Banda Islands
A small Indonesian island group that was once the world's only source of nutmeg and mace.
Also: Banda, Run island, nutmeg islands, Spice Islands
The Banda Islands, a cluster of volcanic islands in the Banda Sea of eastern Indonesia, were the sole home of nutmeg and mace until the late eighteenth century. Arab, Javanese, Chinese and Malay traders bought them for centuries. In the early seventeenth century the Dutch East India Company took control, and in 1621 Jan Pieterszoon Coen's forces killed or deported most of the Bandanese, replacing them with enslaved labour on plantations. The English gave up their claim to the island of Run in the 1667 Treaty of Breda, in exchange for Manhattan. Seedlings spread later to Penang, Grenada and Zanzibar. Today Banda is quiet and still grows nutmeg.