Maluku Islands
archipelago in eastern Indonesia, also called the Spice Islands
The Maluku Islands ( mə-LUU-koo, -LOO-; Indonesian: Kepulauan Maluku, IPA: [kəpuˈlawan maˈluku]) or the Moluccas ( mə-LUK-əz; Dutch: Molukken [ˌmoːˈlʏkə(n)]) are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically located in West Melanesia, the Moluccas have been considered a geographical and cultural intersection of Asia and Oceania.
The islands were known as the Spice Islands because of the nutmeg, mace, and cloves that were exclusively found there, the presence of which sparked European colonial interests in the 16th century.
The Maluku Islands formed a single province from Indonesian independence until 1999, when they were split into two provinces. A new province, North Maluku, incorporates the area between Morotai and Sula, with the arc of islands from Buru and Seram to Wetar remaining within the existing Maluku Province. North Maluku is predominantly Muslim, and its capital is Sofifi on Halmahera island. Maluku province has a larger Christian population, and its capital is Ambon. Though originally Melanesian, many island populations, especially in the Banda Islands, were massacred in the 17th century during the Dutch–Portuguese War, also known as the Spice War. A second influx of immigrants primarily from Java began in the early 20th century under the Dutch and continues in the Indonesian era, which has also caused a lot of controversy as the transmigrant programs are thought to be a contributing factor to the Maluku Riots.
“Maluku Islands” enters the record as archipelago in eastern Indonesia, also called the Spice Islands. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Maluku, Islands and archipelago can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3827. VIAF identifies the subject as 262243501. Authority coordinates are -2.000, 128.000. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1999.
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This entry incorporates text from “Maluku Islands” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.