The Spice Islands Massacre: When the Dutch Took Nutmeg

In 1621, on the tiny Banda Islands of eastern Indonesia, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) carried out one of the most brutal acts of colonial violence in the spice trade. This episode tells the story of the Banda Massacre, where VOC governor Jan Pieterszoon Coen ordered the extermination or enslavement of nearly the entire indigenous population of Banda—around 15,000 people—to secure a monopoly on nutmeg. We explore how nutmeg, worth more by weight than gold in 17th-century Europe, drove the Dutch to commit genocide, resettle the islands with slave labor, and sign the Treaty of Breda that famously swapped the island of Run for Manhattan. Lucas and Luna discuss the economics of monopoly, the role of the orang kaya (local elites), and the long shadow of this forgotten atrocity that shaped global trade. #BandaMassacre #Nutmeg #VOC #JanPieterszoonCoen #SpiceTrade #Colonialism #Genocide #BandaIslands #Maluku #TreatyOfBreda #OrangKaya #SlaveTrade #Monopoly #DutchEmpire #17thCentury #History #FexingoHistory #SilkRoad Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo