8: During the 17th century,

9: the three letters “VOC” formed the world's most recognizable logo.

14: These initials belonged to the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie,

19: or the Dutch East India Company—

21: widely considered the most profitable corporation ever created.

25: Starting in 1602, it cornered the booming spice market

29: and pioneered trade routes between Asia and Europe.

33: But such success came with an overwhelming cost in human life.

38: When the Dutch state created the Company,

40: it granted the organization the power to wage war,

44: conduct diplomacy, and seize colonies throughout Asia.

48: The Dutch East India Company was intended to make money

52: and battle competing European empires.

55: The Asian market was the largest at the time

58: and spices were in great demand throughout Europe.

60: Nutmeg was among the most precious.

63: But it was only cultivated on Indonesia's Banda Islands.

67: If Dutch officials could seize exclusive control over nutmeg,

71: they'd make their investors rich,

73: ensure the Company's long-term survival

75: and deprive their adversaries of the same gains.

79: However, their plan hinged on the submission of the Bandanese people.

83: This was something Company officials, like the ruthless Jan Pieterszoon Coen,

88: were willing to go to great lengths to ensure.

91: Home to around 15,000 people,

93: the Banda Islands were composed of village confederations

97: controlled by rich men called orang kaya, who were expert traders.

101: They'd retained their virtual monopoly over nutmeg for centuries,

105: selling at the highest price to Asian and European merchants.

109: When the Dutch East India Company arrived in the early 1600s,

113: its officials persuaded a group of orang kaya to sign a treaty.

117: It guaranteed protection in exchange for monopoly rights to their nutmeg.

122: Bandanese leaders had made similar agreements before,

125: but were able to break them without serious consequences.

129: The Dutch represented a new threat.

131: They attempted to build forts to control trade and stop smuggling,

136: and insisted that all nutmeg be sold to them at deflated prices.

141: Many Bandanese refused and relations continued to deteriorate.

145: In 1609, a group of villagers ambushed and killed a Dutch admiral and 40 of his men.

152: Over the next decade, tensions escalated as treaties were broken and re-signed.

158: The Company and Jan Pieterszoon Coen, its Governor-General,

162: began considering new strategies.

164: The Bandanese, one official wrote,

166: should be “brought to reason or entirely exterminated.”

170: Coen himself believed that there could be no trade without war.

174: In 1621, with the approval of his superiors,

178: he staged a massive invasion and made Bandanese leaders sign another document.

184: But this time, the terms didn't recognize the Bandanese as a sovereign people—

189: they were the Dutch East India Company's colonial subjects.

193: Soon, Dutch officials claimed they'd detected a conspiracy against them.

197: Coen used this to eliminate further resistance.

200: He ordered his soldiers to torture Bandanese leaders to extract confessions.

205: Over the following months,

206: Company troops waged a brutal campaign that decimated the population.

211: Many Bandanese people were starved to death or enslaved

214: and sent to distant Dutch colonies.

217: Others jumped from cliffs rather than surrender.

220: Thousands fled, emptying out whole villages.

223: Some survivors resettled on other islands,

226: where they preserved remnants of Bandanese language and culture.

230: When the Company's violent campaign was over,

232: the indigenous population had plummeted to less than a thousand,

236: most of whom were enslaved.

238: The Dutch East India Company sliced the islands into plantations

242: and imported an enslaved workforce.

244: It was, by many measures, an act of genocide.

248: By securing this global monopoly over nutmeg,

251: the Company supercharged its economic development,

254: contributing to the Dutch Golden Age.

256: Although Coen faced criticism,

258: he was celebrated as a national hero well into the 20th century.

263: 400 years after the massacre on Banda,

266: Coen's statue still stands in the city of Hoorn—

270: despite mounting pressure for its removal.

272: Coen and the Dutch East India Company brought a prized commodity

276: under their control and profits soared.

279: But they achieved this by violently tearing another society apart.