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Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands

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Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands
Part of the Dutch colonial campaigns

A modern map of the Banda Islands
DateMay 1609 – late 1621
Location
Banda Islands
Result Dutch victory
Belligerents
 Dutch East India Company (VOC)
Supported by:
 Dutch Republic		 Bandanese fighters
Supported by:[1]
 East India Company
 Kingdom of England
Commanders and leaders
Pieter Willemsz. Verhoeff
Piet Hein
Gerard Reynst
Jan Dirkszoon Lam
Jan Pieterszoon Coen		 Unknown
Strength
Unknown. Total population including civilians estimated 15,000[2]
Casualties and losses
c. 14,000 dead, enslaved or fled elsewhere[3][2]

The Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands, culminating in the Banda Massacre[4] of 1621, was a process of military conquest from 1609 to 1621[5] which resulted in the Dutch East India Company (VOC) occupation of the Banda Islands. The islands were severely depopulated by the fighting, starvation, as well as massacres and deportation by the invaders. Thus, the VOC's desired monopoly on the valuable spice trade, particularly nutmeg, mace and clove, was enforced.[1]

Background

The first Dutch expedition to explore the Banda Islands, as well as Bantam, Ternate and Ambon, was launched by a voorcompagnie on 1 May 1598. A fleet commanded by Jacob Corneliszoon van Neck, Jacob van Heemskerck and Wybrand van Warwijck set sail and made contact with the inhabitants of the Banda Islands in 1599. Heemskerck signed several contracts with Bandanese chieftains and built a spice trading outpost.[5] The volcanic Banda Islands were found to be unique due to the availability of nutmeg and mace, that grew nowhere else in the world and therefore had extreme commercial value.[1]

Early trade and combat

Battle of Banda Neira (1609)

Fort Nassau on Banda Neira in 1646

The Dutch East India Company (known by its Dutch acronym, VOC) was founded on 20 March 1602 as a merger of the voorcompagnieën, with the exclusive right to all Dutch navigation and trade in Asia and the East Indies, including the right to conclude treaties, declare and wage war, and establish fortresses and trading posts.[6] In early April 1609, a VOC fleet commanded by Pieter Willemsz. Verhoeff arrived Banda Neira and wanted to force the establishment of a fortress. The Bandanese preferred free trade so that they could play out the various European countries' merchants against each other and sell their products to the highest bidder.[7] However, the VOC sought to establish a monopoly on the spice trade so that the Bandanese could only sell their products to the Dutch.[1] Negotiations were arduous, and at a certain point in late May 1609, the chieftains lured Verhoeff and two other commanders who had left their fleet to negotiate on the beach, into the woods into an ambush and killed them.[1] Their guard was also massacred by the Bandanese, so that a total of 46 Dutchmen were killed.[8] In reprise, the VOC soldiers plundered several Bandanese villages and destroyed their ships.[1] The English supplied the Bandanese with weapons and ammunition.[1] In August, a peace favourable to the VOC was signed: the Bandanese recognised Dutch authority and monopoly on the space trade.[1] That same year, Fort Nassau was built on Banda Neira to control the nutmeg trade.[9][10]

Expeditions against Lontor, Run and Ai (1609–1611)

Piet Hein replaced Verhoeff as the fleet's commander. Having finished constructing Fort Nassau, the fleet sailed north to Ternate, whose sultan allowed the Dutch to rebuild an old damaged Malay fortress that was renamed Fort Oranje in 1609.[1] This would become the de facto capital of the Dutch East India Company until Batavia (modern-day Jakarta) was founded on Java in 1619. The Dutch got involved in a brief war between Ternate and the nearby island kingdom of Tidore.[1] In March 1610, Hein arrived on Ambon and, after long but ultimately successful trade negotiations on a large clove purchase with the Ambonese from March to November 1610,[1] he conducted two punitive military expeditions in early 1611 against the Bandanese isles of Lontor (also known as Lontar or Banda Besar) and Pulo Run.[1] Thereafter, he was tasked to build Fort Belgica on Banda Neira, which became the third VOC fortress on the Banda Islands.[1] A 1610 VOC attack on island of Ai failed, however.[8]

Conquest of Ai (1615–1616)

