Ambon City, Yesterday and Today

Our journey begins in Ambon City, the capital of the province of Maluku, or the Moluccas. It has indeed many interesting sites and tourist attractions which you can visit and enjoy as you roll over and around the city. But before all that, let's look back into the past, where and when this charming city came to existence.

Early History

According to historical sources, the beautiful city presently known as Ambon had its origin within the period of Portuguese 16th-century occupation in the Moluccas. In 1575, the Portuguese began building a fortress, then named Nossa Senhora de Anunciada, on a spot ashore the Honipopu beach; then they had its workers, who were summoned from adjacent areas and villages throughout the island, settling in camps surrounding the fortress. As time went by, the workers' camps broadened as newcomers from many other areas came and settled there as well, including Portuguese driven away off Ternate. These settlements indwelt by local workers intermingled with immigrants slowly with passing ages developed into a city. That year of the Portuguese fortress' foundation, 1575, was later adopted as the year of Ambon City's birth.

The Portuguese reigned until 1609, when the Dutch came in and took over the fortress, later renamed Fort Victoria.

Later in 1921, in the period of Dutch rule, the Moluccan inhabitants of this age-old city were granted autonomy and self-government rights by the Dutch colonial authority, officially declared on September 7 of that year. Nevertheless, it was not until 1972 that this particular date, September 7, was being celebrated as the anniversary of Ambon City, as a conclusion of a panel of about 200 scholars and officials met in a seminar discussing this historical issue, and inaugurated by the city's 9th mayor, Mr. Manuputty.

In its almost four-and-a-half centuries of existence, Ambon has seen many significant events of historical importance in regard of the rest of the Moluccan Islands. Despite the Portuguese being its first European contact, it was the Dutch who seemed to have played a major role in formation of cultural and historical identity of Ambonese people.

After expelling the Portuguese, the Dutch ruled over Ambon and its population for the next three-and-a-half centuries, as they did to most part of Indonesia (known as Nederlands-Indie at that time), and it remained that way until Indonesia's declaration of independence in 1945.

Post-independence to Modern Period

RMS fighters

At the time of Republic of South Moluccas (RMS) rebellion in 1950, Ambon was the center of the movement. Indonesian armed forces invaded the city to counter the rebels, and Fort Victoria, among others, was heavily damaged during the conflict. The rebels then moved to Ceram Island and continued the rebellion there for several more years.

Subsequently, the North Celebes-based Permesta also rebelled, secretly supported by the CIA. In 1958, Ambon was heavily bombarded by US air force targeting foreign assets in the city, until one of the fighter jets was shot down and the pilot captured alive. President Eisenhower then withdrew US support, and the rebellion itself ended shortly afterwards.

Ambon had its so-called "golden age" in the 1980's, when Mr. J.  D. Wattimena, a retired army officer, was the mayor. Under his rule, Ambon was nationally recognized the cleanest city, awarded with Adipura by the central government. Unfortunately, this good reputation was not well-preserved by subsequent mayors after him. Up to this day, despite its many progresses, Ambon is still struggling to regain its glory of the past "golden age".

One of the most devastating events happened in early 1999, when a street fighting between a Christian bus driver and a Moslem man marked the beginning of a deadly 3-year long conflict between two religious communities which claimed thousands of lives and caused tens of thousands injuries, while hundreds of buildings, houses and properties were burned and destroyed, not only in Ambon but all over the Moluccan archipelago
(it was widely believed that this conflict was politically set up by unknown actors outside Ambon, as part of the political struggle after President Soeharto was forced to resign). Unfortunately, lots of cultural and historical sites were devastated as well. After a reconciliation agreement was signed by representatives of both sides in 2002, Ambon began rebuilding its infrastructures and normalizing its society lives.

Today, about 13 years after the conflict ended, Ambon has almost fully recovered from being a ruinous heap. Physically, this recovery is visible to everybody. All over the city new buildings are rising up, while new modern trade centers, big and small, appeared in various places. All economic and social activities are running normally as usual.

There remained, however, worrisome thoughts in the back of some people's minds on the issue of security: that this city and its surrounding areas are not safe enough yet for visitors, and it's still possible for new violence to erupt at any time. Facing this challenge, recently in April 2015 there has been launched a special tourism program called Mangente Ambon (a local phrase meaning "Visit Ambon"), mainly aimed at showing the outside world that Ambon is quite safe now, as well as introducing the abundance of natural and cultural richness of Ambon and the Moluccas.