Ternate's twin sultanate — a perfectly conical volcano, traditional boat racing, and the spice island where Magellan's expedition ended
Tidore is the twin island to Ternate in the northern Maluku archipelago — separated by a 2km strait and historically the great rival sultanate that competed for control of the clove trade and European alliance. Where Ternate allied with the Portuguese and later Dutch, Tidore cultivated the Spanish — Ferdinand Magellan's expedition ended here in 1521 when his navigator Elcano completed the first circumnavigation by picking up cloves in Tidore before sailing home to Spain. The island's interior is dominated by the perfectly symmetrical Kie Matubu (Tidore Peak) at 1,730m — one of the most beauti…
The Tidore Sultanate was established in the 11th century and reached its peak power in the 15th–17th centuries, when it controlled a maritime empire stretching from the Bird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea to the Spice Islands' outer archipelagos. Tidore and Ternate divided the eastern Indonesian archipelago between them in a rivalry that shaped European exploration — the Spanish supported Tidore, the Portuguese and Dutch supported Ternate. After Magellan's death in the Philippines (1521), his surviving ship the Victoria loaded cloves here in Tidore before completing the first circumnavigation…