hanna & Des Alwi (1990) Turbulent times past in Ternate and Tidore. Banda Naira: Yayasan Warisan dan Budaya Banda Naira, p. 126.
- ^ Peter Borschberg (2015) Journals, memorials and letters of Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge. Singapore: NUS Press, p. 584.
- ^ Peter Borschberg (2015), p. 82.
- ^ Leonard Andaya (1993) The world of Maluku. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, p. 142.
- ^ P.A. Tiele (1879-1887) "De Europëers in den Maleischen Archipel", Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 25-36, Part VII:1, p. 54.
- ^ P.A. Tiele & J.E. Heeres (1886) Bouwstoffen voor de geschiedenis der Nederlanders in den Maleischen Archipel, Vol. I. 's Gravenhage: Nijhoff, p. 28-35.
- ^ Leonard Andaya (1993), p. 154.
- ^ Manuel Lobato (2014) "War-making, raiding, slave-hunting and piracy in the Malukan Archipelago", in Y.H. Teddy Sim (ed.) Piracy and surreptitious activities in the Malay Archipelago and adjacent seas, 1600-1840. Singapore: Springer, p. 83.
- ^ P.A. Tiele & J.E. Heeres (1886), p. li.
- ^ P.A. Tiele & J.E. Heeres (1886), p. 350.
- ^ Leonard Andaya (1993), p. 156.
- ^ Adam Clulow (2019) Amboina, 1623: Fear and conspiracy on the edge of empire. New York: Columbia University Press.
- ^ Hubert Jacobs (1981) The 'Discurso politico del gobierno Maluco' of Fr. Francisco Combés and its historical impact", Philippine Studies 29, p. 326-7.
- ^ Hubert Jacobs (1980), p. 9-10.
- ^ PARES Website, Méritos y servicios: Pedro Fernández de Quirós: Perú,etc, [7]
- ^ A. Haga (1884) Nederlandsch Nieuw Guinea en de Papoesche eilanden. Historische bijdrage, 1500-1883. Batavia: Bruining, p. 35.[8]
- ^ Marques de Miraflores & Miguel Salva (eds) (1868), p. 392.[9]; cf. George Bryan Souza & Jeffrey Scott Turley (ed.) (2016) The Boxer Codex. Leiden: Brill, p. 507-13.
- ^ Donald F. Lach & Edwin J. Van Kley (1993) Asia in the Making of Europe, Vol. III:1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 1411.
- ^ P.A. Tiele & J.E. Heeres (1890) Bouwstoffen voor de geschiedenis der Nederlanders in den Maleischen Archipel, Vol. II. 's Gravenhage: Nijhoff, p. 124.
- ^ P.A. Tiele & J.E. Heeres (1886), p. 139-40.