TERNATE ISLAND

Indonesian Pulau Ternate one of the northernmost of a line of Indonesian islands stretching southward along the western coast of the island of Halmahera to the Bacan Islands east of the Molucca Sea. Ternate Island lies within Maluku Utara kabupaten (regency), Maluku provinsi (province), and it is situated 14 miles (23 km) west of Halmahera. The 41-square-mile (106-square-kilometre) island is dominated by a volcano (5,646 feet ) with three peaks. It has suffered from frequent volcanic activity since the 15th century, the worst eruption occurring in 1763. The southern and eastern coasts of Ternate Island have forests and luxuriant vegetation. Rice, corn (maize), sage, coffee, pepper, nutmeg, and fruit are grown. The local inhabitants are of mixed racial strains, probably predominantly Malay but with Papuan elements. Most are Muslims, though some are Christians; the island has a language of its own, written in Arabic script. Ternate town, on the eastern coast, is headquarters of the district. Although once a leading centre of clove cultivation, the island now trades principally in nutmeg and copra. Ternate was the first part of the Moluccas to accept Islam, and it was an important sultanate from the 12th to the 17th century. The initial Western visitor, a Portuguese, came in 1512; other Portuguese followed to ship cloves and construct a fort (1522). In time the natives conquered the fort and expelled the Portuguese (1574), and in 1606 the sultan signed a treaty with the Dutch and granted them a spice monopoly. Restriction of production to maintain high prices led to revolts in 1650 and 1679 and the end of clove production in the northern Moluccas. The sultan became a vassal of the Dutch East India Company, and the Dutch assumed executive power on the island until the establishment of the Republic of Indonesia after World War II. Pop. (1971) 50,558.