The Bandanese trade with the English, Portuguese and Dutch. The VOC tried, without success, to gain a monopoly on the nutmeg trade. The Bandanese do not allow themselves to be dictated to by the law. The VOC decided unilaterally to build a fortress there in 1609. The Bandanese then kill some Dutch people. The beginning of a period full of war. Governor-General Jan Pieterszoon Coen (the highest man of the company in the East Indies) organized a punitive expedition to Banda in 1621. In this way he wants to gain a monopoly on the trade in nutmeg and mace for the VOC. Of the 15,000 residents, only 1,000 remain. The rest were killed, fled or were taken into slavery to Batavia. All to secure the company's monopoly on nutmeg.