History
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Trade between the natives of the region and Southeast Asians probably began around the 15th century or even earlier. Possibly via Moluccan and Malay influence, some local chiefs of the town had adopted Islam by the 19th century.
The harbour was visited by the British navigator Thomas Forrest in January 1775 on his ship Tartar. He described large houses built on posts over the water at the edge of the shore.
The French naturalist René Lesson visited Manokwari in 1824. He was serving as a surgeon and naturalist on the ship Astrolabe that was captained by Louis-Isidore Duperrey during a circumnavigation of the world (1822-1825). Lesson, in his account of the voyage, describes the vegetation and wildlife in the surrounding countryside.
On 25 October 1793, Captain John Hayes in the merchant ships Duke of Clarence and Duchess raised the British flag at Dore Bay, which he called Restoration Bay (as he had put in there to restore his crews' health) and claimed it and the surrounding area, which he called New Albion, for Great Britain. The British established a small settlement there to engage in the spice trade, especially in massoy bark and nutmeg. The British erected a small stockade fort, Fort Coronation, named in honour of King George III's coronation. For a variety of reasons the British East India Company, including changing priorities consequent on the outbreak of war with France, did not support the settlement. The settlement was not a success and in 1795 the British abandoned it.
In 1855, the first Christian mission was established in the town by German missionaries. However, it was not until the 20th century the majority of the locals converted to Christianity.
The naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace stayed in Manokwari (which he knew as Dorey) from March to July 1858 collecting natural history specimens for the British Museum in London.
On 12 April 1942, a Japanese convoy steamed into Dore Bay and began landing approximately 4,000 men. The area was already well known to the Japanese, as the area was the location of a cotton plantation developed by the government-sponsored Nan’yō Kōhatsu development company in the early 1930s. At the beginning of 1942, the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) garrison at Manokwari consisted of approximately 125 KNIL troops, which included several civilian reservists and home guards who had been called up at the start of February 1942. As the KNIL ground force had no chance of successfully engaging the Japanese invasion force, it withdrew into the interior of Dutch New Guinea and initiated guerilla warfare.
At 4:43 am on 4 January 2009 a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck Manokwari. Felt as far away as Australia, the 35 km deep earthquake killed four people, injured 19 more, and 167,000 people were left without power. Residents were evacuated to Manokwari Military Academy to seek shelter from possible tsunamis and aftershocks that were felt throughout the day. Damage occurred to the Mutiara Hotel, the Naval Hospital, and several other buildings. Manokwari Regional Airport had significant damage, being closest to the epicenter, and all four deaths resulted there. The Indonesian government sent a team of seven doctors to Manokwari to assist with the injured. Originally, the team was projected to be ten people, but due to the severe damage to the runway, only seven were able to be transported. This was not unlike the previous quakes on 10 October 2002 when another 7.6 magnitude quake shook the region. In 1996 similar quakes also halted progress in the local region but there is no record of the recorded magnitude.
On 14 April 2010, Merpati Nusantara Airlines flight MZ 836, a Boeing 737-300 (registration PK-MDF) with 103 persons on board, broke into pieces as it bounced off the tarmac at Rendani Airport near Manokwari after landing in poor weather. The tail of the aircraft broke off and came to rest in the creek off the northern end of Runway 35. All passengers survived, but 21 injured people were admitted to hospital. The flight originated in Sorong, West Papua.
On 21 August 2019, Manokwari experienced a violent protest that saw the provincial legislature building torched, with the protest being part of the 2019 Papua protests.
