Anglo-Dutch Rivalry in the Spice Islands

English and Dutch chartered companies competed for access to nutmeg, mace and cloves in the Indonesian archipelago. The Banda Islands became a central battleground because nutmeg grew there commercially and European companies sought exclusive contracts backed by armed ships and fortified posts.

On Run Island, Nathaniel Courthope and a small English force resisted Dutch pressure from 1616 until his death in 1620. Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands involved coercion, killing, deportation and the creation of a plantation system dependent on enslaved labour.

The conflict continued through wider Anglo-Dutch maritime wars. Under the Treaty of Breda in 1667, England abandoned its claim to Run while the Dutch accepted English control of New Netherland.