Publication Date
2009
Categories
(Today's Sri Lanka) is an Indian Ocean island also known as Taprobana (Greek and Latin tradition), Serendib (Arabian tradition) and Hsi-lan (Chinese tradition). The first contacts with the Portuguese were made in September 1506, upon the arrival of Dom Lourenço de Almeida to Colombo and through a probable docking in Galle. The hypothesis that sets this journey has having happened in 1505 (Castanheda) has been dismissed. Although possible, a journey by Joao da Nova in 1501 has not been documented (cf. Bouchon). Ceylon occupied a semi- peripherycal position in the Portuguese system of the Indian Ocean. As an exporting country, it sent abroad cinnamon, elephants, areca and gemstones; thus, it held an enormous appeal for the Portuguese in terms of trade since 1506, when they established a friendly relationship with the king of Kotte, Darma Parakramabahu IX (1489 - 1513). The Buddhist sovereigns of Kotte took an interest in the Portuguese not only as traders, but also in terms of military performance, and soon developed efforts to attract the forces from the Portuguese India or, more generically, Portuguese soldiers to the island, with the goal of having their participation in their local disputes and in the palace guard. In 1518, it was established the first Portuguese fortress in Colombo, following orders from Dom Manuel after a request from the king of Kotte, Vijayabahu VI (1513-21). As consequence of a conflict from that period, the Singhalese king became vassal of the Portuguese crown; thus, he started to pay annual cinnamon tributes in a formal tax regime. The previously referred fortress was abandoned in 1524, due to both parts' inability to coordinate the payments of tributes by Kotte with the military counterparts from the Portuguese.
In the 1520s and 1530s, the Portuguese association with Ceylon was characterised by sporadic diplomatic contacts and by the consolidation of a community of several dozens of Portuguese in the kingdom of Kotte. Under growing military pressure from the neighbouring kingdom of Sitawaka, which had just experienced a sharing process after the death of Vijayabahu in 1521, Bhuvanekabahu VII (1521-51), king of Kotte, was compelled to sign a treaty which allowed for cinnamon trade, in addition to the payment of tributes, with profitable conditions for the Portuguese. In 1542-43, a delegation from Kotte visited Lisbon, consequently reinforcing the vassalage contract made in 1518. It also established young prince Dharmapala as the successor of Bhuvanekabahu VII, and it opened Ceylon to the missionary action of the Franciscan Capuchines from the Province of Piedade (see article on Missionary Action in Ceylon). During the 1540s, Portuguese interest over the several kingdoms of Ceylon grew. The latter included Sitawaka, Kandy, Jaffna, Sete Corlas and the chieftaincies of the eastern part of the island (Welasa, Bintenna, Batticaloa, Trincomalee). By that time, in Colombo, Cochin and Goa, the first plans for the conquest and for missionary action on the island were drawn, with the intent of developing it as a whole, mostly through dialogue with the sovereigns or alternative candidates to the local thrones.
After the death of Bhuvanekabahu VII in 1551, Viceroy Afonso de Noronha personally established a new garrison in Colombo, which was reinforced in 1554 and stood firm until 1656. The pillage of the main Buddhist temple of Kotte, the Temple of the Tooth of Buddha (Dalada Malingawa), under the orders of Noronha, mined the legitimacy of the new king Dharmapala (1551-97), causing a massive transfer of loyalties to the king of Sitawaka, Mayadunne (1521-81). The son of Mayadunne, Rajasinha I (c. 1581-93), would become the main lord of the lowlands which were formerly controlled by Kotte.
During 1550-80, the Portuguese presence was confined to a reduced territory, left from the kingdom of Kotte, whose siege demanded small - sized seasonal military raids with the goal of supplying the capital with perishable goods and others (the Kotte court was transferred to Colombo in 1565). King Dharmapala (1551-97) accepted to be baptized by the Franciscans in 1557, with the name of Dom Joao. In 1580, he signed a will through which he donated the kingdom of Kotte to the Portuguese crown by mortis causa. During the following decade, signs of renewed interest for Ceylon were shown by the latter. However, the sole fortresses on the island were the ones of Colombo and Mannar Island, which had been established after the campaign of Dom Constantino de Bragança to Jaffna (1560) with the purpose of controlling navigation through Palk Strait and protecting a small community of local Christians.
