An interesting study has just been published regarding the latest Spanish presence in the Maluku Islands, it is the paper entitled “1677: el Fuerte de Santa Rosa en la isla de Siau, última presencia española en Indonesia”. The document is written by three leading researchers of the Spanish presence in the Maluku Islands: Antonio Campo López, Juan Carlos Rey and Nurachman Iriyanto.
The document has been presented in Madrid at the X AEEP Congress (Asociación Española de Estudios del Pacífico).
The underlying theme was to try to recover the memory of the existence of the last Spanish fort in the current territory of Indonesia. Spain’s withdrawal from the current territory of Indonesia did not occur in 1663 when it abandoned the Moluccas, but in 1677, with the abandonment of Fort Santa Rosa on the island of Siao.
Below are the words of the research abstract:
“Located between Sulawesi and Mindanao, the island of Siau had a long connection with the Hispanic Monarchy throughout the Modern Age. For more than a century and a half, from the first sighting in 1521 by the members of the Magellan-Elcano expedition until 1677, the date of the departure of the last Spanish garrison from the island, Spanish sailors, religious and soldiers visited and stayed on this island. Due to its privileged location, halfway between the Moluccas and the Philippines, made Siau the most faithful ally of the Spanish in Indonesia. In this paper we will analyze the evolution of this alliance as well as the most important events that marked this shared history. This will help us analyze the importance of Siau in Spanish policy in the south of the Philippines.”
The Document can be downloaded on Academiaedu.