359. Spice Wars: The Birth of New York (Ep 2)

Empire: World History

What drove the Dutch to employ samurai mercenaries to commit horrifying genocides in the Banda Islands? Why were European powers willing to torture and kill just to control the global supply of a dried seed? How did a peace treaty trade a spice island for Manhattan, giving birth to New York? 


Get the entire Dutch Empire miniseries early and ad-free by joining the Empire Club at empirepoduk.com 


In the second episode of our series on the Dutch East India Company, William and Anita are joined by historian Giles Milton, author of Nathaniel's Nutmeg, to explore the deadly rivalry between the English and Dutch East India Companies. They discuss the brutal battle for Run Island, the horrific genocide committed by the Dutch in the East Indies, and how a trade for nutmeg gave us modern-day Manhattan.


For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.


Email: empire@goalhanger.com

Instagram: @empirepoduk

Blue Sky: @empirepoduk

X: @empirepoduk

Assistant Producer: Imogen Marriott

Social Producer: Charlie Johnson

Producer: Anouska Lewis

Executive Producer: Dom Johnson

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

2026-05-13 53 min

Available Results

Generated results are saved to the knowledge database for reuse and search.

No generated results are available for this episode yet.

Extract Knowledge

Pick what you want extracted first. Model, scope, and chapter options appear after a template is selected.

Generated results for public episodes are saved to the knowledge database so they can be reused and searched later.

Transcript

No transcript is available for this episode yet.
Sign in to generate a transcript for review.
Sign in

Chapters

No chapters available.