It was during the 1590s that the conquest of Ceylon actually started, under explicit orders from Lisbon and Madrid. In 1591, a first attempt to control the kingdom of Kandy by placing a Christian client in its throne - Dom Filipe Yamasinha - failed. In this same year, Andre Furtado de Mendonça would succeed in placing a king who favoured the Portuguese in the throne of Jaffa, Ethirimanna Cinkam (1591 - 1616). In 1593, the main enemy of Kotte, the king of Sitawaka, Rajasinha I, died and this opened the doors to new military campaigns. In the following year, Pero Lopes de Sousa, first captain-general of the conquest of Ceylon, managed to conquer the kingdom of Kandy and place Dona Catarina Kusumasanadevi, sister of Dom Filipe Yamasinha, in the throne. The expedition resulted in the disaster of Danture, which strengthened the power of Vimaladharmasuriya, a Bhuddist king (1591 - 1604), who married Dona Catarina in Kandy.
From 1594 to 1612, the general captaincy was occupied by Dom Jeronimo de Azevedo. In a first phase, they built forts in Ruwanwella, Galle and Uduwara. The death of king Dom Joao (1597) led to the formal integration of the kingdom of Kotte in the Catholic Monarchy of Filipe II, and it encouraged the authorities to invest in the conquest of territories lost throughout the 16th century and of other kingdoms in the island. In that same year, strong fortresses already existed in Galle, Matara, Kalutara, Negumbo, Chilaw, Gurubewila, Batugedara, Runwanwella, Kurwita/Delgamuwa and Sitawaka, along with palisades in Malwana and Kaduwela. With the conquest of the territories of Quatro and Sete Corlas (east and north of Colombo), they created fortresses in Menikaddawara, Damunugashima, Mottapuliya, Diyasunnata, Attapitiya, Deewala, Alawwa, Etgaletota, Katugampola and Pentenigoda. The new fortresses' system enabled the stabilization of the conquered territories and the blockage of the access to Kandy. In this same period, started the inventory of the lands of Kotte (first record dates from 1599 by the appointed treasurer of Ceylon; additional book between 1614 and 1617). In 1602, the Franciscan monopoly of the missions of Ceylon was broken, and the doors were opened to the Jesuit, Augustine and Dominican Orders. Nonetheless, in 1603, a failed expedition of Azevedo to Kandy (the "famous retreat") led to the disintegration of the first system of territorial dominion, subsequently recovered in 1605 while Kandy saw king Senarat (1604-35) rise to the throne. In the following years, consecutive attacks were made on Kandy territories, but their success did not last. A widespread rebellion from the population in the inner southeast, under the command of Nikapitiya Bandara (mid - 1610s), ended up forcing the Portuguese and the kingdom of Kandy to sign a peace treaty in 1617. According to the treaty's terms, the king of Kandy became a vassal of the Portuguese crown, even though it safeguarded its actual independence in conformity with the Singhalese practices of the previous century.
Prevented from investing in the conquest of Kandy, Constantino de Sa de Noronha pacified the lowlands (1618-21) and sent a naval expedition north, under the command of Filipe de Oliveira, who managed to seize the kingdom of Jaffna for the Portuguese India in 1619. After an unimpressive captaincy by Jorge de Albuquerque (1621-23), Sa de Noronha assumed the command in 1623 until his death in 1630. The years between 1623 and 1628 were of relative calmness in the lands of Kotte and Kandy. As a reaction to the arrival of the Dutch and Danish to the island, the Portuguese fortified Batticaloa and Tricomalee. They also reformed the fortifications of Galle, Malwana, Manikaddawara and Colombo (1620s). Two fortified towns were created for the Laskhari people in Peliyagoda and Muleriyawa. The missions were also widened, leading to the estrangement of large portions of the Singhalese population.
