Epilogue

Abstract

Although the Amboyna Massacre had not originally been the first English massacre, by the eighteenth century that is what it had become. The epilogue analyzes how the incident displaced previous incidents and acquired historical primacy, drawing on contemporary histories and almanacs to chart this process. It situates Amboyna in the context of other massacres around the world to assess what distinguished Amboyna from other episodes of violence. It concludes by arguing that Amboyna’s status as the first English massacre, along with its origin at the time the word massacre itself entered the English language, shaped the meaning of subsequent violent episodes, and placed intimacy, treachery, and ingratitude at the center of massacres in ways that endure to the present day.