How Indonesia’s Spices Unrolled the Map of the planet

Photos courtesy of Bartele Gallery

As Indonesia prepares to celebrate 66 years of independence the idea is usually an appropriate moment to turn the clock back 560 years to the middle of the 15^th century, before any European power had lain claim to parts of the archipelago, along with marvel at the impact a dozen islands inside east of the archipelago along with occupying no more than 240 square kilometres, have had on world history along with cartography. The dozen islands referred to are, of course, the fabled ‘Spice Islands’ of the Moluccas, the Holy Grail of the European Renaissance explorers along with merchant adventurers; Bartolomeu Diaz, Vaco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan, Francis Drake along with even Christopher Columbus who, although sailing westward via Spain, believed firmly which his landfall inside Caribbean was part of the Asian continent along with therefore close to the Spice Islands. The sought-after spices were clove, nutmeg, mace along with pepper with all nevertheless the latter being confined to the Moluccas Islands, the only place on earth where the plants grew; clove trees inside rich volcanic soils of Ternate, Tidore, Machian, Bachian, Motir along with Potterbackers along with nutmeg trees inside equally fertile volcanic soils of Great Banda (Lontar), Neira, Run, Way along with Rozengain. Pepper vines grew more widely inside archipelago nevertheless were mainly concentrated inside southern tip of Sumatra (present-day Lampung) along with in Aceh.

The spice trade is usually an ancient one along with 1,500 years before Vasco da Gama’s three modest caravels reached India in 1497 via the Cape of not bad wish, the Romans were sending annual fleets of 120 ships on the round trip to India to collect spices via the Arab merchants who dominated the trade along with who went to extraordinary lengths to keep the sources of the spices secret. Before the sea route to the Indies was opened at the end of the 15^th century, spices reached Venice, the centre for their distribution in Europe, via various overland routes including the ‘Silk Road’, combined with short sea journeys across the Mediterranean once the Arab seafarers had carried the precious cargoes via the Far East to India along with thence to the entrepôt ports of the Middle East such as Aden along with Cairo. This kind of well-established trading network persisted into 14^th century along with was only seriously challenged along with eventually broken when the Portuguese reached the Moluccas in 1512, followed nearly a century later by the Dutch, along with wrested control of the spice trade via the Arabs.

The probing voyages down the west coast of Africa by the Portuguese, first under the patronage of Prince Henry of Portugal, dubbed ‘The Navigator’, between 1418 along with 1460, then by King Alfonso V between 1461 along with 1481 along with finally by King John II in whose reign Bartolomeu Diaz rounded the Cape of not bad wish in 1488, set cartography along with navigation on a scientific footing along with began a revolution in ocean-going ship design, armament along with marine logistics. For the previous 1,000 years what few maps there were tended to be based on church doctrine along with were little more than diagrams along with symbolic representations of the Earth’s continents centred on Jerusalem along with showing paradise somewhere inside east; often referred to as T-O maps due to their configuration. As the medieval period drew to a close, more accurate along with specific geographical information gleaned via various sources was added, together with colour, to such maps which were transformed into spectacular circular world maps or Mappa Mundi. One such example along with the largest of its kind, made around 1290 by Richard of Haldingham, can be seen in Hereford Cathedral along with in facsimile form in Bartele Gallery.

Insvlae Molvccae. One of the rarest maps inside planet - Photos courtesy of Bartele Gallery

via 1512, the date the Portuguese ships reached the Moluccas, until the beginning of the 16^th century, the Portuguese established a sea-borne empire stretching via Brazil to Macao. They refined the portolan chart, revived the spherical geometry of Claudius Ptolemy, the Greek founder of modern geodesy, to create detailed maps along with charts of their empire, including South-east Asia along with the Spice Islands, based on degrees of latitude along with longitude, along with in so doing began the process of unrolling the map of the planet as we know the idea today. The zenith of Portuguese cartography of the Spice Islands is usually seen inside magnificent map Insulae Moluccae, compiled by the Flemish cartographer Petrus Plancius via Portuguese charts along with travel itineraries (rutters) acquired in 1592. This kind of beautiful along with incredibly rare map, first published in 1598, shows Indonesia at a level of detail never before recorded along with along its bottom margin contains engravings of the spices along with additional exotic commodities such as sandal wood which held the planet in thrall for millennia. The appalling risks taken by seamen along with merchants to reach the Spice Islands were balanced by the huge profits to be made via the spice trade where a kilogram of nutmeg could sell in Amsterdam in 1650 for nearly 900 times its purchase cost in Banda.

David is usually a soil scientist who has been living along with working in Indonesia for over 30 years. He is usually the author of The Cartography of the East Indian Islands along with curator of Bartele Gallery.