In 1630, Noronha advanced with the largest part of the Portuguese troops towards the kingdom of Uva, located in the mountains south of Kandy. They ended up surrounded and annihilated in what is known as the "disaster of Randeniwela". Consequently, Colombo suffered a siege of 16 months by the king of Kandy, which resulted in a new peace treaty in 1633. Breaking peace in 1638, general Diogo de Melo de Castro moved once again towards the highlands, and suffered a massive defeat in Gannoruwa. In that same year, the fortress of Batticaloa fell in the hands of the Dutch, who also conquered Trincomali (1639), Galle and Negumbo (1640). Negumbo would be recovered in 1641, but the Portuguese- Dutch truce, signed in that same year, complicated things. Between Colombo (Portuguese) and Galle (Dutch), the lands which produced cinnamon were property uncertain, and it took several years of complex negotiations, intertwined with military campaigns, to solve it. The definite end of truce happened in 1652 and it was a forewarning for the end of the Portuguese presence in the island. In 1655, the Dutch allied themselves to the king of Kandya, Rajasinha II (1635-87), and surrounded Colombo which fell in May 1656. Mannar Island ended up being lost in February 1658 and Jaffna in June of the same year.
Noteworthy is the fact that during the Dutch period (1658-1796), works of great importance were written in India about the history of Ceylon (Fernao de Queiroz, Joao Ribeiro). Simultaneously, there was the clandestine rekindling of the Catholic missions, as Fe. Jose Vaz, a Goan Oratorian, arrived in Jaffna in 1687. The dream about the return of the forces of Portuguese India to Ceylon survived throughout the 18th century, a period when the Creole Portuguese grew on the island as the language of the Christian communities considered as descendants of the Portuguese, known as "Portuguese Burghers". These existed mainly in Colombo, on the southeast coast of the island, and in Batticaloa, where it still exists today.
Bibliography:
ABEYASINGHE, Tikiri, Portuguese Rule in Ceylon 1594-1612, Colombo, Lake House, 1966. BIEDERMANN, Zoltán, A aprendizagem de Ceilão. A presença portuguesa no Sri Lanka entre estratégia talassocrática e planos de conquista de territorial, 1506-1598, diss. inédita, Lisboa, FCSH-UNL, 2006. FLORES, Jorge Manuel, Os Portugueses e o Mar de Ceilão, 1498-1543: Trato, Diplomacia e Guerra, Lisboa, Cosmos, 1998. SILVA, Chandra Richard de, The Portuguese in Ceylon 1617-1638, Colombo, H. W. Cave & Co., 1972. STRATHERN, Alan, Kingship and Conversion in Sri Lanka. Portuguese Imperialism in a Buddhist Kingdom, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007. WINIUS, George Davison, The Fatal History of Portuguese Ceylon. Transition to Dutch Rule, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1971.
Translated by: Marília Pavão
In the 1520s and 1530s, the Portuguese association with Ceylon was characterised by sporadic diplomatic contacts and by the consolidation of a community of several dozens of Portuguese in the kingdom of Kotte. Under growing military pressure from the neighbouring kingdom of Sitawaka, which had just experienced a sharing process after the death of Vijayabahu in 1521, Bhuvanekabahu VII (1521-51), king of Kotte, was compelled to sign a treaty which allowed for cinnamon trade, in addition to the payment of tributes, with profitable conditions for the Portuguese. In 1542-43, a delegation from Kotte visited Lisbon, consequently reinforcing the vassalage contract made in 1518. It also established young prince Dharmapala as the successor of Bhuvanekabahu VII, and it opened Ceylon to the missionary action of the Franciscan Capuchines from the Province of Piedade (see article on Missionary Action in Ceylon). During the 1540s, Portuguese interest over the several kingdoms of Ceylon grew. The latter included Sitawaka, Kandy, Jaffna, Sete Corlas and the chieftaincies of the eastern part of the island (Welasa, Bintenna, Batticaloa, Trincomalee). By that time, in Colombo, Cochin and Goa, the first plans for the conquest and for missionary action on the island were drawn, with the intent of developing it as a whole, mostly through dialogue with the sovereigns or alternative candidates to the local thrones.
