Ambon, Maluku

Amboina in the 17th century under Portugal.

Ambon was colonized by Portugal in 1526 and originally named Nossa Senhora de Anunciada, founded by Portuguese-Moluccan Governor Sancho de Vasconcelos. The Portuguese were driven out by the Dutch in 1605. Except for brief periods of British rule, the island remained under Dutch control until Indonesia's independence in 1945.

Coat of arms of Ambon during colonial era, granted in 1930

During the Dutch period, Ambon was the seat of the Dutch resident and military commander of the Maluku Islands. The town was protected by Fort Victoria, and the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica characterized it as "a clean little town with wide streets, well planted".[8] The population was divided into two classes, orang burger (citizens) and orang negri (villagers), the former being a class of native origin enjoying certain privileges conferred on their ancestors by the old Dutch East India Company. There were also, besides the Dutch, some Arabs, Chinese and a few Portuguese settlers. Ambon was a center of Christian missionary activity, and Ambon and the surrounding islands have many Christians as well as the Muslims that predominate in most of Indonesia.

On 22 December 1902, the Apostolic Prefecture of Dutch New Guinea was established in the city, later to be promoted as the Diocese of Amboina.

Indonesian military forces evacuate refugees from Ambon.

Ambon Island was the site of a major Dutch naval base and was of strategic importance during WW2. In 1941, Dutch forces with the assistance of Australian forces reinforced Ambon in anticipation of a Japanese attack.[9] Japanese forces attacked Ambon as part of their attack on the Dutch East Indies. Despite formidable defenses, Ambon fell when its defenders surrendered after four days of fighting on 3 February 1942.[10] Following the battle, Japanese forces committed numerous acts of atrocities, including the execution of over 300 Dutch and Australian POWs at Laha airfield.[11]

In 1950 Ambon was the center of an uprising against Indonesian rule, caused by the self-proclaimed Republic of the South Moluccas. Indonesian troops invaded the city during the Invasion of Ambon and reasserted control in just a few months. Many important buildings such as the Victoria Fort (APRMS main base) were heavily damaged during the confrontation.

In April and May 1958 during the Permesta rebellion in North Sulawesi, the USA supported and supplied the rebels. Pilots from a Taiwan-based CIA front organisation, Civil Air Transport, flying CIA B-26 Invader aircraft, repeatedly bombed and machine-gunned targets in and around Ambon. On 27 April a CIA raid set fire to a military command post, a fuel dump and a Royal Dutch Shell complex.[12] The attack on Shell was deliberate: the CIA had orders to hit foreign commercial interests in order to drive foreign trade away from Indonesia and undermine its economy.[13] The next day, the same CIA pilot bombed Shell interests at Balikpapan in East Kalimantan on Borneo, which persuaded Shell to suspend tanker services from there.[14]

On 28 April a CIA air raid damaged an Indonesian Army barracks next to a marketplace.[15] On 30 April a CIA air raid hit the airstrip.[16] On 7 May a CIA air raid attacked Ambon airstrip, seriously damaging a Douglas C-47 Skytrain and an Indonesian Air Force North American P-51 Mustang and setting fire to a number of fuel drums.[17] On 8 May a CIA B-26 tried to bomb an Indonesian Navy gunboat in Ambon harbour.[18] Its bomb missed but it then machine-gunned the boat, wounding two crew.[18] The Indonesian National Armed Forces reinforced Ambon City's anti-aircraft defences with a number of 12.7 mm (0.5 in) machine guns.[18] On 9 May a CIA B-26 attacked the city again.[18] The machine-gunners returned fire and an Indonesian Air Force P-51 Mustang chased the B-26, but it escaped.[18]

On 15 May a CIA B-26 attacked a small ship, the Naiko, in Ambon Bay.[19] The Naiko was a merchant ship that the Indonesian Government had pressed into military service, and she was bringing a company of Ambonese troops home from East Java.[20] A CIA bomb hit the Naiko's engine room, killing one crew member and 16 infantrymen[20] and setting the ship on fire.[19] The B-26 then attacked Ambon city, aiming for the barracks. Its first bomb missed and exploded in a market-place next door.[19] The next landed in the barracks compound but bounced and exploded near an ice factory.[19] The B-26 in the May air raids was flown by a CAT pilot called Allen Pope.[20] On 18 May Pope attacked Ambon again. First he raided the airstrip again, destroying the C-47 and P-51 that he had damaged on 7 May.[21] Then he flew west of the city and tried to attack one of a pair of troop ships being escorted by the Indonesian Navy.[22] Indonesian forces shot down the B-26 but Pope and his Indonesian radio operator survived and were captured.[23] Pope's capture immediately exposed the level of CIA support for the Permesta rebellion. Embarrassed, the Eisenhower administration quickly ended CIA support for Permesta and withdrew its agents and remaining aircraft from the conflict.[24]

As part of the transmigration program in the 1980s, the Suharto government relocated many migrants, most of them Muslim, from densely overpopulated Java.

Between 1999 and 2002, Ambon was at the centre of sectarian conflict across the Maluku Islands.[25][26] There was further religious violence in 2011.[27]

Most of the land area can be classified as hilly to steeply sloping, while 17% of the land area can be classified as more flat or shallow-sloped.

Ambon experiences a tropical rainforest climate (Af) according to Köppen Climate Classification as there is no real dry season. The driest month is November with total precipitation of 114 millimetres (4.5 in), while the wettest month is June with total precipitation of 638 millimetres (25.1 in). As it is located near the equator, the temperature throughout the year is constant. The hottest month is December, with an average temperature of 27.2 °C (81.0 °F), while the coolest month is July, with an average temperature 25.0 °C (77.0 °F).[28]