Written by Marco Ramerini. Photos by Prof. Rahul Basu. Tangasseri or Thangassery / Kollam is a city located along the coast of the ancient Malabar, in the Indian state of Kerala in southern India. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in this port of Malabar, they landed there in 1502. In the following years Tangasseri or Thangassery / Kollam that the Portuguese called ...
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The Catholic mission in Bengal prior to the nineteenth century
Written by Prof. Stefan Halikowski Smith, Dept. of History, Swansea University. The Bengal mission was one of the most Christian successful mission-fields in the Orient in early modern times, despite relatively small numbers of active missionaries. However, the mission, despite its successes in ‘harvesting souls’, encountered bitter political vituperation between the two orders active here, the Augustinians and Jesuits, who ...
Read More »The Role of the Portuguese Language in Lusophone Asia
Written by Dietrich Köster Portuguese India/Estado da Índia Portuguesa – Goa, Daman/Damão and Diu Until the invasion of Nehru’s troops in December 1961 Portuguese was the official language, while after the annexation English received this status. The local languages Konkani in Goa and Gujarati in Damão and Diu only play a minor role in public life. Even during the Portuguese ...
Read More »India. List of Dutch colonial forts and possessions
Written by Marco Ramerini Under Costruction… INDIA: GUJARAT MAHARASHTRA Vengurla, Wingurla: Netherlands: trading office and fort 1638 – ? Source: Disney, A. “Twilight of the pepper empire” KARNATAKA Mangalore, Mangalor: KERALA Cochin: (Cochim, Cochin, Kochin, Couchyn, Couchin, Coutchin) Netherlands: 7/8 Jan. 1663 – 20 Oct. 1795 to the English Vypin: (Vypin, Baipin, Waipin, Vaipin) Ajengo: Netherlands: factory TAMIL NADU Negapatam: (Nagappattinam, Nagapatnam, Negapatnam) ...
Read More »India. List of Portuguese colonial forts and possessions
Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. INDIA: Diu: (20°43’N – 71°00’E) Forte or Castelo do Mar, Castelo de Diu or Fortaleza de São Tomé Portuguese: 21 Dec. 1535 fortress – 18/19 Dec. 1961 Leao “A Província do Norte do Estado da Índia” Island of Diu: Fortaleza de Nagoa (1744), Fortaleza de Brancavara (1774), Forte de Simbor, Forte de ...
Read More »India. Bibliography of Dutch Colonial History 17th-18th century
Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. DUTCH EMPIRE: INDIA INDIA, GENERAL: – Gupta, Ashin Das, “Merchants of maritime India, 1500-1800”, 326 pp., illustrations, Aldershot, Variorum, 1994, Brookfield, Vermont, USA. Contents: Preface: Indian merchants and the trade in the Indian Ocean, ca. 1500-1750; India and the Indian Ocean, 1500-1800: the story; The maritime merchant [of medieval India], ...
Read More »India. Bibliography of Portuguese Colonial History 16th-18th century
Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. PORTUGUESE EMPIRE: INDIA PAKISTAN: – Badalkhan, Sabir “Portuguese encounters with coastal Makran Baloch during the sixteenth century. Some references from a Balochi heroic epic” in: “Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society” Series 3, 10, 2 (2000) pp. 153-169 – Deus Ramos, Joao de “Merchants and missionaries: Portuguese settlements at the ...
Read More »Tranquebar: a Danish fort in India
Written by Marco Ramerini. Tranquebar (Tharangambadi) is a small village in Tamil Nadu in India located on the Coromandel coast about 30 km north of Nagapattinam. Tranquebar has the distinction of have been a Danish colony between 1620 and 1845. The Danes in 1620 founded the Fort Dansborg and made it their main trading settlement along the Indian coast. Tranquebar (Dansborg ...
Read More »Population of the Portuguese Settlements in India
Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. Diu: (20°43’N – 71°00’E) Damão Grande or Praça de Damão (Damão, Moti Daman or Daman): (20°25’N – 72°50’E) 1634: 400 “almas entre portugueses e nativos cristãos”. Source: Leão “A Província do Norte do Estado da Índia” 1662: 100 “casais portugueses”. Source: Leão “A Província do Norte do Estado da Índia” ...
Read More »Goa: the capital of Portuguese India
Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. Goa is situated on an island at the mouth of the Mandovi River. At the time of the arrival of the Portuguese in India, Goa was under the rule of the Sultan of Bijapur, for whom Goa was the second most important city. It was wealthy and possessed a grand ...
Read More »The Dutch in Malabar (Kerala), India
Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. In 1650 the VOC possessed only the unfortified factories in Kayamkulam and Cannanore. But at the end of the hostilities with the Portuguese in 1663 the Dutch became the new rulers of the Malabar Coast. They possessed military outposts at 11 places: Alleppey, Ayacotta, Cheramangalam, Pappinivattam, Ponanni, Pallipuram, Cranganore, Chettuwaye, ...
Read More »The Portuguese in Cochin (Kochi), India
Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. The city of Cochin (today: Ernakulam) was from the 24 December 1500, when the first Portuguese fleet called on its port, a firm ally of the Portuguese. The admiral of this fleet was Pedro Alvares Cabral (the discoverer of Brasil). The Rajah (king) of Cochin allowed, a “feitoria” (factory) to ...
Read More »Chaul a Portuguese town in India
Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. The Portuguese town of Chaul lies about 350 kilometers north of Goa and 60 kilometers south of Bombay (Mumbai) at the mouth of the Kundalika river near the village of Revdanda. Chaul was located on the low northern bank, opposed to a promontory on the south bank, which is called ...
Read More »The Portuguese in Bassein (Baçaim, Vasai): the ruins of a Portuguese town in India
Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. Bassein-Vasai (Baçaim) is situated at about 70 kilometers north of Bombay on the Arabian Sea. It lies on an island at the mouth of a river and was thanks to this position easily defensible. The city, which belonged to the Kingdom of Cambay, was a very important one before the ...
Read More »The Portuguese on the Bay of Bengal
Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. On the Bay of Bengal there was a rather peculiar form of Portuguese settlements. Indeed this coast was not conquered militarily like the Malabar coast, but was colonized pacifically by groups of “Casados” (married men of the reserve army), beginning in the 1520s. SÃO TOMÉ DE MELIAPORE (Madras) The main ...
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