Huamual

Huamual, also called Hoamoal, is the western peninsula of Seram, across the water from Ambon. Its clove gardens and Muslim coastal communities made it an important part of the spice trade. Local leaders maintained ties with Ternate, whose noble Tomagola family held authority in this part of the central Moluccas.

In the seventeenth century the Dutch East India Company sought to monopolize cloves and exclude other buyers from the clove-growing districts of the Moluccas. The restrictions and demands for labor provoked prolonged resistance in Huamual and neighboring Hitu. Dutch campaigns eventually broke the power of the peninsula's leaders, and by 1656 the Tomagola base there had been lost. The struggle transformed a region whose prosperity had rested on its connections with many merchants.