page_title: Buru
section_title: Colonial period
hierarchical_section_title: Buru / History / Colonial period
caption_attribution_description: Dried cloves
context_page_description: Buru is an island in Indonesia. About a third of the people are indigenous, mostly Buru, but also Lisela, Ambelau and Kayeli people. Between 1658 and 1942, Buru was colonised by the Dutch East India Company and then by the Crown of the Netherlands. The Japanese army had the island between 1942 and 1945. In 1950, it became part of independent Indonesia. During president Suharto's New Order administration in the 1960s–1970s, Buru was a prison for thousands of political prisoners. The famous Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer wrote most of his novels, including Buru Quartet in that prison.
context_section_description: The Makassars and Dutch East India Company both wanted the spices in the east of the Malay archipelago. They fought a war. In 1648, the Dutch forced the Makassar out of Buru. The Dutch destroyed farms and buildings because they could not stay on Buru and afraid that the Makassars might come back. They came back with with four cannon and staffed by 24 soldiers in 1658 at the southern coast of Kayeli Bay. They built a permanent settlement and fortress. The Dutch forced about 2,000 local island people to move to Kayeli Bay. Many of them were nobles. The Dutch wanted to control the local people and make them work in the clove fields. These local Kayeli people became important leaders.
  The Dutch East India Company ended in the early 18th century. All its land in the Malay archipelago became property of the Dutch crown. Buru was divided into regencies. Local rulers called rajascontrolled the regencies for the Dutch. All rajas were Kayeli tribal nobles.
  The demise of Kayeli dominance began in the 1880s, when the leaders of Leliali, Wae Sama and Fogi clans moved significant parts of their ethnic groups to their original settlements; they were joined in the early 1900s by Tagalisa. By then, many other of the original 13 Kayeli villages were either abandoned or had lost their rajas. By about 1910, the leading role of the Kayeli clan had almost disappeared.
caption: Clove – a spice, which played a significant role in the history of Buru
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