Moluccas (also called SPICE ISLANDS), the easternmost division of the Malay Archipelago, comprising most of the islands between Celebes and New Guinea west and east, and between Timor and the Philippines south and north. Originally the term Moluccos was applied by the Portuguese only to the small islands (Ternate, Tidor, &c.) west of Jilolo, which are now known as the Little Moluccas; but it was gradually extended to Jilolo itself, to Buru, Ceram, and all the spice-growing islands of the eastern seas, which, with parts of Celebes and New Guinea, now form politically the three Dutch residencies of Ternate, Amboyna, and Banda, and which physically fall into the two groups of the Northern Moluccas, disposed in the direction from north to south, and the Southern Moluccas, running mainly west and east. The northern group, which is surrounded on all sides by deep waters, ranging from 500 to 2000 fathoms, lies between the Molucca and Jilolo passages west and east, and comprises Morotai (Morty) and Rau (Riao) in the north, Jilolo, Ternate, Tidor, and other islets in the centre, Batchian (Batjan), Tawali, Mandioli, and Great and Little Obi (Oby) in the south, with a total area of nearly 10,000 sq. m., of which Jilolo has 7000, Morotai 1100, and Batchian 850. The population is vaguely estimated at 60,000, of which nearly half are concentrated in the small but politically important islands of Tidor and Ternate, with respective areas 35 and 25 sq. m.
The Southern Moluccas are connected by a submarine bed of less than 100 fathoms westwards with Sula and Celebes, but are separated from the northern group by an abyss of over 1500 fathoms, and are washed on the south side by the Banda Sea, which has a depth of 3000, and at one point (near the Banda volcano) of over 4000 fathoms. They comprise the two large islands of Buru (8500 sq. m.) and Ceram (7000), the small Amboyna, Uliasser, Banda, and Ceram Lant sub-groups, the outlying Ké (Kei) and Aru clusters, with some other islets scattered over the neighbouring waters, with a collective area of 16,500 sq. m., and an estimated population of 350,000, of which 200,000 are in Ceram, 60,000 in Buru, 30,000 in Amboyna, 26,000 in Uliasser, and 6000 in Banda. Thus the Moluccas, taken in the widest sense, have a total area of over 26,000 sq. m., and a population of probably not much more than 400,000, chiefly Orang-Malayu, or civilised Malays, in the Little Moluccas, Banda, and Amboyna, elsewhere the so-called 'Alfuros'—i.e. uncivilised or non-Mohammedan natives, some Indonesians, some true Malays, some mixed Malay-Papuan (see MALAYS).
The Moluccas lie partly on the line of the great volcanic fault, which sweeps round in a vast curve from Sumatra to the Philippines and Japan, and which in the Moluccas is indicated by the still active Gunong-Api (1870 feet) in Banda, Tidor (5730), Ternate (5650), Motir (2800), three cones in Jilolo, Tolo in Morotai. Api was the scene of a terrific eruption accompanied by earthquakes in 1825; Ternate is one of the most restless volcanoes in Malaysia; and several other cones appear to be of relatively recent date. For ages the whole region has evidently been subject to continuous convulsions, which have reduced it to its present fragmentary state. At a remote geological epoch it probably formed part of Celebes and the Philippines, a supposition by which are best explained the many features possessed in common by the natural history of these now scattered lands. The trachitic Morotai was certainly at one time connected with Jilolo, and were the connection restored the resemblance would be complete between the curiously shaped islands of Celebes and Jilolo, which have been compared to a mutilated starfish. Jilolo, also called Halmahera, or the 'Great Land,' largely consists, like Ceram and Buru, of crystalline or metamorphic and very old sedimentary (coralline limestone) rocks, whereas Ternate, Tidor, Banda, and the smaller members of the group are partly of igneous, partly of coralline origin.
