The Bloody Spice
The genocide committed for a nut that cures the plague
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Beschreibung
Discover the horrific history of the nutmeg trade, where an empire traded Manhattan for a tiny island and massacred a population.
"The Bloody Spice – The genocide committed for a nut that cures the plague" tells the dark micro-history of the nutmeg. In the 17th century, nutmeg grew only on the tiny Banda Islands in Indonesia and was worth more than gold, rumored to cure the Bubonic Plague. To secure a monopoly, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) did not just trade; they enslaved and massacred almost the entire indigenous population of the islands.
Historian Emily Thorne traces the brutal economics of the spice trade. She details the pivotal moment when the Dutch traded the island of Manhattan (then a small outpost) to the British in exchange for the island of Run, just to control the nutmeg supply.
"The Bloody Spice" is a stark reminder of how consumer demand in Europe led to atrocities on the other side of the world. It reveals the blood that stains the history of global commerce and connects the spice in your pumpkin pie to one of history's first corporate genocides.
Autor*in
Emily Thorne
Author
Themen in »The Bloody Spice«
Nutmeg Spice Trade Banda Islands Dutch East India Company Colonialism Genocide Manhattan Trade