Ternate (eastern coast)

North Maluku, Indonesia

Fuji S2 digital, Nikon 12-24

The sultans of Ternate and Tidore competed for power, playing successions of Spanish, Portuguese and other adventurers of against each other for centuries, with Ternate usually (but not always dominant), before finally coming under Dutch control.

In their heyday, these Sultans ruled far more than their tiny volcanic islands, each exercising some level of control over large swathes of Halmahera, the larger neighboring island to the east, other islands in Maluku, as well as part of what is now West Papua (Irian Jaya, on the island of New Guinea).