Spice Islands
proper noun
- proper noun The Moluccas or Maluku Islands, an archipelago in Indonesia comprising the provinces of Maluku and North Maluku.
- proper noun The Zanzibar Archipelago, in the Zanzibar semi-autonomous region of Tanzania.
Synonyms
Etymology
Refers to the importance of the islands for the supply of certain important spices. Clove trees are native to the Maluku Islands, and for some centuries a monopoly of supply existed, until plants were smuggled out and cultivated in Zanzibar.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “Spice Islands”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details