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{{short description|Dutch colonial administrator}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}}
{{Infobox officeholder
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| data1 = [[Dutch East India Company]]
| battles_label = Conflicts
| battles = {{ubl|[[Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands|Conquest of the Banda Islands]]|Conquest of Jacatra|[[Siege of Batavia]]}}
}}
'''Jan Pieterszoon Coen''' ({{IPA-nl|ˈjɑn ˈpitərzoːn ˈkun|}}, 8 January 1587 – 21 September 1629) was an officer of the [[Dutch East India Company]] (VOC) in the early 17th century, holding two terms as [[Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies|governor-general of the Dutch East Indies]]. He was the founder of [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]], capital of the [[Dutch East Indies]].<ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=https://bataviadigital.perpusnas.go.id/tokoh/?box=detail&id_record=7|title=Profil Tokoh Batavia|website=Perpustakaan Digital Republik Indonesia|language=id|first=Perpustakaan Digital Republik Indonesia|last=Web Editorial Team|date=2015-08-31|access-date=2023-12-14}}</ref> Renowned for providing the impulse that set the VOC on the path to dominance in the Dutch East Indies, he was long considered a national hero in the [[Netherlands]]. Since the 19th century, his legacy has become controversial due to the brutal violence he employed in order to secure a trade monopoly on [[nutmeg|nutmeg,
A famed quote of his from 1618, ''Despair not, spare your enemies not, for God is with us'', illustrates his single-minded ruthlessness, and his unstinting belief in the divinely-sanctioned nature of his project. Using such self-professed divine sanction to violently pursue his ultimate goal of trade monopoly in the East Indies, Dutch soldiers acting on Coen's orders perpetrated numerous wanton acts of destruction in the spice islands of (now) eastern Indonesia, including the infamous [[Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands|Banda Massacre]] of 1621. The purpose of this was to gain a [[monopoly]] upon the supply of nutmeg and mace in order to sustain artificially high prices and profits for the
== Life ==
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=== First VOC voyage and return (1607–1612) ===
During the journey, Verhoeff and 42 of his men were killed during negotiations with the chiefs of the [[Banda Islands]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Milton |first=Giles |title=Nathaniel's Nutmeg: Or, the true and incredible adventure of the spice trader who changed the course of history |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |year=1999 |isbn=0340696761 |location=
After his return to the republic in 1610, Coen submitted an important report on trade possibilities in Southeast Asia to the company's directors. As a result of this report, he was again sent overseas in 1612, with the rank of chief merchant.
=== Second VOC voyage and promotion (1612–1617) ===
On the second trip, he acquitted himself so well of his commission and notable by the success of his practice of commerce, that in October 1613, he was appointed as accountant-general of all VOC offices in the East Indies and president of the head offices in [[Bantam (city)|Bantam]] and [[Jakarta]].<ref name="Library">{{
In 1614, he was made director-general, second in command. On 25 October 1617, the [[Heren XVII]] of the VOC appointed him as the fourth governor-general in the East Indies, of which he was informed on 30 April 1618.
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Between 1614 and 1618, Coen secured a clove monopoly in the [[Moluccas]] and a nutmeg monopoly in the Banda Islands. The inhabitants of Banda had been selling the spices to the English and other Indonesians tribes owing to their offering better prices, despite contracts with the Dutch, which obliged them to sell only to the VOC, at low prices.
In 1621, he led the [[Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands]], using Japanese mercenaries. After encountering some fierce resistance, mostly by cannons that the natives had acquired from the English, they took the island of Lonthor by force. Many thousands of inhabitants were massacred{{cn|date=September 2023}} and replaced by slave labor from other islands to make way for Dutch planters. Of the 15,000 inhabitants it is believed only about a thousand survived on the island.{{cn|date=September 2023}} Eight hundred people were deported to Batavia.
Because of disputes at the head office in Bantam with natives, the Chinese, and the English, the VOC desired a better central headquarters. Coen thus directed more of the company's trade through [[Jakarta]], where it had established a factory in 1610. However, not trusting the native ruler, he decided in 1618 to convert the Dutch warehouses into a fort. While away on an expedition, the English took control of the town. Coen managed to reconquer Jakarta in 1619, with fire destroying most of the town during the process. He rebuilt the city and fort, thus founding the new Dutch town over the ruins of its predecessor, which he forthwith proclaimed the capital of the Dutch East Indies.<ref name="Library" /> In 1621, the city was renamed [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]]. Coen preferred Nieuw Hoorn, after his hometown, but did not get his way.