Despite their tropical position, being nearly bisected by the equator, the Moluccas enjoy a relatively healthy climate, and in some places the European race (Portuguese and Dutch) has even been acclimatised. The excessive heats are everywhere tempered by sea-breezes and by the mountainous character of the islands, which in Buru and Ceram rise to heights of 8000 and even 10,000 feet. In the Southern Moluccas the north-east trades prevail from May to October, and are accompanied by heavy rains and thunderstorms. They are followed by the west monsoon, which has already discharged most of its moisture before reaching this region. In the north the regular winds become intermingled, with the result that the seasons are here extremely variable, fine and wet weather alternating throughout the year. But the temperature oscillates everywhere within very narrow ranges, seldom rising above 85° or falling below 75° F. on the coast-lands. Rainfall, 150 inches at Amboyna.
Indigenous to most parts of this region are the clove, nutmeg, and other spices, although these plants are now cultivated only in Amboyna and the Banda group; elsewhere they were extirpated by the Dutch government with the view of increasing the value of the Banda plantations, and preserving the monopoly of the spice trade. Other valuable plants are the sago-palm, which supplies the staple food of the Moluccas; the pandanus, remarkable for its aerial roots, the kanary nut, dammar pine, and Cajeput (q.v.).
In its fauna the Molucca group is connected with Celebes by the babiroussa hog found in Buru, and with New Guinea by the bird of paradise (Batchian), the marsupial cuscus and flying opossum occurring in several islands. Here are also found the cassowary, the Australasian megapodius, or mound-building bird, the crimson lory, the racket- tailed kingfisher, and numerous species of parrots and pigeons noted for their gorgeous plumage. Insects, such as the long-armed beetle of Amboyna and several butterflies, here attain their largest size and display their brightest colours. The shallow waters, especially of the southern group, are also noted for the vivid hues of the anemones, sponges, shells, and corals covering the bed of the sea, and for the immense number of their fishes.
Notwithstanding their small size, Ternate and Tidor have always been the chief centres of political power in the northern, and Amboyna in the southern Moluccas. These islands have long been occupied by civilised Malays, who easily asserted their supremacy over the surrounding lands, which are inhabited chiefly by rude wild tribes at a low stage of culture. Formerly the Mohammedan sultans of Tidor and Ternate were amongst the most powerful rulers in Malaysia, their dominions stretching westwards to Celebes and eastwards to New Guinea, and comprising all the intermediate islands. It was as heirs to these potentates that the Dutch claimed all the western part of New Guinea, as far as the 141st meridian. For the same reason the present Dutch residency of Ternate includes that part of East Celebes which is watered by the Gulf of Tomini, together with the adjacent islands. In Ternate is still centred most of the trade of the northern Moluccas, which export spices, tortoise-shell, trepang, beeswax, bark, and birds of paradise in considerable quantities. The residency of Amboyna, one of the oldest Dutch settlements in the East, comprises the whole of Buru, the western half of Ceram, and all the neighbouring islets. The town of Amboyna, capital of all the Dutch possessions in the Moluccas, carries on a flourishing export trade in cloves, of which half a million pounds have been raised in favourable years in the famous clove-gardens belonging to the government. Banda, the third Dutch residency, comprises, besides the Banda group (Great Banda, Api, Neira, and Pisang), a large part of Ceram, the Ké and Aru groups, Timor Laut, and the Serwati Archipelago. Banda is the true home of the nutmeg, which here grows naturally, and arrives at the greatest perfection on the slopes of all the volcanic islands, which are disposed round an inner basin like the fragments of some disruptrured crater. Neira or Banda, called also Nassau, seat of the residency, occupies the southern extremity of Neira Island on the north side of the basin over against Gunung-API. Besides the nutmeg and mace, Banda yields sago and cocoa-nuts for the export trade, which has long been monopolised by the so-called 'Perkeniers,' descendants of Europeans settled in this group since the beginning of the 17th century, and now perfectly acclimatised.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—A. R. Wallace, The Malay Archipelago; A. Bastian, Indonesien, I. Die Molukken; Bernstein's Reisen in den Nördlichen Molukken (Petermann's Mittheilungen, 1873); Von Rosenberg's Malayische Archipel; S. Müller's Reisen in den Molukschen Archipel; Reclus, Universal Geography (Eng. ed. vol. xiv.).