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TERNATE

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 647 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TERNATE , a small See also:

island in the See also:Malay See also:Archipelago, off the See also:west See also:coast of See also:Halmahera, in o° 48' N., 127° 19' E. It is nearly circular in See also:form, with an See also:area of about 25 sq. m., and consists almost entirely of a remarkable See also:volcano (5400 ft.) formed of three superimposed cones. Frequent destructive eruptions have occurred. On the island is the small See also:town of Ternate, which, in spite' of its See also:good See also:harbour, carried on no considerable See also:trade or See also:shipping, and has only 3000 inhabitants. But it is the headquarters of the Dutch residency of Ternate, which exercises authority over the area of the See also:ancient kingdoms of Ternate and See also:Tidore. The residency consists of the following See also:groups of islands: the Halmahera See also:group, the See also:Bachian and the Obi group, the Sula Islands, the islands near the western See also:half of New See also:Guinea (Gebeh, Vaigeu, Salawati, Misol, collectively called the Papuan Islands), the western half of New Guinea as far as 141° E., with the islands in Geelvink Gulf on the See also:north coast of New Guinea (Schouten Islands, Yapen, &c.), along with others on the See also:south coast. To this residency also belong the See also:state of Banggai in See also:East See also:Celebes, and the Banggai Islands. The residency stretches from 20 43' N. to 5° 45' S., and 121° to 1410 E., with an area of 155,800 sq. m. The Dutch See also:government exercises See also:direct authority only over parts of Ternate, Halmahera, Bachian and Obi islands. Its See also:rule over the other groups it carries on through• the sultans of Ternate and Tidore (q.v.). Both the island and town of Ternate suffer from their See also:isolation, and have never regained the importance they had in former centuries. Pop. of the whole residency (1905) 108,415.

The inhabitants are of Malay See also:

race and Mahommedans in See also:religion. The breaking up of the old government of the See also:Moluccas tended to make Ternate perhaps the most important Dutch-See also:Indian See also:political centre of the archipelago east of Celebes. Nominally the See also:sultan is still ruler, but virtually his See also:powers were greatly curtailed by his conventions with the Dutch-Indian government, under which he surrendered, with the concurrence of his grandees, many of his former rights to the Dutch See also:resident, who became the de facto See also:governor of the easternmost colonial possessions of See also:Holland, especially since the See also:transfer of Dutch New Guinea in 'cool. Among the rights surrendered by the sultan of Ternate to the Dutch were those of granting monopolies and See also:mining concessions, now vested in the Dutch resident. The island of Bachian is worked by a See also:kind of chartered See also:company. For surrendered rights and privileges the sultan and his grandees received monetary compensations in the shape of See also:annual subventions, and these also have been paid for the losses formerly incurred by the wilful destruction of the See also:nutmeg plantations, carried out in See also:order to enhance the value of this commodity and monopolize its cultivation. The restrictions on nutmeg-growing have See also:long since been removed, and many plantations, with See also:free labour, have been started in Ternate since 1885. It is a curious fact that See also:Christianity has declined in Ternate in See also:modern '`See also:mes, though it was an See also:early stronghold and the number of Europeans settled there has materially increased.

End of Article: TERNATE

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TERNI (anc. Interamna Nahars)

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