Asia

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. PORTUGUESE EMPIRE: MIDDLE EAST ARABIA, PERSIAN GULF: – Al-Khalifa, Shaikh Abdullah Bin Khalid and Abahussain, Dr. Ali “Bahrain Through The Ages – Vol.2”, Historical Documents Centre, 1995, Bahrain 1 The Carmathians of Bahrain; 2 The Ayounis; 3 The Zenk and the Selgrids; 4 The Juboors; 5 The Portuguese; 6 The ...

Written by Marco Ramerini, Photos and Information by Michele Ziolkowski The town of Bidyah in the United Arab Emirates, is found midway along the coast between Fujairah and Dibba. According to the Portuguese souces, the Portuguese had in the area a fort called Libidia. A team consisting of Australian and local archaeologists excavated the area in 1999. The site of ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. After the failed attempt to conquer Macao in 1622 the Dutch settled on the Pescadores islands (building a fort in Makung) between Formosa and China. In 1624 a Chinese attack compelled them to move on to nearby Formosa. They founded the castle of Zeelandia in 1624 on an island near ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. THE DUTCH GOVERNORS OF CEYLON Willem Jacobsz COSTER 1640 Jan THIJSSEN 1640 – 1646 Joan MAETSUYCKER 1646 – 1650 Jacob van KITTENSTEYN 1650 – 1653 Adriaan van der MEIJDEN 1653 – 1662 Rijcklof van GOENS 1662 – 1663 Jacob HUSTAERT 1663 – 1664 Rijcklof van GOENS 1665 – 1675 Rijcklof van GOENS junior 1675 – 1679 ...

Written by Marco Ramerini For more information on the Journal of the Dutch Burgher Union of Ceylon you can contact: Victor Melder at: VICTOR MELDER SRI LANKA LIBRARY 7, Benambra Street Broadmeadows, Vic 3047 Australia Web site: www.vmsl-library.com The library has the entire set of the Dutch Burgher Union Journals, published from 1908 to date and also the indexes to the ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. DUTCH AND PORTUGUESE REMAINS IN NORTHERN SRI LANKA JAFFNA The Portuguese built the fortress Nossa Senhora dos Milagres in 1560. Jaffna was the last place in Portuguese hands in Ceylon. They lost it in 1658. The Dutch strengthened the fort around 1680. The old Dutch fort of considerable size with ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. The first Portuguese visiting Ceylon was Dom Lourenço de Almeida in 1505 or 1506. Accidentally, after a storm, adverse winds drove him to the island’s coast near Galle. In the last months of the years 1505 or 1506 Dom Lourenço’s fleet anchored off Colombo. A memorial of this first landing ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. The history of the Dutch in Ceylon began during the command of Admiral Joris van Spilbergen on 31 May 1602, when the first Dutch ships, which visited Ceylon, anchored off the port of Batticaloa. The Portuguese under Afonso de Albuquerque started right from the beginning with the experiment of a ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. COLOMBO: The city of Colombo, the main city of today’s Sri Lanka, was founded by the Portuguese. The first Portuguese attempt to settle in Colombo was done in 1518, when the Viceroy Lopo Soares de Albergaria landed in Colombo with a large fleet. Here the Portuguese soldiers began to build ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. Continued from: The first British occupation and the definitive Dutch surrender 9.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY CONSULTED MATERIAL You can also look for the sources quoted in the notes. SOURCES: – Various Authors “Livro das plantas, das fortalezas, cidades e povoações do Estado da Índia Oriental”, 1991 Codex n° 1471, Paço Ducal of ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. Continued from: The consolidation of the Dutch presence 8.0 THE FIRST BRITISH OCCUPATION AND THE DEFINITIVE DUTCH SURRENDER In December 1780 the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland declared war to The Netherlands. The news reached Ceylon in June 1781 and some preparations were made by the government of ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. Continued from: The French attempt 7.0 THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE DUTCH PRESENCE This period of instability resulted in a remarkable decrease of the volume of commerce, dealt with Trincomalee. The figures of this decline are inconsistent, but it seems that in the first ten years of Dutch occupation the commerce ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. Continued from: The new Dutch occupation and the reconstruction of the Fort 6.0 THE FRENCH ATTEMPT A new threat encumbered on the Dutch possessions of Ceylon, it materialized in March 1672 in the shape of a great French fleet, that of admiral de la Haye. In the years between 1665 ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. Continued from: The Dutch conquest and the abandonment of the Fort 5.0 THE NEW DUTCH OCCUPATION AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE FORT During the subsequent years it is likely that the Dutch maintained only a small fortified outpost in Kottiyar Bay 1, but also this is not sure. Sure is ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. Continued from: The arrival of the Danes, the Dutch and the construction of the Portuguese Fort 4.0 THE DUTCH CONQUEST AND THE ABANDONMENT OF THE FORT The first attack of the Dutch on the Portuguese forts of Ceylon was directed towards the eastern coast of the island, where the Portuguese ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. Continued from: The first contacts with the Portuguese 3.0 THE ARRIVAL OF THE DANES, THE DUTCH AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE PORTUGUESE FORT The strategic importance of the control over the bays and the ports on the eastern coast of Ceylon discovered, it was clear with the arrival of the ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. Continued from: Introduction 2.0 THE FIRST CONTACTS WITH THE PORTUGUESE A first interest of the Portuguese with regard to Trincomalee has been in the first years of the 1540s. All had begun, when the king of Kandy, Jayavira, on the advice of Nuno Alvarez Pereira 1, asked the Portuguese governor ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. INDEX: 1.0 The History of Trincomalee during Portuguese and Dutch rule: Introduction. 2.0 Trincomalee: The first contacts with the Portuguese. 3.0 Trincomalee: The arrival of the Danes, the Dutch and the construction of the Portuguese Fort. 4.0 Trincomalee: The Dutch conquest and the abandonment of the Fort. 5.0 Trincomalee: The ...

Written by Marco Ramerini. Photos by Dietrich Köster. The city of Galle is located along the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka, about 120 km south of Colombo. Here first the Portuguese, and then the Dutch had built a fort to control the bay. The Portuguese sacked Galle in 1587 and then in 1597 built a small fort on a hillock. In ...

The city of Khor Fakkan (Corfação) is located along the east coast of the United Arab Emirates (25°20’N – 56°22’E). Here, the Portuguese, around 1620, built a triangular fortress with triangular bastions and a round tower in the center. In the log book of the Dutch vessel the Meerkat (1666) we read: “Gorfacan is a place on a small bay, which has about ...