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Amboyna Massacre (1623)

Type Event Region Southeast Asia Time 1623

In February–March 1623 the Dutch East India Company (VOC) on Ambon Island in the Moluccas arrested English personnel and Japanese and Southeast Asian…

Timeline

  1. 1623Ambon Island · MoluccasVOC governor of Ambon, Herman van Speult, acting on an informer's tip from Japanese soldiers, accused English East India Company personnel and Japanese and Southeast Asian merchants of conspiring to seize the fortress, and carried out mass arrests and detentions.
  2. 1623Ambon Island · MoluccasThe arrested were forced under torture to confess to the conspiracy; a VOC special court convicted them on the basis of these coerced confessions. The English side later insisted the confessions were fabricated and the trial proceedings unjust.
  3. 1623Ambon Island · MoluccasTwenty defendants were executed, ten of them employees of the English East India Company. The English government strongly protested and demanded compensation, sharply escalating Anglo-Dutch rivalry in the spice trade.

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