Category Archives: Spice Island

The story of Indonesian spices is quite dramatic, even melodramatic. Wars have been waged, lives lost, empires collapsed, for desire of these spices. The Dutch, English, Portuguese, Spanish, and even the Japanese have sent fleets of ships and their bravest warriors to conquer the Spice Islands and gain monopoly on Indonesian spices.
One can say that Indonesia taught the world the use of exotic spices and herbs. In the West, it was the beauty of Helen of Sparta that launched a thousand ships; in the East, the rare beauty of spices did it. Continue reading →