Dutch East India Company Conquest of the Banda Islands and the Banda Massacre (1621)

Timeline

1. 1609–1620Banda Islands · MoluccasAfter receiving the Dutch-granted exclusive nutmeg trade rights, the VOC repeatedly clashed with Bandanese chiefs and merchants who insisted on setting their own prices; the 1617 Anglo-Dutch conflict intertwined with Bandanese resistance, laying the groundwork for the full military conquest of 1621.
2. 1621Great Banda Island (Lonthor) · Banda IslandsFrom March to May 1621, Coen led a VOC fleet and hired Japanese samurai ashore on Banda, capturing the fortresses on each island and crushing the organized resistance of the Bandanese chiefdom alliance.
3. 1621–1623Banda Islands · MoluccasAfter the conquest the VOC carried out systematic executions, expulsions and enslavement of the Bandanese; of an estimated 14,000 Bandanese, the vast majority were killed or scattered. Survivors were forcibly relocated, and the VOC introduced slaves and contract labor to rebuild nutmeg plantations, establishing a monopoly over global nutmeg supply.