Negotiations collapsed after Bandanese village elders deceived and murdered the Dutch representative Pieter Willemsz Verhoeff.

[4] The volcanic Banda Islands were found to be unique due to the availability of nutmeg and mace, which grew nowhere else in the world and therefore had extreme commercial value.

The Bandanese preferred free trade so that they could play off the various European countries' merchants against each other and sell their products to the highest bidder.

[1] This became the de facto capital of the Dutch East India Company until Batavia (modern-day Jakarta) was founded on Java in 1619.

[1] In March 1610, Hein arrived on Ambon and, after long but ultimately successful trade negotiations on a large clove purchase with the Ambonese from March to November 1610,[1] he conducted two punitive military expeditions in early 1611 against the Bandanese isles of Lontor (also known as Lontar or Banda Besar) and Pulo Run.

They violated their treaty with the Dutch by trading with the English (who offered better prices), and Malay, Javanese and Makassarese traders (who sold the spices on to the Portuguese).

[10] Unwilling to accept this obstacle to their commercial interests any longer, the VOC's governing body, Heeren XVII, concluded by 1614 that it was necessary to conquer the entire Bandanese archipelago, even if it meant the destruction of the native population and a heavy burden on the Company's finances.

[7] To that end, Governor-General Gerard Reynst took an army to Banda Neira on 21 March 1615, and then launched a punitive expedition against the island of Ai (or Pulu Ay) on 14 May 1615.

[10] The English, who had retreated to Run, regrouped and launched a surprise counterattack that same night in which they managed to kill 200 Dutchmen.

[11] Reynst decided to withdraw from Ai, intending to conquer the island later and first preventing the English from obtaining clove at Ambon, but he died of illness in December 1615.

[10] Meanwhile, the Bandanese beseeched the English for protection against possible Dutch retaliation, sending an emissary to the English factory at Banten with a letter, which included the following statements: Therefore we all desire to come to an agreement with the kinge of England, because nowe the Hollanders doe practise by all meanes possible to conquer our Country and destroy our Religion by reason whereof all of us of the Islands of Banda do utterly hate the sight of theis Hollanders, sonnes of Whores, because they exceed in lying and villainy and desire to overcome all mens Country by Treachery... That if soe be the Kinge of England out of his love towards us will have a care of our Country and Religion and will help us with Artillary powder and shott and help us recover the Castle of Nera, whereby we may be able to make war with the Hollanders, by Gods helpe all the spices, that our land shall yeald, we will sell only to the King of England.

He persuaded the inhabitants to sign a contract in which they undertook to accept King James I as the sovereign of the island and to provide the English with nutmeg.

However, this unofficial war was inopportune to the governments back in Europe, who in 1619 concluded peace and a Treaty of Defence between the Dutch Republic and England, as they prioritised a Protestant alliance against Catholic Spain and Portugal with the end of the Twelve Years' Truce nearing.

[11] Coen was furious with the instructions when he received them, as he sought to expel the English from the entire region to form a monopoly on the spice trade, as he wrote to his superiors in a letter: I admit that the actions of the master are of no concern of the servant...

[11][note 1]2,000 combatants[14] Judging that Bandanese resistance to Dutch attempts to establish their commercial supremacy in the archipelago had to be crushed once and for all, Coen wrote a letter to the Heeren XVII on 26 October 1620, stating: 'To adequately deal with this matter, it is necessary to once again subjugate Banda, and populate it with other people.

[18] After unsuccessfully trying to recruit Englishmen from the nearby Run and Ai, Coen began sending scouts to the coastline of Lontor, the main Bandanese island.

The Dutch swiftly captured key strongholds and by the end of the day the island's northern lowlands and southern promontories.

The defenders and local populace fled to the hills that made up the island's center, with the Dutch forces in hot pursuit.

[3][2] Having been accused of breaking the treaty and conspiring against the Dutch, 24 orang kaya were sentenced to death and decapitated by Japanese mercenaries on 8 May.

[2] According to Coen, "about 2,500" inhabitants died "of hunger and misery or by the sword", "a good party of woman and children" were taken, and not more than 300 escaped.

[3] Hans Straver concluded that the Lontorese population would have been around 4,500–5,000 people, 50 to 100 of whom died during the fighting, 1,700 of whom were enslaved and 2,500 of whom died due to famine and disease, while an unknown number of natives jumped to their deaths from the cliffs; several hundreds escaped to nearby islands such as the Kei Islands and eastern Seram, their regional trading partners, that welcomed the survivors.