Military Capability and the State in Southeast Asia’s Pacific Rimlands, 1500–1700
ruled by a corporate government, consisting of the upper rank of the
local elite organized along genealogical lines. The best-known of these
“federations of federations” were the aforementioned Hitu, as well as
Luhu in Hoamoal. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, Hitu
had some 10,000 inhabitants. In the second part of the sixteenth cen-
tury, Hoamoal, Buru, and the islands in between had become part of the
Sultanate of Ternate. This area was ruled by “stadholders” or governors,
bearing the title of kimelaha. At that time, the Ternatan dependencies
counted some 30,000 inhabitants, capable of mobilizing a hongi of about
30 kora-kora. Hitu could launch between seven and ten kora-kora. The
kora-kora were usually equipped with some swivel guns. In the biggest
fortifications on land, incidentally, there were small cannon. Ambonese
warriors usually carried pointed weapons, shields and javelins. A
minority possessed matchlock handguns, probably obtained from the
Portuguese, who had entrenched themselves in the southern part of
Ambon Island from about 1535. Headhunting or taking people rather
than conquest was the core activity of Ambonese warfare, especially in
the big island of Seram.^11
Banda IslandsBanda had a long tradition as an export economy, because it produced
virtually all nutmeg and mace for the world market on its own. Traders
from abroad, particularly from Java, used to come and take these
products as early as the first millennium C.E. In return, food and other
necessities for the islanders were imported from overseas areas. The
closest food delivering area was East Seram, at a sailing distance of about
125 kilometers. Because of the monsoons, the trajectory Banda–Seram
could not be sailed all year round. Among the areas discussed in this
chapter, Banda had the most market-oriented economy. The Banda
Islands themselves were a tiny archipelagic group, consisting of six small
islands, one of which was just an inhospitable cone of a volcano rising
- G. J. Knaap, “Headhunting, Carnage and Armed Peace in Amboina 1500–1700”,
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 46 (2003): 169-76; idem,
Kruidnagelen en Christenen: De Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie en de bevolking
van Ambon 1656-1696 (Second imprint, Leiden: KITLV, 2004): 13–15, 17–19,
40, 129, 189.