Spice Islands
Indonesian aromatic islands
The Spice Islands is a historical name for the Maluku Islands of Indonesia, source of cloves, nutmeg, and mace that Europeans prized for centuries.
The quest to control the spice trade drove exploration and colonization: Portuguese and Dutch sailors fought over the Spice Islands.
The name evokes an era when these aromatics commanded extraordinary prices.
- MoluccasIndonesian island group
- maceBludgeon with flanged head
- nutmegAromatic seed spice
- Wallace LineZoogeographic boundary in Indonesia
- trade windsReliable equatorial air currents
sailing ships · sea voyages · Age of Exploration · VOC · cinnamon · island · tropical paradise · island hopping · endemic species · cloves · indigenous culture · Portuguese · Dutch East India Company · fragrant · plantation · merchants · exploration · Dutch
Spice Islandsdesert
To leave behind completely
tundra · Sahara Desert · Gobi Desert · badlands · Death Valley
Spice Islandsfrozen tundra
Icy treeless polar landscape
Arctic · Antarctic · Siberia · polar regions · ice sheets
spicy, spice, spices, spiced, islands, islanders, islander, unspiced, spicery