After the death of Bhuvanekabahu VII in 1551, Viceroy Afonso de Noronha personally established a new garrison in Colombo, which was reinforced in 1554 and stood firm until 1656. The pillage of the main Buddhist temple of Kotte, the Temple of the Tooth of Buddha (Dalada Malingawa), under the orders of Noronha, mined the legitimacy of the new king Dharmapala (1551-97), causing a massive transfer of loyalties to the king of Sitawaka, Mayadunne (1521-81). The son of Mayadunne, Rajasinha I (c. 1581-93), would become the main lord of the lowlands which were formerly controlled by Kotte.
During 1550-80, the Portuguese presence was confined to a reduced territory, left from the kingdom of Kotte, whose siege demanded small - sized seasonal military raids with the goal of supplying the capital with perishable goods and others (the Kotte court was transferred to Colombo in 1565). King Dharmapala (1551-97) accepted to be baptized by the Franciscans in 1557, with the name of Dom Joao. In 1580, he signed a will through which he donated the kingdom of Kotte to the Portuguese crown by mortis causa. During the following decade, signs of renewed interest for Ceylon were shown by the latter. However, the sole fortresses on the island were the ones of Colombo and Mannar Island, which had been established after the campaign of Dom Constantino de Bragança to Jaffna (1560) with the purpose of controlling navigation through Palk Strait and protecting a small community of local Christians.
It was during the 1590s that the conquest of Ceylon actually started, under explicit orders from Lisbon and Madrid. In 1591, a first attempt to control the kingdom of Kandy by placing a Christian client in its throne - Dom Filipe Yamasinha - failed. In this same year, Andre Furtado de Mendonça would succeed in placing a king who favoured the Portuguese in the throne of Jaffa, Ethirimanna Cinkam (1591 - 1616). In 1593, the main enemy of Kotte, the king of Sitawaka, Rajasinha I, died and this opened the doors to new military campaigns. In the following year, Pero Lopes de Sousa, first captain-general of the conquest of Ceylon, managed to conquer the kingdom of Kandy and place Dona Catarina Kusumasanadevi, sister of Dom Filipe Yamasinha, in the throne. The expedition resulted in the disaster of Danture, which strengthened the power of Vimaladharmasuriya, a Bhuddist king (1591 - 1604), who married Dona Catarina in Kandy.
From 1594 to 1612, the general captaincy was occupied by Dom Jeronimo de Azevedo. In a first phase, they built forts in Ruwanwella, Galle and Uduwara. The death of king Dom Joao (1597) led to the formal integration of the kingdom of Kotte in the Catholic Monarchy of Filipe II, and it encouraged the authorities to invest in the conquest of territories lost throughout the 16th century and of other kingdoms in the island. In that same year, strong fortresses already existed in Galle, Matara, Kalutara, Negumbo, Chilaw, Gurubewila, Batugedara, Runwanwella, Kurwita/Delgamuwa and Sitawaka, along with palisades in Malwana and Kaduwela. With the conquest of the territories of Quatro and Sete Corlas (east and north of Colombo), they created fortresses in Menikaddawara, Damunugashima, Mottapuliya, Diyasunnata, Attapitiya, Deewala, Alawwa, Etgaletota, Katugampola and Pentenigoda. The new fortresses' system enabled the stabilization of the conquered territories and the blockage of the access to Kandy. In this same period, started the inventory of the lands of Kotte (first record dates from 1599 by the appointed treasurer of Ceylon; additional book between 1614 and 1617). In 1602, the Franciscan monopoly of the missions of Ceylon was broken, and the doors were opened to the Jesuit, Augustine and Dominican Orders. Nonetheless, in 1603, a failed expedition of Azevedo to Kandy (the "famous retreat") led to the disintegration of the first system of territorial dominion, subsequently recovered in 1605 while Kandy saw king Senarat (1604-35) rise to the throne. In the following years, consecutive attacks were made on Kandy territories, but their success did not last. A widespread rebellion from the population in the inner southeast, under the command of Nikapitiya Bandara (mid - 1610s), ended up forcing the Portuguese and the kingdom of Kandy to sign a peace treaty in 1617. According to the treaty's terms, the king of Kandy became a vassal of the Portuguese crown, even though it safeguarded its actual independence in conformity with the Singhalese practices of the previous century.