The Bandanese resented the violently imposed obligation to exclusively trade with the Dutch. They violated their treaty with the VOC by trading with the English (who offered higher prices), and Malay, Javanese and Makassarese traders (who sold the spices on to the Portuguese).[11] Unable to accept this intrusion on their commercial interests any longer, the VOC's governing body, Heeren XVII, concluded by 1614 that it was necessary to conquer the entire Bandanese archipelago, even if it meant the destruction of native population and a heavy burden on the Company's finances.[8] To that end, Governor-General Gerard Reynst took an army to Banda Neira on 21 March 1615, and then launched a punitive expedition against the island of Ai (or Pulu Ay) on 14 May 1615. The natives' fortresses were initially successfully attacked, but the VOC troops resorted to plundering too early.[11] The English, who had retreated to Run, regrouped and launched a surprise counterattack that same night in which they killed 200 Dutchmen.[4] Reynst decided to withdraw from Ai, intending to conquer the island later and first preventing the English from obtaining clove at Ambon, but he died of illness in December 1615.[11]

In April 1616, Jan Dirkszoon Lam took 240 Dutch and 23 Japanese soldiers and, against fierce resistance, was able to conquer Ai and make a terrifying example of it, killing many defenders, while another 400 natives (amongst whom were many women and children) drowned while trying to flee to the nearby island of Run in the west.[8][12] This forced the orang kaya on the other Banda Islands to once more sign VOC-favourable contracts. Lam ordered the construction of Fort der Wrake (called Fort Revenge by the English) on Ai to emphasise the brutal vengeance the Bandanese should expect to suffer for breaking trade deals with the Dutch. However, even he was not able to fully bring the nutmeg and mace trade under VOC monopoly yet.[12] Although initially intimidated, the Lontorese soon resumed trading with former partners, including the English who established themselves on Run and the tiny rocky isle of Nailaka north of it.[8]

Siege of Run (1617–1620)

The islands of Run and Nailika, seen from the east in 2006

On 25 December 1616, English merchant-adventurer Nathaniel Courthope took control of the island of Run with 30 soldiers and built a fortress on it. He forced the inhabitants to sign a contract in which they accepted James I of England as sovereign of the island and would provide the English with nutmeg. The Dutch proceeded to besiege the English fortress for 1,540 days (over 4 years) and finally managed to conquer it after the death of Courthope in an attack in 1620, after which the English abandoned the island.[13][4] Finally in possession of Run, the Dutch proceeded to kill or enslave all adult men, exile the women and children and chop down every nutmeg tree on the island to prevent the English from retaking it.[4][2] The VOC only allowed cattle to roam free on Run to provide food for the other islands.[14] It was not until 1638 that the English tried to access Run again, after which VOC officials annually visited the island to check if they had secretly re-established themselves until the English formally renounced all claims to the Banda Islands in 1667.[14]

Anglo–Dutch naval war (1618–1619)

While the siege of Run was going on, tensions between the Dutch East India Company and the English East India Company rose and erupted in open naval warfare in 1618. The new VOC Governor-General Jan Pieterszoon Coen wrote a letter, now known as the Appeal of Coen, to the Heeren XVII on 29 September 1618, requesting more soldiers, money, ships and other necessities in order to wage war against both the native Bandanese and the competing English. Being a pious Calvinist, he tried to persuade his superiors that it would be a good investment they would not regret, because the Christian god would support them and bring victory, despite earlier setbacks: 'Despair not, spare not your enemies, there is nothing in the world that can hinder or harm us, for God is with us, and do not draw a conclusion from the preceding failures, because there, in the Indies, something grand can be accomplished.'[15]

The Dutch managed to seize eleven English ships, some of which were full of silver, while the English only captured one Dutch ship. However, this intercolonial war was inopportune to the authorities in Europe, who in 1619 concluded peace and a Treaty of Defence between the Dutch Republic and England, as they prioritised a Protestant alliance against Catholic Spain and Portugal with the end of the Twelve Years' Truce nearing. The Heeren XVII ordered Coen to cease hostilities, and cooperate with the English, who would receive one-third of all spices from the Spice Islands and the Dutch the other two-thirds.[4] Coen was disgruntled, as he sought to drive out the English from the entire region and control all spice, as he wrote to his superiors in a letter:

I admit that the actions of the master are of no concern of the servant... But under correction Your Honours have been too hasty. The English owe you a debt of gratitude, because after they have worked themselves out of the Indies, your Lordships put them right back again... it is incomprehensible that the English should be allowed one third of the cloves, nutmegs and mace, for they cannot lay claim to a single grain of sand in the Moluccas, Amboyna or Banda.[4]

Banda Massacre (1621)

Banda Massacre
Part of the Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands
Date7 March – late 1621
Location
Lontor (Banda Besar)
Result Dutch victory
Belligerents
 VOC Bandanese fighters
Commanders and leaders
Jan Pieterszoon Coen Unknown
Strength
  • 1,905 European troops
  • 286 Asian auxiliaries
  • 45 ships

