德萊登的劇本《安波那》完成於一六七三年，在此以前，英國與歐洲其他海上霸權競爭下，已逐漸開展國際的勢力，但歐陸的荷蘭人更早開拓跨洋的經紀手腕，英國人與荷蘭忽敵忽友的關係亦早有軌跡可循。《安波那》的時代背景是英荷殖民競爭下的第三次戰役，德萊登藉著一六二三年發生在摩鹿加群島安波那城的屠殺事件，闡述殖民空間的醞釀與操作，批判殖民競爭對手，建構英國屬性，卻同時從英國的殖民記憶中流露十七世紀的東方殖民想像。

Dryden’s play Amboyna was published in 1673; the core of the play deals with the massacre of the English merchants by the Dutch in 1623. The conflicts between England and Netherland over overseas plantations started back in the previous century but the tensions increased and resulted in Anglo-Dutch wars. In America, the Dutch controlled the Hudson River Valley from 1609 until the English took over in 1664, when the Dutch lost New Netherland. In 1673, however, at the time when Amboyna was published, the Dutch had recaptured New Netherland with a fleet of 21 ships. In its time, Amboyna was a play that reinforced national identity, not only by depicting the tensions between the English and the Dutch, but by expressing colonial imagination in English cultural memory.