How one of the most profitable companies in history rose to power - Adam Clulow

Discover what happened when one company's attempt to dominate a key global trade ended in violence.

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During the 17th century, the Dutch East India Company cornered the booming spice market and pioneered trade routes between Asia and Europe. It is widely considered the most profitable corporation ever created. But such success came with an overwhelming cost in human life. Adam Clulow sheds light on the Dutch East India Company’s invasion and genocide of Indonesia's Banda Islands.

Lesson by Adam Clulow, directed by Hernando Bahamon.

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Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Maxwell Ramsby, Dmitry Yuryev, Denis Chon, Julian Oberhofer, Monte Carroll, Eddy, Jay M, Constantino Victor Delgado, Andrea Galvagni, Andrew Tweddle, Laurel-Ann Rice, Fernando A. Endo, Helen Lee, pam morgan, sarim haq, Juan Pablo Rodriguez Morales, ANNE FINE, Gerardo Castro, Siddharth Toshniwal, Michel-Ange Hortegat, Enes Kirimi, Amaury BISIAUX, Aravind C V, ND, Samyogita Hardikar, Vanessa Graulich, Vandana Gunwani, LvL042, Abdulmohsin Almadi, Andrew Brodski, AJ Lyon, Anandha Krishnan, Geoffrey Bultitude, Mi Mi, Thomas Rothert, Christopher McVay, Carlo Solaroli, Javier Aldavaz, Ivan Yeung, Brian Elieson, Grayson Garbarino, Oge O, Weronika Falkowska, Stefano Esposito, Nevin Spoljaric, Yvonne Feijoo, Sid Chanpuriya, Arjay Arcinue Dineros, Anoom Yasmin and Anoop Varghese.

[hinxv]

Fun fact : for those who don't know, the VOC managed to recruit some samurai mercenaries in Japan. The battle of Banda was the "first" time when the japanese land on Indonesian soil, before ww2

[diskyariajetmiko]

As indonesian, we were taught about VoC very extensively in school. I hope by learning it extensively, we don't repeat our mistake. Greetings to the dutch people and let us built our future together :)

[damedesuka]

Indonesian here. Just from looking at the thumbnail I knew this must be about the VOC.

Also, funny to hear the narrator says "orang kaya". It literally means "rich person" in Indonesian and is a very standard phrase used in daily convos, not exactly a title or a formal name for a certain social class. At least not today.

[louvendran]

Lol, every year during my primary school. We did a school research project on this company. At the time we had limited information on the subject, in the days before the Internet. Now the truth comes out. I'm glad the youth of today have access to information and knowledge of truth unlike my generation and generations before me.

[durdleduc]

when I learned about the VOC in school, the only thing I was taught was that it profited trade and was one of the first successful large companies of its time. history class failed me.

[ThitutUhthalye]

It’s such a shame on great length people are willing to do to other human just for profit.

[nn]

Don't forget about the WIC, the other, sometimes overlooked, Dutch company who's domain was between the Netherlands, Africa and America. They where also known for privateering and transported spices, gold, sucker and slaves.

[i_teleported_bread]

"How one of the most profitable companies in history rose to power"
Well, it says "murder" in the thumbnail, so I'm gonna assume you're talking about...
Nestlé?

[rhinerivia]

In Indonesia we sometimes refer the colonizer as "Kompeni", and it's derived from this very same company

[pandegaabyanz]

We Indonesian have been taught about VOC since elementary school, yet we almost never been told that it is the most profitable company ever, I think that's an important point that should be told

[pandegaabyanz]

It should be noted that, as you can see, Banda island is just a very small part of Indonesia. The Dutch was colonizing all part of today Indonesia (that's the only reason we Indonesian become a single country). In all of those part, there are various method of slavery to gain as much profit as possible.

[connorredding]

This might just be my favourite animation in a Ted-ED video. Loved the art

[qreezpq]

To put into perpective how incredibly profitable this company really was you should know that at some point the VOC contributed 10% of all money made/stolen by the Netherlands.

[s.lianasuryo-atmojo]

As someone born and raised in Indonesia, I distinctly remember reading a book, called if I remember correctly, "Vuren over Banda" or "Fires over Banda" It was a novel for young people where the young Dutch protagonist became friends with a Bandanese spiritual leader, called "Sitoeh" who foresaw the destruction of his society and culture. Although I do not remember the book foreshadowing the actual genocide of the Banda people, I do remember it as a pretty sombre novel with the only silver lining the human interaction between "Sitoeh" and the young Dutch protagonist. I also remember the social and political elite called the "orang kaya" of Banda, which in modern Indonesian simply means "rich people".

[krister]

Earlier this semester, I was assigned to talk about the language-in-education policy of Indonesia. Readings were limited. Mostly, I access materials that talk about Indonesia’s politics that massively affected the course of Bahasa Indonesia. Behind this, since the country is an archipelago, divide et impera was the tactic. The colonizers taught them that their regional languages must be utilized, but in reality, this linguistic diversity only divides them to not have anti-colonial sentiments. This video is just one part of the whole picture. It was only in 1945 that Indonesia had her independence, where she would choose Malay that would turn into Bahasa Indonesia as her national and official language, which would make the Indonesians united, more democratic, and free. Over the decades since their independence, their literacy rate has escalated.

[jibberwocky]

i was just reading about history of where i come from and ended up stumbling upon different examples of dutch rule, so this was perfectly timed. thank you for the brief (yet packed) history lesson :)

[elvixpro]

"I'll kidnap a thousand islands before I let this company die"
- Pieterszoon

[Tinkyrs]

Just so everyone's aware: the proposition was/is for the statue of Coen to go to a museum. Many people who grew up in Hoorn are fond of the statue. In 2012 the municipality added an information sign that not only describes Coen (born in Hoorn) and what his actions yielded for the Netherlands, but also the atrocities he committed overseas.

[serena]

i live in the Netherlands myself and it’s absolutely insane to me that since the 6th grade, when this was first taught to me, i haven’t been taught the “actual” version.

they teach it to us in the perspective of (of course) our dutch “travelers” and “explorers” who made our country rich. pains me to see that even this video, that explains these painful years in just 5 min(!) does a better job.

really shows u which side of history people are on

[romanbucharist]

Correct me if I'm wrong.
But Fun Fact: VOC was the first company to sell stocks