1670s Makassar Refugees and Anti-VOC Spice Trade in the Spice Islands

Name: 1670s Makassar Refugees and Anti-VOC Spice Trade in the Spice Islands
Start: 1671
End: 1680

Type Event Region Southeast Asia Time 1671–1680

After the Dutch conquest of Makassar (Gowa-Tallo) in 1667–1669, many merchants, sailors, and nobles fled to other Moluccan islands, Borneo, and the M…

Timeline

1671–1673Makassar · SulawesiAfter the 1669 Treaty of Bungaya, Makassarese nobles and merchants unwilling to submit to the VOC gradually departed their homeland, spreading with their ships and trade networks to the Moluccas and the wider Malay world.
1674–1678Seram · MoluccasMakassarese exiles gained the protection of local rulers on outer islands such as Seram and Buru, where VOC control was weak, establishing secret trading posts to sell smuggled spices to English, Portuguese, and Southeast Asian merchants.
1678–1680Buru · MoluccasVOC fleets launched repeated expeditions against islands such as Buru to strike the Makassarese smuggling network; some bases were destroyed, but exiled merchants shifted to more dispersed trade routes, continuing to challenge the company's monopoly.

Sources

Makassar Sailing: A History of Makassar and the Makassar Diaspora in the Indian Ocean World — Heather Sutherland (2000)
The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, Volume 1 — Nicholas Tarling (ed.) (1999)