Saparua

Saparua is one of the Lease Islands east of Ambon, in the clove-growing heart of the central Moluccas. The Dutch East India Company concentrated clove cultivation in Ambon and the neighboring islands as it sought to control the spice trade. Fort Duurstede, overlooking Saparua's coast, became a center of Dutch defense and administration. Its walls also sheltered a store for spices before their dispatch, tying the fort directly to the Company's commerce.

The more permanent fort was built around 1690–1691 under Governor Nicolaas Schaghen. Britain occupied Saparua in 1796 and again in 1810 before the islands returned to Dutch rule. In 1817 a revolt led by Thomas Matulessy, remembered as Pattimura, captured Duurstede, making the fort a landmark of resistance to renewed colonial authority.