Amboina, 1623 : fear and conspiracy on the edge of empire / Adam Clulow.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clulow, Adam, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Compagnie--History--17th century.

Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Compagnie.

East India Company--History--17th century.

East India Company.

Trials (Conspiracy).

History.

Ambon Island (Indonesia)--History--17th century.

Ambon Island (Indonesia).

Trials (Conspiracy)--Indonesia--Ambon Island.

Netherlands--Foreign relations--Great Britain.

Netherlands.

International relations.

Great Britain.

Great Britain--Foreign relations--Netherlands.

Diplomatic relations.

Indonesia--Ambon Island.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xvii, 289 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2019]

Summary:

"In 1623, a Japanese mercenary called Shichizō was arrested for asking suspicious questions about a Dutch East India Company castle on Amboina, a remote set of islands in what is now eastern Indonesia. He was tortured until he confessed that he had joined a plot orchestrated by a group of English merchants to seize control of the fortification and ultimately to rip the spice-rich islands from the Company's grasp. Two weeks later, Dutch authorities executed twenty-one alleged conspirators, sparking immediate outrage and a controversy that would endure for centuries to come. In this book, Adam Clulow presents a new perspective on the Amboina case that aims to move beyond the debate over guilt or innocence. He argues that the case was driven forward by a potent combination of genuine crisis, imagined threat, and overpowering fear that propelled the rapid escalation from suspicion to torture, that gave shape and form to the sprawling plot, and that pushed it forward to a bloody conclusion. Based on a detailed analysis of archival records, letters, and contemporary legal documents, this book is a masterful reinterpretation of a trial that has divided opinion for centuries"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction : the Company and the colony

With treaty or with violence

"We cannot exist without slaves"

Dangerous and difficult to govern

The English serpent

The trial

The war of the witnesses

The long aftermath in Europe and Asia

Epilogue : the fearful empire.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780231175128

0231175124

OCLC:

1063756918