HEGEMONI : PERSAINGAN HEGEMONI CENGKEH DI TERNATE SEKITAR ABAD 16 DAN 17

Abstract

T

ernate is the largest kingdom in Moluccas island, which has an abundant amount of clove commodity. Cloves are crops from Ternate that has a lot of usefulness, such as for spices, food preservatives, etc. Cloves provide huge profits for traders that many foreign countries want to dominate the cloves trade in Ternate. The wealth of natural resources of Moluccas, especially Ternate, had been attracting foreign traders such as the Chinese, Arabic, Gujarati, Portuguese, Spanish and the Dutch. The main purpose of the Europeans came to Ternate was that they want to dominate the trade of cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon, even the spice storage itself was located at Moluccas. The arrival of the Europeans in Ternate began with the arrival of the Portuguese in 1512, followed by the arrival of the Spanish in 1521 and the Dutch in 1599. Spice trade in Moluccas in the 16th century were primarily conducted with barter systems, namely by exchanging goods with other goods. Cloves exchanged for rice from Java, glassware from Chinese merchants, textiles from Gujarat and other household appliances from Malacca. They even exchanged the spices with jewelries made of gold and silver. In fact, the arrival of the Europeans such as Portuguese, Spanish and the Dutch in the land of Moluccas had eliminated the profits and the prosperity of the people of Moluccas. The arrival of Europeans in Moluccas has resulted in a clove hegemony competition in Ternate around the 16th and 17th century.

Keywords: Cloves, Moluccas, Trade and Hegemony