Banda Islands Nutmeg Massacre

In 1621, the Dutch East India Company under Governor General Jan Pieterszoon Coen moved against the Bandanese people in Bandaneira Island, a crucial source of nutmeg. Coen accused local leaders of violating Dutch trade agreements and brought in Japanese mercenaries, who helped round up and execute around forty chiefs and inhabitants in a brutal show of force.

Dutch forces then killed, starved, or deported most of the island's 12,000 to 15,000 residents, leaving only about 1,000 people alive on the islands. The Dutch resettled the land with European planters and enslaved laborers, turning the Banda Islands into a tightly controlled nutmeg monopoly.

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