Banda NeiraBanda Neira

Until the mid-19th century the Banda Islands were the world's only source of nutmeg and mace. That wealth drew conflict: in 1621 the Dutch East India Company under Jan Pieterszoon Coen conquered Banda with a violence that all but destroyed its native population, then divided the nutmeg land into parcels (perken) run by planters known as perkeniers, worked by people forcibly brought from elsewhere. That history is still visible on Banda Neira: the pentagonal Fort Belgica on its hill, Fort Nassau below it, the planters' houses, and the houses where Mohammad Hatta and Sutan Sjahrir lived in exile from 1936. Across the water rises Gunung Api, an active volcano about 650 metres high.