Hasanuddin of Gowa
War would ebb and flow between the two powers for over fifty years, as the Dutch were bent on having a complete monopoly of the spice trade, from which Gowa also derived its prosperity.
With that goal in mind it was practically impossible for either side to obtain a workable permanent compromise, as the VOC would not tolerate any commercial (and by extension, military) rival in the region.
The large numbers of European experts available allowed Makassar to greatly modernize their army and navy; for example by 1632 the Makassarese ordnance was managed by an Englishmen who had converted into Islam.
Finally, on 27 April 1659, Hasannudin demanded that the company stopped its attacks on Seram, Buru and Amblau, all of which were vassal states of Makassar, evacuated Menado, and admit that its monopoly of the spice trade in the Moluccas "were in contravention of God's laws".
A fleet of thirty one ships, manned by a thousand sailors and carrying 1,200 European soldiers and 400 Ambonese mercenaries were gathered in Ambon under the command of Johan van Dam for the VOC war effort.
Gowa's defeat by the Company might have caused its Bugis vassal state of Bone to rise in rebellion in 1660, led by Hasanuddin's future nemesis Arung Palakka.
Arung Palakka fled to Batavia and became a mercenary in the VOC's army for a while, while large numbers of Buginese rebels also gathered in Buton, now a vassal state of the Company.
Still wary of the impressive fortifications of Makassar, the Hoge Regering instructed Speelman only to raid the coast in several places, and to have his allies do all the fighting, sparing his European troops.
Eventually, Arung Palakka were so successful in stirring up discontent among the Butonese and Buginese that he was able to assemble an army of 10,000 men, for which the company provided transports to join its war effort.
The Company and its allies besieged the city for two and a half years, with diseases taking its toll on the attackers that at one point only 250 European soldiers were fit for service.
