Banda Naira
We made a night dive searching for elusive mandarin fish at the Banda Naira dock and spent a morning on a walking tour of the historically significant town.
During the colonial era, the Dutch and the English struggled to control and profit from the high quality nutmeg that was available almost exclusively from Banda Naira. The islands were appropriated by the Dutch, and the residents enslaved, or murdered if they would not cooperate. These pictures of the town show the elaborate mansions that the plantation overlords built for themselves.
The English continually harried the Dutch in the region, and in a remarkable event toward the end of the 1600s made a trade with the Dutch. They ceded Banda Run Island, which they controlled, and which the Dutch wanted to complete their nutmeg monopoly. In exchange they acquired Manhattan Island, which the Dutch had controlled in the American colonies on the other side of the world!
Today, nutmeg and other spices are available inexpensively elsewhere, and Banda is poor, but proud, with hopes of developing commerce.
During the colonial era, the Dutch and the English struggled to control and profit from the high quality nutmeg that was available almost exclusively from Banda Naira. The islands were appropriated by the Dutch, and the residents enslaved, or murdered if they would not cooperate. These pictures of the town show the elaborate mansions that the plantation overlords built for themselves.
The English continually harried the Dutch in the region, and in a remarkable event toward the end of the 1600s made a trade with the Dutch. They ceded Banda Run Island, which they controlled, and which the Dutch wanted to complete their nutmeg monopoly. In exchange they acquired Manhattan Island, which the Dutch had controlled in the American colonies on the other side of the world!
Today, nutmeg and other spices are available inexpensively elsewhere, and Banda is poor, but proud, with hopes of developing commerce.
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