History of Coffee - 2. Dutch Masters

One event from the spice years stands apart for its brutality: the Bandanese nutmeg genocide of 1621. Coffee wasn't central to this story yet, but the mindset that would industrialise coffee was. Earlier empires cloaked extraction in religion, sovereignty, or civilising rhetoric, even as they pursued profit. In Banda, that veil drops. A state-backed private corporation annihilates an entire population not to rule them, convert them, or tax them, just to secure an export monopoly. It is one of the earliest fully documented cases of mass extermination carried out explicitly as commercial policy. This is where colonialism begins to resemble the cold, scalable capitalism we recognise today.

The economic success of the Bandanese genocide accelerated a culture of exploitation. It’s this heartless greed that would be key to the industrialisation of coffee, and would create the necessary conditions for the world's first coffee colony.

Like much of the colonised world, Java is often imagined as an undeveloped blank slate waiting for European intervention. It wasn’t. It had a complex agricultural system with ruling elites, a Chinese merchant class, and middle management regents already in place. While things were probably not perfect, it can be said that communities had autonomy at village level, and that the seasonal, subsistence based economy allowed for local customs and cultures to be expressed. The ruling structures required taxes and labour obligations, but in return maintained a level of food security and a judicial system. (4)

The system was ripe for Dutch exploitation. With a small force, foreign luxuries, and tight control on sea travel around the island, they were able to manipulate and eventually control the established ruling class. By using the agricultural system that was already in place, they quickly turned the island into an export machine, with exploitative coffee taxes demanded at village level. This reduced subsistence flexibility, increasing rural poverty. Meanwhile, the Dutch entrenched a strict racial caste system that institutionalised inequality and reinforced colonial rule.

This wasn't colonialism by replacement, but by capture. Existing institutions remained in place, only now they served Amsterdam instead of Java. This proved to be an incredibly effective model for extraction, one that would underpin Dutch rule for centuries and influence colonial administrations around the world.

With control of the world's first coffee colony, the Dutch were able to flood the market. They “produced” and provided enough coffee for it to become entrenched in the European consciousness for the first time. It quickly became a product with permanent and widespread demand, and holding the near monopoly on it gave the Dutch unprecedented geopolitical leverage. Unsurprisingly, this drew great jealousy from the other colonial power players.

Today, Indonesia is a bit of a mixed bag. One of the world's most populous nations, it's incredibly diverse and, all things considered, a reasonably successful post-colonial story - though like any modern nation, not without its contradictions. (2)

It also happens to be one of the richest places on Earth for coffee genetics, resources that may yet hold the key to Arabica's survival in a changing climate.