The spice islands
Like an answer to my questions, the shapes of distant islands begin to appear through the scratched porthole windows. These are the Banda Islands, which along with a handful of others are better known as the fabled Spice Islands. Here money once really did grow on trees and the lure of fortune sparked an age of exploration that changed the world.
In the far eastern reaches of Indonesia's sprawling archipelago, the Spice Islands remain largely forgotten today, but shelter an Eden of astonishing life.
On the fire mountain
Straddling the equator, these islands rise like a geologic pimple a sheer 22,000 feet (6,700 meters) from the deep, empty quarters of the Banda Sea. Like many other parts of Indonesia's "ring of fire," they lie along volatile tectonic seams in the Earth's crust. Here the Eurasian, Pacific and Indo-Australian plates all meet, resulting in frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
These eruptions spew minerals from deep in the Earth's crust to the surface, creating rich soils. Together with the wet, tropical climate, a luxuriant blanket of plants thrive on these islands, including one unique tree species once only found here, the famous but unassuming nutmeg tree, Myristica fragrans.
Best known to most of us today for holiday baking, nutmegs like these were literally worth their weight in gold during the 16th and 17th centuries, the height of the Spice Trade. In a time before refrigeration, spices like nutmeg, mace and cloves helped flavor and preserve foods in medieval Europe, and were rumored to cure many illnesses, including the plague.
Traveling from the Far East across thousands of miles of caravan routes and innumerable middle men, by the time these exotic spices made it to Europe they were coveted commodities. So valuable were they that the financial incentive to discover the source of these spices was perhaps the single most important factor precipitating Europe's Age of Exploration, which led to the discovery of the New World in 1492.
In the jungle gardens
This ancient agroforesty system has been practiced for centuries by local sultanates here. When European explorers finally "discovered" the Spice Islands, everything changed. In a quest to control and monopolize the lucrative spice trade, competing powers radically altered the social, political and natural landscape of these islands.
After years of political alliances, wars and reprisals between locals and European powers it was the Dutch who emerged in 1599 to dominate and take control over the Spice Islands. Thus began the rise of the VOC or Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie in Dutch, otherwise known as the Dutch East India Company. With quasi-governmental powers to wage war, establish colonies, negotiate treaties and coin money, the VOC was arguably the world's first multinational corporation.
The first corporation
By the year 1654 the VOC held control of nearly all of the Spice Islands in eastern Indonesia. Yet one island lay beyond their grasp, the tiny island of Palua Run. Following many unsuccessful skirmishes to seize it from the British, the VOC negotiated what today could be interpreted as one of the worst trades in history. In exchange for Palua Run the Dutch gave the British a remote outpost in the New World called New Amsterdam, better known today as Manhattan.
Despite the returns on that trade, the VOC got what they wanted at the time: absolute control over the Spice Islands and thus a monopoly on the lucrative spice trade.
Money that grows on trees
Between 1602 and 1769 the VOC sent almost a million Europeans to work in Asia and made enormous profits monopolizing the spice trade. Their power came at a huge human cost though. The native Bandanese population was virtually wiped out.
Slaves were brought in to work the nutmeg groves, similar to American plantations, and an iron fist discouraged competition. Thus, for almost two centuries money really did grow on trees, but only in the Bandas. It was inevitable that it couldn't last.
Ruined by the birds
By the 18th century, corruption was bankrupting the VOC. Meanwhile their grip on the spice monopoly had been broken as smugglers began to establish nutmeg on other islands outside of VOC control, such as Zanzibar and Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.
Ironically, native Bandanese fruit pigeons (Ducula concinna) likely played a key role in distributing nutmeg as well. These birds eat the nutmeg fruits and naturally expel the seeds wherever they go, including other islands. Here, nutmeg could grow naturally without VOC "permission" and once again thrive. Imagine, an empire ruined by pigeon poop!
Lost in the corla triangle
The Spice Islands sit in the heart of what biologists call the Coral Triangle. Bounded by the Celebes Sea in the west to the shores of Papua New Guinea in the east and north to the Philippine Islands, the coral triangle is the marine equivalent of the Amazon Rainforest.
Within these warm, shallow waters a mind-boggling assortment of marine life thrives. The greatest diversity of iridescent corals, fish, mollusks and marine plants in the world are all found here, making this region a biodiversity hotspot. Though the Bandas may sit in the backwaters of history today, this may be a blessing in disguise. Remote and isolated from the world, a healthy and diverse ecosystem thrives both above and below the waves.
Life from the sea
Surrounded by water, life in the Spice Islands today relies heavily on the sea. Though people still grow nutmeg as they always have, no longer does money grow on trees as it did during the heyday of the spice trade. Increasingly today villagers' food and income comes instead from the rich seas that envelop the Spice Islands.
The very richness of these seas threatens them, as multi-national fishing fleets increasingly set their eyes on this region. Insular, and self-contained, a delicate balance must be struck between the local ecology and economy on these islands. Some villagers see small-scale eco-tourism as an alternative and have begun to open their homes to a trickle of tourists willing to brave the long journeys and unreliable transport to snorkel the coral reefs and indulge in the forgotten history of these islands.
In the backwaters of history
In the Spice Islands, crumbling Dutch forts, charming little villages under the shadow of steaming volcanoes and ancient nutmeg groves still exist almost frozen in time. Coral gardens shimmer below the waves and shaggy bougainvillea flowers blanket the village avenues.
Its wonders forgotten in the backwaters of history, the wealth of the Spice Islands remains alive today in vibrant village communities, lush forests groves and pristine reefs. Like an accidental Eden, nature thrives suspended like a time capsule in a sea of change.