Amboyna massacre facts for kids
The Amboyna massacre was a terrible event that happened in 1623 on Ambon Island (which is now part of Indonesia). During this event, twenty-one men were executed. These men included ten who worked for the English East India Company, along with Japanese and Portuguese traders. They were accused of treason by agents of the Dutch East India Company (VOC).
This incident happened because of a strong competition between the English and Dutch companies. Both wanted to control the valuable spice trade. The Amboyna massacre caused a lot of bad feelings between England and the Netherlands for many years.
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Why it Happened: The Background Story
For a long time, the Dutch Republic was fighting against Spain. From 1580 to 1640, Spain also controlled Portugal. In 1598, the King of Spain stopped Dutch ships from trading with Portugal. This made the Dutch look for spices themselves. They went to areas that Portugal had claimed under an old agreement called the Treaty of Tordesillas.
In 1605, a Dutch admiral named Steven van der Hagen took over a Portuguese fort called Victoria on Amboyna. This gave the Dutch control of the spice trade there. Like other European traders, the Dutch wanted to be the only ones buying spices in that area. They used force to keep other European traders out. This caused many problems, especially with the English East India Company.
The governments of England and the Netherlands tried to fix these problems. In 1619, King James I of England and the Dutch government made a Treaty of Defence in London. This treaty was supposed to make the two companies work together in the East Indies.
The treaty said that the spice market would be shared, with the Dutch getting two parts for every one part the English got. A special group called the Council of Defence was set up to manage merchants from both companies. Most importantly, the companies were supposed to share trading posts peacefully. However, each company would still control the posts it already had. The Dutch thought this meant they could judge employees from both companies in their posts. The English disagreed, saying only the Council of Defence could judge employees from the other company. This difference in understanding led to big problems later on.
The Amboyna Incident
Even with the treaty, the two companies did not get along well. They often complained about each other. They accused each other of breaking promises and trying to secretly get ahead in dealing with local rulers.
On Amboyna, the Dutch governor, Herman van Speult, had problems with the Sultan of Ternate in late 1622. The Sultan seemed ready to switch his loyalty to Spain. Governor Van Speult suspected the English were secretly causing these troubles.
Because of this, the Dutch on Amboyna became very suspicious of the English traders who shared their trading post. Their suspicions grew stronger in February 1623. A Japanese soldier, who was a mercenary working for the Dutch, was caught spying on the fort's defenses. The soldier confessed that he was part of a plan with other Japanese mercenaries to take over the fort and kill the governor. He also said that Gabriel Towerson, the head of the English traders, was involved in the plan.
After this, Towerson and other English people on Amboyna were arrested and questioned. According to Dutch records, most of the suspects admitted they were guilty. Since the accusation was treason, those who confessed were sentenced to death by a Dutch court on Amboyna. However, four English and two Japanese men were later pardoned. In the end, ten Englishmen, nine Japanese, and one Portuguese man (who worked for the Dutch company) were executed on March 9, 1623.
This event ended any chance of the English and Dutch working together in the area. It also marked the start of the Dutch becoming the main power in the East Indies.
What Happened Next: The Aftermath
In the summer of 1623, the Englishmen who had been pardoned or found innocent sailed to Batavia. They complained to the Dutch governor-general and the Council of Defence about the Amboyna incident. They said the accusations were false. When they could not get justice in Batavia, they went to England. An English trader from Batavia went with them.
Their story caused a huge outcry in England. The leaders of the English East India Company demanded that the English government ask the Dutch government for payment for the damages. They also wanted the judges from Amboyna to be punished.
The English ambassador, Dudley Carleton, 1st Viscount Dorchester, said that the English version of events also made many people in the Dutch government angry. However, the Dutch East India Company soon presented its own version, which was very different from the English one. The Dutch government suggested that England and the Netherlands create a joint group to investigate the facts. But the English rejected this idea, saying it would take too long.
The Dutch did not want to immediately punish the people involved in the executions, as the English wished. So, the Dutch government asked special judges from their highest courts to investigate the matter. The Amboyna judges were called back from the East Indies and placed under house arrest.
The trial moved slowly because the court wanted to question the English witnesses. The English government did not want to force their witnesses to travel to the Netherlands. Also, the English believed that the Amboyna court did not have the right to try employees of the English East India Company. So, in their view, the executions were illegal and a "judicial murder." They felt this could be decided without questioning the witnesses. The Dutch, however, believed their court on Amboyna was proper. So, they focused their investigation on whether the judges had done anything wrong.
In 1630, the English witnesses traveled to the Dutch Republic with Henry Vane the Elder. They were made available to the court under certain conditions. In 1632, the court's draft decision (which would have found the accused innocent) was shown to the new English king, Charles I of England. This was part of an agreement between the two governments. The king rejected it, but the accused judges were still released by the Dutch authorities.
Finally, in 1654, the families of the victims and the English East India Company received money from the Dutch East India Company. Towerson's heirs and others received £3,615, and the English East India Company received £85,000 as payment for the events at Amboyna.
The Battle of Words: Pamphlets and Plays
The English East India Company was not happy with how things turned out. In 1632, its leaders published a detailed booklet. It included all the important papers, with many comments and arguments against the Dutch side. The Dutch had already tried to influence public opinion with an anonymous pamphlet in 1624.
The English booklet described the terrible details of the tortures, as told in their original report. The massacre was used as a reason for the First Anglo-Dutch war. The booklet was reprinted in 1652 as "A Memento for Holland." The Dutch lost this war. They were forced to agree to a condition in the 1654 Treaty of Westminster. This condition called for the punishment of any surviving people responsible for the massacre. However, it seems no one responsible was still alive at that time. After further discussions based on the treaty, the families of the English victims were given a total of £3,615 in compensation.
The booklet and its claims also played a role at the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The Amboyna Massacre was one of the reasons used for England to take over the Dutch colony of New Netherland. The Treaty of Breda (1667), which ended this war, seemed to finally settle the matter.
However, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the event was brought up again to stir up feelings. John Dryden wrote a play called "Amboyna or the Cruelties of the Dutch to the English Merchants." This play added fictional details. It said that Governor Van Speult hated Gabriel Towerson because of a love rivalry over a local princess. In the play, Towerson kills the governor's son in a duel. The governor then gets his revenge through the massacre.
The Amboyna massacre is also mentioned in Jonathan Swift's famous book, Gulliver's Travels (1726). In one part, Lemuel Gulliver pretends to be Dutch and boards a Dutch ship named the Amboyna when he leaves Japan. He hides from the crew that he did not perform a Japanese ceremony of "trampling upon the Crucifix." He says that if his Dutch countrymen found out, "they would kill me in the voyage."
See also
- History of Indonesia
- Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands
- British invasion of the Spice Islands
