Hitu

Hitu was a federation of villages on the northern peninsula of Ambon, a clove-growing island in the central Moluccas. Its leaders commanded a trading community whose connections reached the northern coast of Java and beyond, while the clove harvest drew merchants and rival powers to its shores. During the sixteenth century Hitu resisted Portuguese attempts to dominate Ambon.

In 1605 its leaders allied with the Dutch East India Company against the Portuguese and granted the Company the exclusive right to buy their cloves. The alliance deteriorated as Dutch demands and restrictions provoked resistance. Hituese strongholds around Wawani fell in 1643, but the mountain fortress of Kapahaha held out until July 1646. Its capture brought the long struggle on the peninsula to an end.

The later city of Ambon lies here.