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During the 17th century, the three letters "VOC" formed the world's most recognizable logo.
在17世纪，“VOC”成为了世界上最知名的标志。
These initials belonged to the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or the Dutch East India Company
它是Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie的缩写，或称荷兰东印度公司，
widely considered the most profitable corporation ever created.
普遍被认为是世上最获利的公司。
Starting in 1602, it cornered the booming spice market and pioneered trade routes between Asia and Europe.
从1602年起，它垄断了蓬勃发展的香料市场，也开发了新的亚欧贸易路线。
But such success came with an overwhelming cost in human life.
但是这样的成功伴随着压倒性的人命成本。
When the Dutch state created the Company, it granted the organization the power to wage war, conduct diplomacy, and seize colonies throughout Asia.
当荷兰政府创造了公司，政府给了这个组织发动战争的能力，进行外交和在亚洲抢占殖民地。
The Dutch East India Company was intended to make money and battle competing European empires.
荷兰东印度公司本为赚钱和对抗竞争的欧洲国家。
The Asian market was the largest at the time and spices were in great demand throughout Europe.
亚洲市场当时是世上最大的，欧洲对香料有很大的需求。
Nutmeg was among the most precious. But it was only cultivated on Indonesia's Banda Islands.
肉豆蔻是最珍贵的。但是它只在印度尼西亚的班达群岛生长。
If Dutch officials could seize exclusive control over nutmeg,
如果荷兰官方可以占有肉豆蔻，
they'd make their investors rich, ensure the Company's long-term survival and deprive their adversaries of the same gains.
他们的投资者获利丰盛，保证了公司的长期生存，竞争者得不到同样的利润。
However, their plan hinged on the submission of the Bandanese people.
然而他们的计划取决于班达人的服从。
This was something Company officials, like the ruthless Jan Pieterszoon Coen, were willing to go to great lengths to ensure.
这正是一些官方，像扬·彼得斯佐恩·库恩，愿意竭尽全力而保证的。
Home to around 15,000 people, the Banda Islands were composed of village confederations controlled by rich men called orang kaya, who were expert traders.
这是一万五千人的家乡，班达群岛是被村联合会组成的，被富人控制，这些是很有头脑的商人。
They'd retained their virtual monopoly over nutmeg for centuries, selling at the highest price to Asian and European merchants.
几个世纪以来，他们保持着几乎全然的肉豆蔻垄断，用高价卖给亚洲和欧洲的商人。
When the Dutch East India Company arrived in the early 1600s, its officials persuaded a group of orang kaya to sign a treaty.
当荷兰东印度公司在1600年抵达了班达群岛，官方和当地的富人们签了一个协议。
It guaranteed protection in exchange for monopoly rights to their nutmeg.
这个协议保证了对肉豆蔻独有的权利。
Bandanese leaders had made similar agreements before, but were able to break them without serious consequences.
班达人的领导们之前也做过类似的协议，但能够违反协议也没有严重的后果。
The Dutch represented a new threat.
荷兰带来了新的威胁。
They attempted to build forts to control trade and stop smuggling, and insisted that all nutmeg be sold to them at deflated prices.
他们为了控制商议和走私建了堡垒，执意所有的肉豆蔻以低价卖给他们。
Many Bandanese refused and relations continued to deteriorate.
很多班达人拒绝了这个要求，造成了关系继续恶化。
In 1609, a group of villagers ambushed and killed a Dutch admiral and 40 of his men.
1609年，一帮村民击杀了荷兰上将和40个部下。
Over the next decade, tensions escalated as treaties were broken and re-signed.
接下来的十年里，紧张局势升级，条约被破坏和重新签署。
The Company and Jan Pieterszoon Coen, its Governor-General, began considering new strategies.
公司和总督扬·彼得斯佐恩·库恩开始重新考虑新的策略。
The Bandanese, one official wrote, should be "brought to reason or entirely exterminated."
班达人，一个官员写道，应该“讲道理或被全部消灭”。
Coen himself believed that there could be no trade without war.
库恩认为没有战争就没有贸易。
In 1621, with the approval of his superiors, he staged a massive invasion and made Bandanese leaders sign another document.
1621年，得到上级批准的他大举入侵，逼着班达人的领导者们签新文件。
But this time, the terms didn't recognize the Bandanese as a sovereign people -- they were the Dutch East India Company's colonial subjects.
但是这次条约不承认班达人的民族主权，反而成了荷兰东印度公司的殖民。
Soon, Dutch officials claimed they'd detected a conspiracy against them.
不久以后，荷兰官方宣称察觉到一个反对他们的阴谋。
Coen used this to eliminate further resistance. He ordered his soldiers to torture Bandanese leaders to extract confessions.
库恩利用这一点来消灭反抗。他命令士兵去折磨班达领导者以取得供词。
Over the following months, Company troops waged a brutal campaign that decimated the population.
在接下来几个月里，公司的士兵发动一场大屠杀。
Many Bandanese people were starved to death or enslaved and sent to distant Dutch colonies.
很多的班达人被饿死，或被送到远方的荷兰殖民地成为奴隶。
Others jumped from cliffs rather than surrender. Thousands fled, emptying out whole villages.
有一些人宁可跳崖也不要投降。上千人逃走了，整村变成了鬼域。
Some survivors resettled on other islands, where they preserved remnants of Bandanese language and culture.
有些幸存者搬移到了别的岛上生活，保存他们的语言和文化。
When the Company's violent campaign was over, the indigenous population had plummeted to less than a thousand, most of whom were enslaved.
公司暴力的活动结束后，土著人民只剩下不到一千人，大多数成为了奴隶。
The Dutch East India Company sliced the islands into plantations and imported an enslaved workforce.
荷兰东印度公司把班达群岛转化成了种植园，引进奴工。
It was, by many measures, an act of genocide.
这是种族灭绝。
By securing this global monopoly over nutmeg, the Company supercharged its economic development, contributing to the Dutch Golden Age.
保持了对肉豆蔻的独占事业，公司大大地推动经济发展，贡献了荷兰的黄金年代。
Although Coen faced criticism, he was celebrated as a national hero well into the 20th century.
尽管库恩遭到了批评，但直到20世纪他仍被看作是国家英雄。
400 years after the massacre on Banda, Coen's statue still stands in the city of Hoorn -- despite mounting pressure for its removal.
班达岛大屠杀过了400年后，库恩的雕像还在霍伦城里，虽然移除雕像的压力越来越大。
Coen and the Dutch East India Company brought a prized commodity under their control and profits soared.
库恩和荷兰东印度公司带来珍贵的产品，在他们的控制下利润飙升。
But they achieved this by violently tearing another society apart.
但是在这个过程中，他们暴力撕裂另一个社会。
