page_title: Nuku of Tidore
section_title: Early movement
hierarchical_section_title: Nuku of Tidore / Early movement
caption_attribution_description: Mosquée du village de Warrou. Atlas pittoresque, planche 128
context_page_description: Nuku was the nineteenth Sultan of Tidore in Maluku Islands, reigning from 1797 to 1805. He is also known under the names Sultan Muhammad al-Mabus Amiruddin Syah, Saifuddin, Jou Barakati, and Kaicili Paparangan. He led a rebellion against Dutch colonialism in Maluku and Papua from 1780 which was eventually successful. Being a leader with great charisma, he gathered discontents from several ethnic groups and strove to restore Maluku to its pre-colonial division into four autonomous kingdoms. Nuku used global political conflict lines by allying with the British against the French-affiliated Dutch and helped them conquer the Dutch stronghold in Ternate in 1801. In modern Indonesia he is commemorated as a pahlawan nasional.
context_section_description: Nuku refused to accept the new order, and left Tidore Island in 1780, sailing with his followers to Patani in Halmahera. Establishing a local base, he was proclaimed King of the Papuans and planned to seek aid from Spanish and English ships. The communities of south-eastern Halmahera and the Papuan Islands had a tradition of raiding over long distances and were co-opted by Nuku in the fight against colonial rule. Thus began a movement to restore Maluku to its old peace and prosperity. For the Papuans, Nuku appeared as a charismatic leader able to establish Koreri, an utopian realm that would arise after toppling the existing order. For many Tidorese and other Malukans, Nuku was a champion for all of Maluku, since the local rulers were little more than Dutch puppets. The VOC undertook a number of sea expeditions to quell the movement with varying success. After an overwhelming victory against them in 1783, Nuku forced the current Sultan Patra Alam to declare war on the Dutch and exterminate the Dutch on the island. Nuku sailed over to Tidore where he was received enthusiastically, but his position did not last long. Tidore was in turn invaded by a strong Dutch-Ternatan force and completely defeated, more than a thousand Tidorese were killed, and Nuku had to flee. Patra Alam was deposed and exiled, and a prince from another branch, Kamaluddin, was set up as a Dutch tool. The VOC thus showed that it still had muscles to quell rebellions in the center. By contrast, the rebellion continued in the periphery, led by Nuku from the Raja Ampat islands and Ceram. The Kei and Aru Islands were also drawn into the struggle as discontented groups joined the movement and attacked Dutch soldiers and seamen. On balance, the attacks of the Dutch and their appointed Sultan Kamaluddin on the rebellious areas seriously weakened Nuku's position up to the early 1790s.
caption: Mosque in Waru, Ceram, where Nuku had his headquarters in the 1780s and 1790s. Image from 1846.
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