The Right of Navigation: Claiming and Challenging the Free Sea in Theory and Practice

Abstract

For Sultan Alau’ddin, the ruler of Gowa on South Sulawesi between 1596 and 1639, the freedom of the seas was paramount. His kingdom, centred on the city of Makassar, was ideally situated as a maritime crossroads between the Java Sea and the spice islands of Maluku. International traders, including Chinese, Malay, and European ships, frequented Makassar’s harbour, profiting from the policies of open navigation sanctioned by the sultan. Yet in 1615, another maritime power that recently had become active in the area, the Dutch East India Company (VOC), sought to undermine Makassar’s position by establishing a monopoly on the spice trade. When the conflict escalated, Sultan Alau’ddin sent a message to the Company’s governor-general and strongly repudiated Dutch attempts to restrict navigation and trade in the area: ‘God made the land and the sea; the land He divided among men and the sea He gave in common.