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

Published New York : Columbia University Press, [2019]

Click on the following:
EBSCO eBooks

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xvii, 289 pages) : illustrations, maps 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 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 Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes In English Print version record Subject Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Compagnie -- History -- 17th century East India Company -- History -- 17th century East India Company Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Compagnie Trials (Conspiracy) -- Indonesia -- Ambon Island POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Imperialism. Diplomatic relations Trials (Conspiracy) Ambon Island (Indonesia) -- History -- 17th century Netherlands -- Foreign relations -- Great Britain Great Britain -- Foreign relations -- Netherlands Great Britain Indonesia -- Ambon Island Netherlands Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9780231550376 0231550375

  Permalink