2,000 combatants[14]

2,500–3,000 civilians[16]
Casualties and losses
  • 7+ killed
  • 31+ wounded
  • 2,500–2,800 dead[16]
  • 1,700 enslaved[16]
Jan Pieterszoon Coen

Judging that English interference and native resistance to Dutch commercial supremacy in the Bandanese archipelago had to be crushed once and for all, Governor-General Jan Pieterszoon Coen wrote a letter to the Heeren XVII on 26 October 1620, stating: 'To adequately deal with this matter, it is necessary to once again subjugate Banda, and populate it with other people.'[16] As proposed, the Heeren XVII instructed him to subjugate the Bandanese and drive their leaders out of the land.[4]

Invasion

The VOC fleet from Batavia sailed at the end of 1620.[14] It first arrived at Ambon, where it was reinforced by soldiers and vessels before continuing to Banda.[4] The fleet consisted of 19 ships, 1,655 European troops and 286 Asian auxiliaries, and was personally led by Jan Pieterszoon Coen.[14] On 21 February 1621, the fleet arrived in Fort Nassau, where it was reinforced by the fort's 250-strong garrison and 36 indigenous vessels.[17]

After unsuccessfully trying to recruit Englishmen from the nearby Run and Ai islands, Coen began sending scouts to the coastline of Lontor, the main Bandanese island. The reconnaissance took two days, during which some boats came under cannon fire from the native defenders. The scouts found fortified positions along the South coast and in the hills and failed to find a possible beachhead. On 7 March, a VOC probing party landed on the island but was repulsed after suffering one dead and four wounded.[18]

On 11 March he ordered a decisive assault. He divided his forces into several groups, which attacked different points on the island. The invaders swiftly captured key strongholds and by the end of the day the island's northern lowlands and southern promontories. The defenders and local population fled to the hills that made up the island's center, with the Dutch forces in pursuit. By the end of 12 March, the Dutch occupied the whole island, suffering six dead and 27 wounded.[19]

Temporary peace

After the Dutch initial success, Lontor's aristocracy (orang kaya) sought peace. They offered gifts to Coen and accepted all of the VOC's demands. They agreed to surrender weapons, destroy fortifications, and give up hostages. They accepted the VOC's sovereignty and the construction of several VOC fortresses on the island, promised to pay a portion of their harvest, and sell the remainder exclusively to the VOC at a fixed price. In exchange, the Dutch agreed to give the natives personal freedom, autonomy and the rights to keep practicing Islam.[20][2][16]

Resumption of hostilities

As peace was agreed between the orang kaya and the VOC, most of the islanders fled to the hills and began to engage in skirmishes with the Dutch. Coen responded by razing villages and forcing their inhabitants to work for the VOC.[20]

On 21 April, by means of torture, the Dutch extracted confessions from the orang kaya about a conspiracy against the Dutch.[21] Coen captured at least 789 orang kaya their family members and deported them to Batavia, where some were enslaved.[3][2] Having been accused of breaking treaties and conspiracy, 24 orang kaya were condemned to death and decapitated by Japanese mercenaries on 8 May.[16] The executions did not quell native resistance, however,[16] so Coen ordered his troops to sweep the island and to destroy its villages in order to force the surrender of the population.[3] The next few months the Dutch and the natives were engaged in fierce combat. Witnessing the destruction caused by the Dutch, many natives chose to die of starvation or from jumping off the cliffs rather than surrender.[2]

Casualties

According to Coen, "about 2,500" inhabitants died "of hunger and misery or by the sword", "a good party of woman and children" were taken, and not more than 300 escaped.[3] Straver (2018) concluded that the Lontorese population would have been around 4,500–5,000 people, 50 to 100 of whom died during the fighting, 1,700 of whom were enslaved and 2,500 of whom died due to famine and disease, while an unknown number of natives jumped to their deaths from the cliffs; several hundreds escaped to nearby islands such as the Kei Islands and eastern Seram, their regional trading partners, that welcomed the survivors.[16]

Aftermath

Excerpt of a 1753 Dutch map of Banda, with a note in French: 'It is on these Isles that the Nutmeg grows.'

