Renaissance · Southeast Asia · War

1621

Banda Islands Massacre

May 1621

Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the VOC's ruthless governor-general, ordered the near-total depopulation of the Banda Islands to secure a Dutch monopoly on nutmeg. Villagers were massacred or deported, ringleaders beheaded by imported Japanese samurai. The surviving population was replaced with enslaved laborers on plantations. The nutmeg trade became Dutch, bought at one of the most appalling prices in colonial history.

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In context

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Before and after in Southeast Asia

Before: 1615: Dutch Seize the Moluccas from Portugal
After: 1623: Amboyna Massacre

Before and after in War

Before: November 8, 1620: Battle of White Mountain
After: March 22, 1622: Powhatan Attack on Virginia

Era

Renaissance (1501–1650), one of 715 events from that era on Saeculum.