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This map of the city of Mataram, on the Indonesian island of Lombok, shows the city surrounded by detailed illustrations of mountains which, the map’s subtitle notes, ‘serve de murailles’ [serve as its walls].

Published in the early 18th century by the Dutch publisher Pieter van der Aa (1659–1733), this map of Java and the Java Sea is decorated with a colourful painted scene of merchants and boats at a trading port.

A map of a small island chain off the west coast of the island of Gilola (modern Halmahera in the Maluku Islands of Indonesia). The military forts on the islands were used by the European colonial powers during conflicts over the area’s spice trade.

Map of the ‘Spice Islands’ of maritime Southeast Asia, including the Maluku Islands. It is decorated with a drawing of an Asian man holding a large bird and a spear, and surrounded by baskets and boxes of goods of the spice trade.

Java is shown as two separate islands on this map, with the western island named Sunda. The southern coast is labelled as ‘unknown’. A colourful cartouche is decorated with a painting of indigenous Javanese people meeting and trading with Europeans.

The title cartouche of this early 18th century map of Southeast Asia is decorated with two drawings of battles. On the left, a sea battle with smoke rising from the ships’ cannons. On the right, an army attacks a walled city which is on fire.