Publication Date
2009
Categories
Tags period
Location
(Kannanur ou Kannur), a port city situated in the northern Malabar coast, was the site of one of the first Portuguese trading posts in this region, and remained under Portuguese dominion for over one and a half centuries. The city is located in what is currently the state of Kerala in the republic of India, at the coordinates 11º 51'19.00º N and 75º 21'41.82º E.

The Malabar region held a significant role in the production and exportation of spices, such as pepper. On a political level, at the end of the 15th century, it comprised a mosaic of small kingdoms, which despite being mainly Hindu, harbored important communities of islamized merchants. The Kingdom of Kolathunad, whose rajas belonged to the Kolathiri family, was found among these states. The region naturally favored stopovers by ships arriving in and departing from the Malabar Coast.

A prominent commercial port in this kingdom at the turn of the 16th century, the city of Cannanore, which was located a short distance from Valarpattanam, the political and cerimonial center of Kolathunad, was nevertheless surpassed at the regional level by the hegemony of the main spices trading post of Malabar, the city of Calicut.

This was the general picture that the Portuguese encountered when they arrived in the region. Sighted by Vasco da Gama´s fleet during his trip in 1498, Cannanore was first visited by a Portuguese fleet in January 1501 - Pedro Álvares Cabral´s ships - at the invitation of the local ruler. At the end of the same year, the fleet of João da Nova established a Portuguese presence in the city with the foundation of a trading post, which Vasco da Gama reorganized the following year, leaving Gonçalo Gil Barbosa as its overseer.

The Portuguese commercial establishment sought to take advantage of the opportunity to move the spice commerce out of Calicut. In fact, some spices abounded in the Cannanore region, especially ginger and cardamom, though pepper, which was considered the best of Malabar, was quite scarce. It was also a relatively important port, through which horses were imported to supply the armies of the Vijayanagar Empire. Before the arrival of the Portuguese, commerce in Cannanore was controlled by Muslim merchants, the Mappilas or "Mouros da Terra," who descended from marriages between Arab or Persian merchants and local women, usually from lower castes. Soon, the Mappilas, who dominated inter-Asiatic trade with the Maldives archipelago, informed the Kolathiri ruler of their opposition to the Portuguese presence in the city of Cannanore.

Due to this rivalry between the Portuguese and the Mapillas, the fleet of the future viceroy, Francisco de Almeida, was delayed in the city of Cannanore in October 1505. In light of the picture of tension presented by the overseer, Dom Francisco de Almeida entered into negotiations with the local ruler, seeking to build a fort that would defend the trading post. The construction of the fort started right away in 1505, on a large promontory some distance East of Cannanore, which overlooked the sea and dominated the bay. In this space a wall was built, to which was added a moat, defending the trading post/fort from land attacks.

The stronghold which was named Santo Ângelo Fort was already firmly in place when it was heavily sieged in May and August of 1507. The sieges were due to a succession in the Kolathiri dynasty, which resulted in an heir ascending the throne who was sympathetic to the interests of the Zamorin of Calicut and the Mappila community of Cannanore. The siege was overcome only with the aid of reinforcements, which motivated the sovereign to adopt a conciliatory position towards the Portuguese.

Heightened by the ambiguous position of the Hindu rulers of Kolathunad, latent conflict with Cannanore Muslim merchants soon became a structural given in Portuguese settlement of the region, influencing urban development. Consequently, Portuguese Cannanore was organized around the fort, which was dominated by the keep, near which the captain´s residence was located. The fort was reinforced in 1526, by order of Governor Lopo Vaz de Sampaio. The habitable area of the town was located east of the center of the compound, between the fort and the exterior wall, which was defended by the moat. In the 16th century it comprised around forty families of Portuguese "casados" [Portuguese men overseas who married local women] and thirty "casados da terra," native Christians. To the West, at the end of the promontory a wharf and a few significant buildings were located: the hospital, the warehouses storing the provisions and the ammunition, as well as a chapel. An area stretching to the outside of the walls of the Portuguese city, contained a mixed population mainly of Portuguese-Indians or Christianized natives, and a small Hindu fishing village.

Designated "bazar dos mouros" [market of the moors] in the Portuguese sources, the native city of Cannanore was centrally located at a distance from the Portuguese fort. Its main feature was a daily market to which came merchants of diverse origins, whose portuary activity paralleled that of the Portuguese trading post. During the 16th century, the merchants of the city´s Mappila community were able to establish an hegemonic commercial network comprising the harbor of Cannanore and the archipelagos of the Laquedives and Maldives. Its wealth and importance led to the emergence of the city as a new political center in Malabar: by the mid 16th century Cannanore and its surrounding coastal area were no longer under Kolathiri rule, as the first Muslim dynasty in the region, the Ali Rajas, was established. Cannanore was thus a city comprised of highly differentiated spaces. Although it did not always result in direct conflict, the latent tension between the Portuguese and the Muslims, was sustained for the one hundred and sixty years of Portuguese presence. In spite of this tension, the city maintained its position as a commercial emporium of medium importance, since the Portuguese took over the long-distance commerce of spices, especially ginger, while the Muslim merchants dominated the commercial networks of India. However, the importance of the port of Cannanore as an importer of Persian horses for the Vijayanagar empire, was eclipsed by Goa´s domain over this commerce from the decade of 1520.

The Portuguese presence in Cannanore was maintained until the second half of the 17th century. In the end, the Dutch would conquer the city - in 1663, the same year that Cochim fell - bringing Portuguese commercial influence in the Malabar coast to an end.

Bibliography:
BIEDERMANN, Zoltán, "Colombo versus Cannanore: Contrasting Structures of Two Colonial Port Cities (1500- 1700)" in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Volume 52, Number 3, 2009, pp. 413-459. BOUCHON, Geneviéve, Mamale de Cananor : un adversaire de l'Inde portugaise, 1507-1528, Geneve, Droz, 1975. CARRASCO, Carlos, "Cananor" in in Dicionário de História dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, vol. I, direcção de Luís de Albuquerque e Francisco Contente Domingues, pág. 185. JOHN, Binu Mailaparambil, The Ali Rajas of Cannanore: status and identity at the interface of commercial and political expansion, 1663-1723, [Tese de Doutoramento], Leiden University, 2007 [disponível em URL: https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/12488]. TEIXEIRA, André, Fortalezas. Estado Português da Índia. Arquitectura Militar na Construção do Império de D. Manuel I, Lisboa, Tribuna da História, 2008.

Translated by: Maria João Pimentel