Tellumpoccoe War


Tellumpoccoe War was a power struggle conflict between the Makassarese and Buginese kingdoms in the South Sulawesi region and Ajatappareng, which had been going on since the late 16th century. refers to a military alliance between three Buginese states formed in the Treaty of Timurung, to face the Gowa and Talloq|expansion of Gowa-Tallo] whose power was increasingly expanding.

Background

felt threatened by the continuing rise of Gowa, while two neighboring vassals of Gowa, Soppéng and Wajoq, had also been alienated from their overlord due to its harsh rule. In 1582, Boné, Wajoq, and Soppéng signed the Treaty of Timurung which defined the relationship between the three polities as an alliance of brothers, with Boné considered the eldest brother. This Bone-led alliance, called the , sought to regain the autonomy of these Buginese kingdoms and halt Gowa's eastward expansionism. Gowa was provoked by this alliance and launched a series of offensives to the east

War

This war begins with an attack on Wajoq in 1583 which was repulsed by the . Two subsequent campaigns in 1585 and 1588 against Boné were equally unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the Tellumpoccoe attempted to forge a pan-Buginese front against Gowa by forming marriage alliances with the Buginese polities of Ajatappareng. Tunijalloq decided to attack Wajoq once more in 1590, but was assassinated by one of his subjects in an amok attack while leading a fleet off the west coast of South Sulawesi. In 1591, the Treaty of Caleppa was renewed and peace resumed. The Tellumpoccoe had successfully thwarted the ambitions of Gowa.
Major changes in the political landscape were also occurring in the ethnically Makassar heartlands. After the murder of Tunijalloq in 1590, Karaeng Matoaya, the eighteen-year-old son of Tumamenang ri Makkoayang and the half-brother of Karaeng Baine, was invested with the position of tumabicara-butta. Karaeng Matoaya then appointed Tunipasuluq, Tunijalloq's fifteen-year-old son, as the new karaeng of Gowa. However, besides reigning as the karaeng of Gowa, Tunipasuluq also claimed the position of the karaeng of Talloq and assumed the throne of nearby Maros upon the death of its ruler. This constituted the largest realm that would ever be directly controlled by Gowa. Confident of his position, Tunipasuluq sought to centralize all power in his own hands. He moved the seat of government to Somba Opu and confiscated the properties of, exiled, or executed aristocrats in order to weaken their resistance to his prerogative. Many among the nobility and the Malay community fled Makassar, fearing Tunipasuluq's arbitrary rule.
Tunipasuluq was overthrown in 1593 in a palace revolution most likely led by Karaeng Matoaya, the very man who had enabled Tunipasuluq's coronation. The erstwhile Karaeng Gowa was exiled and died in the distant island of Buton in 1617, although he may have continued to maintain close ties with his supporters in Makassar. Karaeng Matoaya was enthroned as Karaeng Talloq and appointed the seven-year-old prince I Manngarangi, as Karaeng Gowa. Maros regained its own independent karaeng after a few years of interregnum. The ousting of Tunipasuluq thus secured the autonomy of the nobility, delineated the limits of the karaeng of Gowa's authority, and restored balance between Gowa, Talloq, and other Makassar polities. Henceforth the dominion of Gowa was ruled by a confederation of powerful dynasties of which the Gowa royalty was nominally primus inter pares, although Tallo, the homeland of the tumabicara-butta, was often the de facto dominant polity. By the early 17th century, Gowa and Tallo had succeeded in becoming the most dominant powers in the South Sulawesi peninsula as they bolstered international trade and promoted the new faith of Islam. Between 1608 and 1611, Gowa waged successful campaigns throughout South Sulawesi, forcing Soppéng to embrace Islam in 1609, Wajoq in 1610, and Boné in 1611. Thereafter, the Tellumpoccoe surrendered the control of their foreign affairs to Gowa, although they were allowed to retain the alliance and still preserve considerable autonomy within their own domains. Karaeng Matoaya spearheaded both the conversion of South Sulawesi to Islam and Gowa-Talloq's rapid expansionism east to Maluku and south to the Lesser Sunda Islands. The ousting of Tunipasuluq and the beginning of Karaeng Matoaya's effective rule may therefore be considered to mark the end of Gowa's initial expansion and the beginning of another era of Makassar history.

Aftermath

According to Bulbeck and Caldwell, the turn of the 17th century marked the end of "early historical period" for Gowa and Tallo and the start of the "early modern" period. During the early modern period, Gowa and Tallo embraced Islam, initiated by Karaeng Matoaya who converted in 1605, followed by I Manngarangi and their Makassarese subjects in the following two years. Subsequently, Gowa won a series of victories against its neighbors, including Soppéng, Wajoq, and Boné, and became the first power to dominate the South Sulawesi peninsula. By 1630, Gowa's expansion extended not only to most of Sulawesi, but also overseas to parts of eastern Borneo, Lombok in the Lesser Sunda Islands, and the Aru and Kei Islands in Maluku. In the same period, the twin kingdoms became a more integral part of an international trading network of mostly Muslim states stretching from the Middle East and India to Indonesia. The period also saw the arrivals of Chinese traders and more European nationals in Gowa's thriving port.