Before Amazon or Google, there was the VOC—the Dutch East India Company, the richest and most ruthless corporation in history. Their goal? Total monopoly on nutmeg. Their obstacle? A tiny island called Run and an Englishman named Nathaniel Courthope.

This isn't just a history lesson. It's a story of survival, defiance, and the brutal cost of empire.

We track the harrowing 1,540-day siege where Courthope and his starving crew held out against the world's most powerful navy. You'll hear how the Dutch weaponized agriculture, executed Banda's elders in cold blood, and hunted a single man for four years—all for control of a spice worth more than gold.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER:

→ Why the Dutch dipped every nutmeg seed in lime to ensure no one else could grow them

→ The massacre of the 44 Orang Kaya (Elders) of Banda, executed by Japanese mercenaries under VOC orders

→ How Nathaniel Courthope became the most wanted man in Southeast Asia

→ The role of Pierre Poivre (a.k.a. "Peter Pepper"), the French botanist who finally broke the monopoly through espionage

→ The ultimate historical irony: How losing Run Island forced the Dutch to trade it for a swampy outpost called Manhattan—giving birth to the British Empire's New York

This is The Archipelago—where Indonesia's forgotten stories shaped the modern world.