In 1623, a Japanese mercenary called Shichizō was arrested for asking suspicious questions about the defenses of a Dutch East India Company fort on Amboina, a remote set of islands in what is now eastern Indonesia. When he failed to provide an adequate explanation, he was tortured until he confessed that he had joined a plot orchestrated by a group of English merchants based nearby to seize control of the fortification and ultimately to rip the spice-rich islands from the Company’s grasp. Two weeks later, Dutch authorities executed twenty-one alleged conspirators, sparking immediate outrage and a controversy that would endure for centuries to come.

In this landmark study, Adam Clulow presents a new perspective on the Amboina case that aims to move beyond the standard debate over the guilt or innocence of the supposed plotters. Instead, Amboina, 1623 argues that the case was driven forward by a potent combination of genuine crisis and overpowering fear that propelled the rapid escalation from suspicion to torture, that gave shape and form to an imagined plot, and that pushed events forward to their final bloody conclusion. Based on an exhaustive analysis of original trial documents, letters, and depositions, this book offers a masterful reinterpretation of a trial that has divided opinion for centuries while presenting new insight into global history and the nature of European expansion across the early modern world.

"Clulow won a number of prizes for his first book. He likely will do so again with his second...Amboina, 1623 deserves the widest possible readership. The story is compelling. So, too, is Clulow's argument about the corrosive effect of fears and anxieties on colonial officials without enough back-up and effectively marooned 'on the edge of Empire.'" - Journal of Asian Studies

"Ambon is one small island in a vast world, and 1623 is just a single year in millennia of history, but this book resonates widely and deeply, an exemplary work of global history." - Journal of World History

"Amboina, 1623: Fear and Conspiracy on the Edge of Empire is a well-written, even intriguing text and should be read both for its clarifying and source-critical treatment of the actual—and long-obscured—events and the fascinating historiographical implications." - American Historical Review

"In this scintillating and deeply researched study, Adam Clulow presents us with a balanced, nuanced, and convincing account of the Amboina affair, its background and its aftershocks...one of the most important books in English on early Dutch imperialism, and a rare good read as well." - Sixteenth Century Journal

"This scintillating and deeply researched study... is the best and most thorough treatment of Amboina to date." - Sixteenth Century Journal