ABSTRACT
This article analyses why cities developed on the west side of the Banda Sea in the early 20th century. These cities are Baubau, Raha, Kendari, Bungku, Kolonodale, and Luwuk. The six cities are on the east coast of Sulawesi island. Four factors support the development of the cities namely: communities’ and governments’ active trading and shipping activities; secondly, the geographical factor in the global spice trade route encouraging integration between cities on the western side of the Banda Sea with other cities; thirdly, the city’s economic base being driven by people living in a strong maritime tradition; fourthly, inter-regional connectivity that can only be done by sea. Thus, the character of the city leads to the typology of a new city, the maritime city. The study of maritime cities in Indonesia is very important because it has a vast sea with thousands of islands.
