Makassar's Bugis vassals switched to the VOC — and took the kingdom with them

The Sultanate of Makassar, centred on the port of Gowa in South Sulawesi, had grown rich on the spice trade. By the mid-17th century it was the dominant power in eastern Indonesia, controlling the pepper and clove routes and defying the Dutch East India Company's attempts to monopolise the trade. The sultanate's power rested partly on its Bugis vassals — the kingdoms of Bone, Soppeng, and Wajo — who supplied ships, warriors, and access to the interior trade routes.

The relationship with Bone, the largest Bugis kingdom, had been fracturing for decades. Gowa defeated Bone in 1644 and again in 1660, when a revolt led by the Bugis prince Arung Palakka was crushed. Palakka fled into exile. In 1666, the VOC assembled a fleet under Admiral Cornelis Speelman to break Makassar's resistance. Palakka, who had spent six years in exile, presented himself as the key to South Sulawesi: he knew the terrain, the politics, and the grievances. He offered his Bugis warriors to the VOC in exchange for help restoring Bone's independence.

The alliance was the decisive factor. While the VOC fleet blockaded Makassar's ports, Palakka's Bugis forces fought a land campaign across the peninsula, cutting off Gowa's interior supply routes and rallying Bugis who had resented Makassar rule. The Treaty of Bungaya in 1667 forced Makassar to surrender its trading monopoly and coastal fortresses. When fighting resumed, the alliance crushed Makassar's last defences in June 1669. Gowa's great fortress of Somba Opu was razed. The VOC built Fort Rotterdam on its ruins.

Makassar's empire collapsed. The VOC imposed a monopoly on its trade, and Bone — the kingdom whose prince had switched sides — replaced Gowa as the dominant polity in South Sulawesi. Makassar's defeat was less a military failure than an alliance failure: the vassals who had been held by force chose a foreign power over their own overlord.