sailed along the north coast as far as the Mamberamo River near which he landed, naming the island Nueva Guinea. In 1606 Portuguese navigator Luís Vaz de Torres sailed in the name of Spain along the southwestern part of the island in present-day Papua, and also claimed the territory for the King of Spain. Near the end of the sixteenth century, the Sultanate of Ternate under Sultan Baabullah (1570–1583) had influence over parts of Papua. Dutch rule In 1660, the Dutch recognised the Sultan of Tidore's sovereignty over New Guinea. New Guinea thus became notionally Dutch as the Dutch held power over Tidore. In 1793, Britain established a settlement near Manokwari. However, it failed. By 1824 Britain and the Netherlands agreed that the western half of the island would become part of the Dutch East Indies. In 1828 the Dutch established the settlement of Fort Du Bus at Lobo (near Kaimana), which also failed. Great Britain and Germany had recognised the Dutch claims on western New Guinea in treaties of 1885 and 1895. Dutch activity in the region remained minimal in the first half of the twentieth century. Dutch, US, and Japanese mining companies explored the area's rich oil reserves in the 1930s. In 1942, the northern coast of West New Guinea and the nearby islands were occupied by Japan. In 1944, Allied forces gained control of the region through a four-phase campaign from neighbouring Papua New Guinea. The United States constructed a headquarters for MacArthur at Hollandia (Jayapura), intended as a staging point for operations to retake the Philippines. Papuan men and resources were used to support the Allied war effort in the Pacific. After the war's end, the Dutch regained possession of the region. Since the early twentieth century, Indonesian nationalists had sought an independent Indonesia based on all Dutch colonial possessions in the Indies, including western New Guinea. Some even founded local-based political parties, such as Indonesian Irian Independence Party (PKII) in 1946. In December 1949, the Netherlands recognised Indonesian sovereignty over the Dutch East Indies with the exception of Dutch New Guinea, the issue of which was to be discussed within a year. The Dutch successfully argued that Western New Guinea was "geographically very different" from Indonesia and the people were also very ethnically different. In an attempt to prevent Indonesia taking control of the region and to prepare the region for independence, the Dutch significantly