Prevented from investing in the conquest of Kandy, Constantino de Sa de Noronha pacified the lowlands (1618-21) and sent a naval expedition north, under the command of Filipe de Oliveira, who managed to seize the kingdom of Jaffna for the Portuguese India in 1619. After an unimpressive captaincy by Jorge de Albuquerque (1621-23), Sa de Noronha assumed the command in 1623 until his death in 1630. The years between 1623 and 1628 were of relative calmness in the lands of Kotte and Kandy. As a reaction to the arrival of the Dutch and Danish to the island, the Portuguese fortified Batticaloa and Tricomalee. They also reformed the fortifications of Galle, Malwana, Manikaddawara and Colombo (1620s). Two fortified towns were created for the Laskhari people in Peliyagoda and Muleriyawa. The missions were also widened, leading to the estrangement of large portions of the Singhalese population.
In 1630, Noronha advanced with the largest part of the Portuguese troops towards the kingdom of Uva, located in the mountains south of Kandy. They ended up surrounded and annihilated in what is known as the "disaster of Randeniwela". Consequently, Colombo suffered a siege of 16 months by the king of Kandy, which resulted in a new peace treaty in 1633. Breaking peace in 1638, general Diogo de Melo de Castro moved once again towards the highlands, and suffered a massive defeat in Gannoruwa. In that same year, the fortress of Batticaloa fell in the hands of the Dutch, who also conquered Trincomali (1639), Galle and Negumbo (1640). Negumbo would be recovered in 1641, but the Portuguese- Dutch truce, signed in that same year, complicated things. Between Colombo (Portuguese) and Galle (Dutch), the lands which produced cinnamon were property uncertain, and it took several years of complex negotiations, intertwined with military campaigns, to solve it. The definite end of truce happened in 1652 and it was a forewarning for the end of the Portuguese presence in the island. In 1655, the Dutch allied themselves to the king of Kandya, Rajasinha II (1635-87), and surrounded Colombo which fell in May 1656. Mannar Island ended up being lost in February 1658 and Jaffna in June of the same year.
Noteworthy is the fact that during the Dutch period (1658-1796), works of great importance were written in India about the history of Ceylon (Fernao de Queiroz, Joao Ribeiro). Simultaneously, there was the clandestine rekindling of the Catholic missions, as Fe. Jose Vaz, a Goan Oratorian, arrived in Jaffna in 1687. The dream about the return of the forces of Portuguese India to Ceylon survived throughout the 18th century, a period when the Creole Portuguese grew on the island as the language of the Christian communities considered as descendants of the Portuguese, known as "Portuguese Burghers". These existed mainly in Colombo, on the southeast coast of the island, and in Batticaloa, where it still exists today.
Bibliography:
ABEYASINGHE, Tikiri, Portuguese Rule in Ceylon 1594-1612, Colombo, Lake House, 1966. BIEDERMANN, Zoltán, A aprendizagem de Ceilão. A presença portuguesa no Sri Lanka entre estratégia talassocrática e planos de conquista de territorial, 1506-1598, diss. inédita, Lisboa, FCSH-UNL, 2006. FLORES, Jorge Manuel, Os Portugueses e o Mar de Ceilão, 1498-1543: Trato, Diplomacia e Guerra, Lisboa, Cosmos, 1998. SILVA, Chandra Richard de, The Portuguese in Ceylon 1617-1638, Colombo, H. W. Cave & Co., 1972. STRATHERN, Alan, Kingship and Conversion in Sri Lanka. Portuguese Imperialism in a Buddhist Kingdom, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007. WINIUS, George Davison, The Fatal History of Portuguese Ceylon. Transition to Dutch Rule, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1971.
Translated by: Marília Pavão