Ternate allied with Portugal against its rival — then Portugal became the rival

The Sultanate of Ternate, in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia, was one of the world's only sources of cloves. The spice made its sultans wealthy and powerful in the region, but it also made them a target. Ternate's perennial rival was the neighbouring sultanate of Tidore, which controlled the nutmeg trade. The two small kingdoms had fought for centuries, each seeking an edge over the other.

In 1512 a Portuguese expedition was shipwrecked near the island. Sultan Abu Lais brought the survivors to Ternate and saw an opportunity: the Portuguese had guns, ships, and a reputation for ferocity. An alliance was struck: Ternate would supply cloves; the Portuguese would supply military support against Tidore and other enemies. The Portuguese built Fort Kastela on Ternate and stationed a garrison there. For a generation the arrangement held.

But the Portuguese had come to the Moluccas as imperialists, not traders. They tried to monopolise the clove trade, imposed heavy taxes on the sultanate, and demanded that Ternate's Muslim population convert to Christianity. Portuguese governors meddled in the succession and deposed sultans who resisted. In 1570 the Portuguese murdered Sultan Hairun, decapitated him, and displayed his head on a pike. The Ternatans depended on the Portuguese alliance for sixty years — now they saw what the alliance had cost.

The siege lasted five years. The Portuguese garrison, cut off from resupply, was starved into surrender in 1575. Baabullah expelled every Portuguese from the island and made the fort his palace. Ternate became the first indigenous state in the archipelago to defeat and expel a European colonial power. Baabullah's sultanate reached its peak, controlling territory from Sulawesi to Mindanao. But the victory created a power vacuum: Spain captured the fort in 1606, and the Dutch eventually absorbed Ternate into their colonial empire.