After the campaign, the Dutch controlled virtually all of the Banda Islands. The English evacuated the island of Run, and had an only intermittent presence on Nailaka. By signing the 1667 Treaty of Breda, the English formally relinquished their claim to the islands.[14]

The islands were severely depopulated as a result of the campaign. Loth (1995) and Corn (1998) estimated the entire population of all Banda Islands before the conquest to have been around 15,000 people, of whom only 1,000 survived the 1609–1621 war, including those who lived in or fled to the English-controlled islands of Ai and Run.[3][2] Lape (2000) estimated that 90 percent of the population was killed, enslaved or deported during the campaign.[22]

To keep the archipelago productive, the VOC repopulated the islands, mostly with slaves taken from the rest of modern-day Indonesia, India, the coast of China, working under command of Dutch planters (perkeniers).[23] The original natives were also enslaved and were ordered to teach the newcomers about nutmeg and mace agriculture.[24] The treatment of the slaves was severe—the native Bandanese population dropped to one hundred by 1681, and 200 slaves were imported annually to keep the slave population steady at 4,000.[24]

Although the VOC did not regard the Christianisation of the slaves as a priority, it forced all Europeans on the Banda Islands to convert and adhere to the Dutch Reformed Church (a form of Calvinist Christianity), while Catholicism (introduced by Portuguese Jesuits in the 16th century) was prohibited and exterminated. The slave population (consisting of surviving natives and imported slaves) was allowed to practice Islam or animistic faiths, but also encouraged and sometimes coerced to join the Company's Protestant church.[25]

The slaughter on the Banda Islands at the hands of the Dutch East India Company fed the belief that Europeans arrived in Asia as conquerors.[26]

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rozendaal, Simon (2019). Zijn naam is klein: Piet Hein en het omstreden verleden (in Dutch). Amsterdam: Atlas Contact. p. 123–127. ISBN 9789045038797. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Loth 1995, p. 18.
  3. ^ a b c d e Corn 1998, p. 170.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Burnett, Ian (2013). East Indies. Sydney: Rosenberg Publishing. p. 124–129. ISBN 9781922013873. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  5. ^ a b Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Banda-eilanden. §1. Geschiedenis", "Heemskerck, Jacob van". Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum.
  6. ^ Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie. §1. Ontstaansgeschiedenis". Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum.
  7. ^ Dillen, J.G. van (1970) Van rijkdom en regenten, p. 128–129.
  8. ^ a b c d e Loth 1995, p. 17.
  9. ^ Hanna, Willard A. (1991). Indonesian Banda. Banda Neira: Yayasan Warisan dan Budaya Banda Neira. p. 27.
  10. ^ Milton, Giles (1999). Nathaniel's Nutmeg. London: Hodder & Stoughton. p. 3.
  11. ^ a b c Molhuysen, Philipp Christiaan; Blok, Petrus Johannes (1918). "Reijnst". Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek (in Dutch). Leiden: A.W. Sijthoff. p. 1147–1148. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  12. ^ a b den Heijer, Henk (2006). Expeditie naar de Goudkust: Het journaal van Jan Dircksz Lam over de Nederlandse aanval op Elmina, 1624-1626 (in Dutch). Zutphen: Walburg Pers. p. 45. ISBN 9789057304453. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  13. ^ Ratnikas, Algirdas J. "Timeline Indonesia". Timelines.ws. Archived from the original on 10 July 2010. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
  14. ^ a b c d e f Loth 1995, p. 19.
  15. ^ Joustra, Arendo (ed.) (2005). Erfgoed: de Nederlandse geschiedenis in 100 documenten (in Dutch). Amsterdam: Elsevier. p. 47. ISBN 9789068823400. Retrieved 18 June 2020. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h Straver, Hans (2018). Vaders en dochters: Molukse historie in de Nederlandse literatuur van de negentiende eeuw en haar weerklank in Indonesië (in Dutch). Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verloren. p. 90–91. ISBN 9789087047023. Retrieved 17 June 2020. Om hierin naar behooren te voorzien is het noodig dat Banda t'eenemaal vermeesterd en met ander volk gepeupleerd worde.
  17. ^ Corn 1998, p. 165.
  18. ^ Corn 1998, pp. 165–66.
  19. ^ Corn 1998, p. 166.
  20. ^ a b Corn 1998, p. 167.
  21. ^ Corn 1998, p. 169.
  22. ^ Lape 2000, p. 139.
  23. ^ Loth 1995, p. 24.
  24. ^ a b Van Zanden 1993, p. 77.
  25. ^ Loth 1995, p. 27–28.
  26. ^ Chris Nierstrasz (29 May 2019). "Europeans came to Asia not as conquerors but as customers". Aeon. Retrieved 18 June 2020.

Bibliography

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