Colonisation and Cultivation: Nutmeg Production, Labour, and Ecology on the Banda Islands before and after the Conquest of 1621

In 1621, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) conquered the Banda Islands (Maluku Indonesia) and killed, expelled, and enslaved its indigenous population. The motivation behind this genocide was to establish control over the production of nutmeg and mace, two valuable spices that were grown almost exclusively in Banda. According to most historians, the VOC was successful in radically transforming, ‘intensifying,’ and ‘rationalising’ spice production. This paper, by contrast, argues that there was a significant degree of continuity in cultivation methods between the precolonial and (early) colonial periods and that productivity levels stagnated or declined following colonisation.