Amboina, 1623 : fear and conspiracy on the edge of empire

Resource Information

The work Amboina, 1623 : fear and conspiracy on the edge of empire represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in European University Institute Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Amboina, 1623 : fear and conspiracy on the edge of empire

Title remainder

fear and conspiracy on the edge of empire

Statement of responsibility

Adam Clulow

Creator

• Clulow, Adam

Subject

• East India Company -- History -- 17th century
• Great Britain -- Foreign relations -- Netherlands
• Ambon (Indonesia) -- History -- 17th century
• Netherlands -- Foreign relations -- Great Britain
• Trials (Conspiracy) -- Indonesia | Ambon Island
• Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Compagnie -- History -- 17th century

Language

eng

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"--

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Illustrations

• illustrations
• maps

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography