Moluccas Spice Islands Trade

Timeline

1. 1561–1563Fort of Ternate · TernateThe Portuguese governor at Ternate forced the purchase of cloves at low prices, controlling island warehouses and export permits in an attempt to channel all Moluccan spices onto the Goa–Lisbon route, provoking resentment among local sultans and growers.
2. 1564–1568Tidore Island · TidoreThe sultans of Tidore, Bacan, and other islands smuggled cloves through Chinese and Makassarese merchants, bypassing the Portuguese purchasing system and moving north through Sulawesi into interior Asian spice markets, forming a smuggling network parallel to the Portuguese monopoly.
3. 1570Ternate · TernatePortuguese oppression of the local sultan Baabullah reached its peak, the island's clove trade nearly stalled, and the Moluccas spice trade system teetered on collapse amid political crisis, foreshadowing the anti-Portuguese uprising at year's end.