Being a leader with great charisma, he gathered discontents from several ethnic groups and strove to restore Maluku to its pre-colonial division into four autonomous kingdoms.

Apart from Tidore Island it encompassed parts of Halmahera and New Guinea, which yielded foodstuff, forest and sea products that gave the Sultanate a certain economic significance.

[6] His hatred of the VOC arose further in 1779 when his father and two brothers were arrested and exiled by the Dutch, on suspicions of misrule and conspiring with the British East India Company (EIC) and the rulers of Bacan and Maguindanao.

The communities of south-eastern Halmahera and the Papuan Islands had a tradition of raiding over long distances and were co-opted by Nuku in the fight against colonial rule.

Early contacts with the British did not have significant results until the EIC built a fort at Dorei on the coast of New Guinea in 1793, which brought it close to Nuku's domains.

[13] The French occupation of the Dutch Republic in 1795 had global consequences, since British forces were dispatched to occupy VOC possessions in Asia.

Ambon and the Banda Islands fell to Nuku with the assistance of two British ships in 1796, and by 1797 all VOC outposts in Moluccas had fallen, except Ternate which remained in Dutch hands.

Though he did not promise substantial assistance for an attack in North Maluku, the governor expressed support for Nuku's rights to the throne of Tidore.

[17] In the coming years, the British began to cooperate closer with Nuku, dropping the previous non-interference policy with regard to North Maluku.

The governor of Ambon, William Farquhar, combined forces with Nuku to lead a series on assaults on Ternate, whose Dutch defenders finally surrendered in June 1801.

Britain subsequently signed a treaty with Tidore where the former stood as protectors and the Sultan received an annual subsidy of 6,000 Spanish dollars in return for delivering cloves.

Nuku persisted in flying the Union Jack from his residence, and the Batavian governor in Ternate opened negotiations to settle the position of Tidore.

His nickname Jou Barakati, "Lord of Fortune" shows how he was perceived by people: a man of prowess imbued with a certain spiritual aura that would restore the shattered Malukan world.

A new Dutch attack drove out his brother and successor Sultan Zainal Abidin from Tidore in 1806 and Maluku remained steadily in European hands until 1942.

[24] With his wife Geboca (or Habiba Sinobe), Nuku sired two sons and a daughter: None of these ever succeeded to the throne, but Soangare's descendant Haji Djafar Dano Junus became titular Sultan of Tidore in 1999.