It is 51 kilometres (32 miles) long and is of very irregular shape, being almost divided in two by a large inlet (Ambon Bay).

The coast of Ambon is identified as a site of highest marine biodiversity importance in the Coral Triangle.

The northeastern region of the Banda Sea is dominated by the western motion of the Pacific Plate, which has resulted in the formation of a large zone of strike slip faulting.

Several marine terraces are exposed in the bay regions of the island, supporting theories of uplift in the Banda Sea due to the subduction of the Indo-Australia Plate.

Cassava and sago are the chief crops, which also include breadfruit, sugarcane, coffee, cocoa, pepper and cotton.

Amboina wood, obtained from the angsana tree and highly valued for ornamental woodwork, is now mostly grown on Seram.

Indeed, the Portuguese never managed to control the local trade in spices and failed in attempts to establish their authority over the Banda Islands, the nearby centre of nutmeg production.

In 1654, after many fruitless negotiations, Oliver Cromwell compelled the United Provinces to give the sum of 300,000 gulden, as compensation to the descendants of those who suffered in the "Ambon Massacre", together with Manhattan.

The Muslim state Hitu, in the north of Ambon, was especially recalcitrant, while the southern peninsula Leitimor was largely Christianized and mostly stayed in the European orbit.

Moreover, the autonomous governors for the Sultanate of Ternate in Hoamoal in western Seram Island held a generally anti-Dutch stance.

In July 1646, finally, the VOC troops found a steep track to scale the rock and conquered Kapahaha after a bitter fight.

Although the rebels were assisted by Makassarese auxiliaries, the rebellion was eventually defeated by the VOC commander Arnold Vlaming van Oudshoorn with great loss of life, in 1656.

[14] The colonial administration and regulated economy was then conscientiously upheld by the Dutch until European rivals arrived on the scene.

[15] The British, under Admiral Peter Rainier, captured Ambon in 1796, but they restored it to the Dutch at the Peace of Amiens in 1802.

They were ordered to build an airfield and runway alongside the beach and cleared coconut trees for the task.

As a consequence of ethnic and religious tensions, and President Sukarno making Indonesia a unitary state, Ambon was the scene of a revolt against the Indonesian government, resulting in the rebellion of the Republic of South Maluku in 1950.

Also, on 8 May 1958 CIA pilot Allen Pope bombed and machine-gunned the Indonesian Air Force base at Liang in the northeast of the island, damaging the runway and destroying a Consolidated PBY Catalina.

[18] The Indonesian Air Force had only one serviceable fighter aircraft on Ambon Island, a North American P-51 Mustang at Liang.

Pope's last air raid was on 18 May, when an Indonesian pilot at Liang, Captain Ignatius Dewanto, was scrambled to the P-51.

[21] Pope and his Indonesian radio operator bailed out and were captured,[22] which immediately exposed the level of CIA support for the Permesta rebellion.

Embarrassed, the Eisenhower administration quickly ended CIA support for Permesta and withdrew its agents and remaining aircraft from the conflict.

In 2007, Ambon resident Leonard Joni Sinay was sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment for treason after he and other activists protested a visit by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono with a dance and a raising of the banned regional flag; both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called for his release, the latter organization designating him a prisoner of conscience.