=== Return to the Netherlands (1622–1627) ===
In 1622, Coen revisited Europe.<ref name="Library" /> On 1 February 1623, he handed his post to [[Pieter de Carpentier]] and returned to the Netherlands, where he was given a hero's welcome off the coast of [[Texel]]. He then became head of the VOC chamber in Hoorn and worked on establishing new policies. During his absence from the East Indies, difficulties with the English were exacerbated by [[Amboyna massacre|Dutch massacre of 21 Englishmen on Amboyna]]. On 3 October 1624, he was reappointed governor-general in the East Indies, but his departure was hindered by the English. In 1625, he married [[Eva Ment]], and in 1627 departed incognito for the East Indies with his wife, their newborn child and her brother and sister, starting work on 30 September 1627. After his arrival, the English abandoned Batavia and established their headquarters in Bantam.
=== Last years (1627–1629) ===
Twice during Coen's term in office, [[Sultan Agung of Mataram]] [[Siege of Batavia|besieged Batavia]], in 1628 and 1629. Agung's military was poorly armed and had inadequate provisions of food, and was never able to capture the city.<ref name="Library" /> During Agung's second siege Coen suddenly died on 21{{nbsp}}September 1629, likely due to the [[cholera]] outbreak in Batavia during this siege.
In [[Imogiri]], there is a persistent folklore that Coen's remains were stolen from his grave in Jakarta, and placed under the steps leading up to [[Sultan Agung of Mataram|Sultan Agung]]'s grave.<ref>{{
== Legacy ==
He was long considered a national hero in the Netherlands. Since the 19th century, his legacy has become controversial due to the violence he employed, especially during the last stage of the [[Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands]], which is widely considered a genocide.<ref>{{Cite web |last=National Archives of the Netherlands. |date=9 October 2022 |title=Genocide op Banda [Genocide on Banda] (1621) |url=https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/beleven/onderwijs/bronnenbox/hoe-ging-het-verder-op-banda |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221009204806/https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/beleven/onderwijs/bronnenbox/hoe-ging-het-verder-op-banda#archive |archive-date=9 October 2022 |access-date=9 October 2022 |website=Nationaal Archief }}</ref>
Named for him are the [[Coentunnel]] and the Coenhaven in Amsterdam. There is also the [[Coen River]] in Queensland, Australia, named in 1653 by [[Jan Carstenszoon]]. There are a number of derived placenames including the town of [[Coen, Queensland|Coen]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36802069 |title=NOMENCLATURE OF QUEENSLAND.—91 |newspaper=[[The Courier-mail]] |issue=741 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=14 January 1936 |accessdate=10 June 2023 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
===Statues===
A statue to Coen was revealed in Batavia on 4 September 1876, in front of the [[
Of the monuments that remember Coen in the Netherlands, the best-known is the {{ill|Monument to Jan Pieterszoon Coen|nl|Standbeeld van Jan Pieterszoon Coen}} in Hoorn, with the motto "Dispereert niet" ("do not despair"). Made in 1887 by [[Ferdinand Leenhoff]] in bronze, it was placed on a central location in Hoorn, the [[Roode Steen]], in 1893.<ref>{{
A statue for Coen in Amsterdam, on one of the corners of the [[Beurs van Berlage]], also includes the "Dispereert niet" motto.
<gallery widths=200 heights=200>
File:KITLV A752 - Standbeeld van Jan Pietserszoon Coen voor het paleis van Daendels op het Waterlooplein te Batavia, KITLV 111189.tiff|Statue for Coen in Batavia
File:Exterieur STANDBEELD OP DE RODE STEEN - Hoorn - 20315971 - RCE.jpg|Monument to Coen in Hoorn
File:Tekst op standbeeld Jan Pieterszoon Coen.jpg|Explanatory text placed in
</gallery>
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== External links ==
* {{
* {{OL subject|person:jan_pieterszoon_coen_(1587-1629)}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Coen, Jan Pieterszoon|volume=6|page=644}}
{{Governors-General of the Dutch East Indies|state=collapsed}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Coen, Jan Pieterszoon}}
[[Category:17th-century Dutch colonial governors]]▼
[[Category:17th-century Dutch East Indies people]]▼
[[Category:1587 births]]
[[Category:1629 deaths]]
▲[[Category:17th-century Dutch colonial governors]]
▲[[Category:17th-century Dutch East Indies people]]
[[Category:Dutch mass murderers]]
[[Category:Dutch war criminals]]
[[Category:Deaths from cholera]]
[[Category:Governors-General of the Dutch East Indies]]
[[Category:People from Hoorn]]
[[Category:Genocide perpetrators]]
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