Changes

*''Date: [[1623]]''

*''Date: [[1623]]/2/9 (March 9)''

The Amboyna massacre is perhaps the most infamous incident of conflicts between the [[Dutch East India Company]] and [[British East India Company]] for power in the Southeast Asian spice trade. It involved the massacre, by Dutch and Japanese agents of the Dutch Company, of roughly twenty Englishmen & Japanese in service to the British Company.

The Amboyna massacre is perhaps the most infamous incident of conflicts between the [[Dutch East India Company]] and [[British East India Company]] for power in the Southeast Asian spice trade. It involved the massacre, by Dutch and Japanese agents of the Dutch Company, of roughly twenty Englishmen & Japanese in service to the British Company, and had lasting effects upon the relationship between the two Companies, and between the two countries.

The Dutch were the dominant power, over the English, on the small island of Ambon, as they were throughout the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). Japanese mercenaries were employed by the Dutch to help defend their interests on the island, but in 1623, there began to be suspicions that the Japanese were conspiring with the English to attack the Dutch, and take control of the island. Seeking to preempt any such plot, the Dutch massacred the British on the island, along with at least nine out of eleven Japanese. These Japanese were all from Kyushu, and ranged in age from 22 to 50.

The Dutch were the dominant power, over the English, on the small island of Ambon, as they were throughout the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). Japanese mercenaries were employed by the Dutch to help defend their interests on the island, but on 22 February, VOC authorities arrested one such Japanese mercenary, after he made persistent and extensive inquiries about VOC defenses, and he confessed, under torture, his involvement in a conspiracy by the British to seize control of the island. Dutch governor Harman van Speult then had his men arrest a number of the British merchants named, and tortured confessions out of them as well, soon determining that Gabriel Towerson, the chief English official on the island, was the leader of the plot.

 

A council of VOC officials discussed the issue, and in the end, ordered the execution (according to a number of English sources "massacre") of ten Englishmen on the island, along with at least nine out of eleven Japanese, on 9 March. These Japanese were all from Kyushu, and ranged in age from 22 to 50.

 

 

In the end, the Dutch courts could not accede to English interference in Dutch sovereignty, and so the case was allowed to drag on for many years, until pressure from English subsided somewhat, and the court was able to issue a verdict of "not guilty." The English continued to hold a grievance against the Dutch for the incident, however, and more than twenty years later Oliver Cromwell managed to get the Dutch Republic to pay out nearly £90,000 in damages and reparations, with £85,000 going to the East India Company, and just over £3,000 going to the descendants of those killed.

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==References==

==References==

*Geoffrey Gunn, ''History Without Borders: The Making of an Asian World Region, 1000-1800'', Hong Kong University Press (2011), 232.

*Geoffrey Gunn, ''History Without Borders: The Making of an Asian World Region, 1000-1800'', Hong Kong University Press (2011), 232.

[[Category:Events and Incidents]]

[[Category:Events and Incidents]]

[[Category:Edo Period]]

[[Category:Edo Period]]