ABSTRACT
This chapter examines specific connections and interactions along and between coasts, to contribute to a clearer understanding of how seventeenth-century maritime dynamics in Southeast Asia interfaced with politics and society above the high-water mark. It shows that some of the seascape of the spice wars, the role played in them by sea people, and how these conflicts were linked through the Tiworo. The Dutch East India Company forces, led by Arnold de Vlaming, were joined by local allies mostly under Ternate's Sultan Mandarsyah, who claimed numerous islands in the region as his dependencies. At the time, Makassar formed the primary transshipment point for goods from the eastern archipelago, including cloves and nutmeg. The assault by Ternate's and the VOC on Tiworo in 1655 had a dramatic outcome, which may in part explain Sultan Hasanuddin's framing his rationale as payback. When the VOC and Ternaten forces attacked, they expected to meet with Makassar's fleet in Tiworo.
