Jan Pieterszoon Coen

Jan Pieterszoon Coen -God's zealot for Trade. Jan Pieterszoon Coen an iron fisted VOC Governor General; the massacre of  thousands of Bandenese and the wanton destruction of all the clove plantations. But looking looking for trough his history, there is reason that his pious and zealous devotion to the Dutch Reformed Church was cause for his ferocity. Jan Pieterszoon Coen was born on January 8th, 1587 in the Dtuch city of Hoorn. He was the son of Pieter Willemszoon Coen, a merchant in the salt trading business in San Lucar, a Spanish town in the Andalusian region. Jan was sent to Rome at the age of thirteen to work for a trade office administered by Justus Pescatore.During his stay of six or seven years in Rome he learnt the art of bookkeeping, multiple languages and was fascinated by numbers and mathematics.Upon completing his apprenticeship in 1607 he returned to his native city and joined the VOC chamber of Hoorn. He was appointed as a bookkeeper and left for Indonesia the very same year, under the command of Admiral Pieter Verhoeff.ow Admiral Verhoeff commanded a fleet of thirteen ships, and one of the fleet’s missions was to begin the construction of a fort on the Banda Islands. Upon arrival on the Banda Islands, Admiral Verhoeff and a party of approximately 50 soldiers set out on a diplomatic mission to obtain permission from the natives to build the fort. The party was killed in an ambush set up by the Bandanese. This therefore was an experience that marked Jan Pieterszoon Coen, perhaps for life. The Vice Admiral, Simon Hoen, retaliated by killing as many inhabitants as he could, setting their houses and lands on fire. Afterwards he declared that Bandanaira, the Capital of the Banda Islands would from now on belong to the Dutch Republic and the VOC. The Bandanese did not take this so tamely, however and a period of conflict and bloodshed continued for some time. Coen then returned to Amsterdam in 1610, where he worked at the VOC head offcie as book keeper.He proved his worth during this short period of time, and was appointed accountant-general of all VOC offices in Indonesia and president of the head office in Bantam. On May 12th, 1612 he set out for Java and the Moluccas as the commander of two ships. Upon his arrival at Bantam on the 9th of February 1613, the Dutch warehouse was set on fire, apparently by locals. Shortly thereafter, Coen discovered a local regent on the island of Jakarta ordered construction to be halted on the new fort. This regent was supposed to be obedient to the VOC. On 13th March, 1613 Pieterszoon Coen then arrived on the Island of Amboyna, where again he was met with animosity and complete mutiny from the defiant natives. All of these occurences strenghtened his belief that local inhabitants should be subjugated to the Dutch colonailists and ruled with an iron fist.