[2] It is the biggest and most densely populated city in the province, as well as the economic, cultural, and education center of North Maluku, and acts as a hub to neighbouring regions.

[6]:4 The settlement founded by people from Halmahera was first situated close on the hillside of the Gamalama mountain and named Tobona.

Cico may correspond to Kaicil Mashur Malamo, who was the first ruler according to other traditions and was a son of the Arab Jafar Sadik, who is claimed to be the father of the founding kings of Ternate, Tidore, Bacan and Jailolo.

Ternate became a major port city and center of the spice trade in the Moluccas region, competing with its rival, Tidore.

[6]:5 Around 1322, Arif Malamo initiated the Moti Agreement, which was a result of discussions between the rulers in Moluccas about trade and standardization of government structures.

As a result of this agreement, the Moluccas had relatively peaceful times of over the next twenty years and trade flourished.

[6]:6 However, Arif was succeeded by Kaicil Tulu Malamo, who revoked the agreement as he thought it limited his expansionist ambitions.

[6]:7 Ternate and Tidore were the world's major producer of cloves, from which their rulers became among the wealthiest and most powerful sultans in the Indonesian region.

Until the Dutch completed the colonization of Maluku in the 19th century, the sultans of Ternate ruled an empire that periodically claimed at least nominal influence in magnitude as Ambon, Sulawesi, and Papua.

According to historian Leonard Andaya, Ternate's "dualistic" rivalry with Tidore was a dominant theme in the early history of the Maluku Islands.

[10]The first Europeans to arrive at Ternate were part of the Portuguese expedition of Francisco Serrão coming from Malacca; they were shipwrecked near Ceram and rescued by local residents.

[12] Relations between the Ternateans and Portuguese were strained from the start; an outpost far from Europe generally only attracted the most desperate and avaricious figures.

The poor behaviour of the Portuguese combined with feeble attempts at Christianisation strained relations with Ternate's Muslim ruler,[13] as did their efforts to monopolise the spice trade and dominate local politics.

After being declared innocent of the charges against him, he was sent back to reassume his throne, but died en route in Malacca in 1545, though he bequeathed Ambon to his Portuguese godfather Jordão de Freitas.

[14] When Sultan Hairun was murdered and his head displayed on a pike in 1570, the Muslim Ternateans rebelled against the Portuguese who were besieged in their castle.

European power in the region was weak and Ternate became an expanding, fiercely Islamic and anti-Portuguese state under the rule of Babullah (r. 1570–1583) and his son Sultan Saidi Berkat.

[7]As the Portuguese battles in the Indian Ocean against Muslim powers continued, Ternate became a site of interest, particularly for the Ottomans, who had gained much information about maritime Southeast Asia from the Sultanate of Aceh.

Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis, the Ottoman admiral, intended to reach both Java, Borneo and Ternate but was engaged in battle and outnumbered against the Portuguese fleet in Sumatra.

Spanish and Dutch traders competing for control over the lucrative clove trade were caught up in the competition between Ternate and Tidore.

The Dutch eventually became the ruling power, though for a long time their influence was limited, and the sultanates are still in place today.

[7] Spanish forces captured the former Portuguese fort from the Ternateans in 1606 and deported the Ternate sultan and his entourage to Manila,[16] a city which the Spanish captured from the Sultanate of Brunei by siding with the subjugated Kingdom of Tondo, the state which Manila displaced when Brunei invaded Luzon.

[17] The Spaniards occupied the southern part of the island where they had their main settlement, Ciudad del Rosario.

In the 18th century, Ternate was the site of a VOC governorship, which attempted to control all trade in the northern Moluccas.

After World War 2, Ternate gained city status on 10 December 1946,[6]:18 but was demoted to a district on 30 March 1965.

However, Sofifi still lacked infrastructure and city status, and today most activity in the province is still conducted in Ternate.

[7] During the 2011 eruption, Indonesia closed a domestic airport near the volcano for several days following ash emissions that reached 2,000 metres (6,600 feet) into the atmosphere.

Crocodile-infested Tolire Lake lies in the northwest of Ternate island and is bordered by sheer cliffs.

The districts are tabulated below with their areas (in square kilometres) and their populations during the 2010[3] and 2020 censuses,[4] together with the official estimates as at mid 2023.

[29][30] Ternate city is part of the First North Maluku electoral district with the West Halmahera Regency, both of which have 12 out of 45 seats in provincial parliament combined.

[46] Despite relatively developed infrastructure, schools in smaller islands, particularly such as those in the Moti and Hiri Districts, have fewer teachers in general compared to the mainland part of the city.