Inventing the English Massacre

This book tells the story of the causes and legacies of a conspiracy trial featuring English, Japanese, and Indo-Portuguese plotters against Dutch spice traders in the Indian Ocean in 1623. In the wake of the torture and execution of the accused men, the incident became known in Europe as the Amboyna Massacre. I trace the creation and memory of the Amboyna Massacre over four hundred years, providing a new interpretation of a poorly understood episode once believed by historians to have changed the course of British history. It did, but not as people once thought: instead, it became the first English massacre and this new history of the Amboyna Massacre explains why we associate massacres with intimacy, treachery, and cruelty.