Colonialism

Trincomalee 5 – The new Dutch occupation and the reconstruction of the Fort

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 ...

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Trincomalee 4 – The Dutch conquest and the abandonment of the Fort

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 ...

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Trincomalee 3 – The arrival of the Danes, the Dutch and the construction of the Portuguese Fort

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 ...

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Trincomalee 2 – The first contacts with the Portuguese

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 ...

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Trincomalee 1 – The History of Trincomalee during Portuguese and Dutch rule: Introduction

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 ...

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The Dutch Fort of Galle in Sri Lanka (Ceylon)

Dutch Fort, Galle, Sri Lanka. Author and Copyright Dietrich Köster

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 ...

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The Portuguese forts of Quelba and Corfacão (Khor Fakkan)

Portuguese forts of Quelba and Corfacão from Prof. Rui Carita Lyvro de Plantaforma das Fortalezas da Índia

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 ...

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The Portuguese fort of Matrah (Matara)

Portuguese fort of Matarâ (Matrah) from Prof. Rui Carita Lyvro de Plantaforma das Fortalezas da Índia

Situated in a natural harbour near the Oman capital Muscat, tha city of Matrah (Matara). The Portuguese built a fort in Matrah in 1588, the fort was part of the defenses of the city of Muscat. The Portuguese controlled the fort between 1588 and 1648. The fort at Matrah was a square fort with four bastions at the corners. For the image ...

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The Portuguese fort of Soar

Portuguese fort of Soar from Prof. Rui Carita Lyvro de Plantaforma das Fortalezas da Índia

The city of Sohar (24 ° 21’N – 56 ° 43’E) is located along the Omani coast about 200 km north-west of Muscat. The Portuguese came to Soar in 1507 and made ​​the city tributary. After several rebellions, the Portuguese retook the city in 1516 and again in 1523. The Portuguese fortified Soar probably between 1559 and 1561 building a square ...

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The Portuguese fort of Sibo

Portuguese fort of Sibo from Prof. Rui Carita Lyvro de Plantaforma das Fortalezas da Índia

Sibo (As Sib) (23°40’N – 58°12’E) is a coastal town located along the Oman coast 50 km north-west of Muscat, where the Portuguese in the 17th had a triangular fortress with bastions in the angles. Here a description of this fort extracted from António Bocarro “O livro das plantas de todas as fortalezas, cidades e povoações do Estado da Índia Oriental”: ...

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The Portuguese fort of Muscat (Mascate)

Portuguese fort of Mascate from Prof. Rui Carita Lyvro de Plantaforma das Fortalezas da Índia

The Portuguese first conquered and sacked Mascate in Oman in 1507. The Portuguese retained the control over Muscat for more than a century. The Turks conquered from the Portuguese Muscat on two occasions: in 1552 and in 1581-1588. The fortifications of Muscat were reinforced by Belchior Calaça in 1588 by order of the governor of Portuguese India Don Manuel de Sousa Coutinho. The fortifications ...

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The Portuguese forts of Mada and Libedia

Portuguese forts of Mada and Libedia from Prof. Rui Carita Lyvro de Plantaforma das Fortalezas da Índia

The two fortresses of Mada and Libedia were located along the eastern coast of the present United Arab Emirates. Libedia has been identified in the present town of Bidyah (25 ° 26’N – 56 ° 21’E) along the coast midway between Fujairah and Dibba. The two forts were square or rectangular shape with bastions at each corner. For the image ...

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The Portuguese fort of Doba

Portuguese fort of Doba from Prof. Rui Carita Lyvro de Plantaforma das Fortalezas da Índia

The fortress of Doba, probably the present town of Diba al Hisn (25 ° 36’N – 56 ° 17’E) today in the emirate of Al-Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, was a square fortress with round bastions and a tower in the center. The Portuguese controlled the city from 1624 to 1648. For the image thanks to Prof. Nuno Varela Rubim and ...

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The Portuguese forts of Curiate and Sidabo

Portuguese forts of Curiate and Sidabo from Prof. Rui Carita Lyvro de Plantaforma das Fortalezas da Índia

Curiate (Kuriyat/Qurayyat) is a town situated south-east of Muscat along the Oman coast. The Portuguese fortress of Curiate (Kuriyat/Qurayyat) was rectangular fortress built by the Arabs and conquered by the Portuguese in 1507. The fort was probably rebuilt in the last quarter of the 16th century. The Portuguese lost this fort in 1648. Here a description of this fort extracted from António ...

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The Portuguese fort of Borca

Portuguese fort of Borca from Prof. Rui Carita Lyvro de Plantaforma das Fortalezas da Índia

Borca was a Portuguese fortress that stood at 12 (?) leagues from Muscat along the coast of Oman. The fortress had a triangular shape with three bastions at the corners of the triangle. In the fortress lived a Portuguese captain with 8 Portuguese soldiers and 30 lascarins. Probably the Portuguese fort of Borca corresponds to the present city of Barka ...

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The Portuguese on the Persian Gulf and on the Arabian Peninsula

Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster The Portuguese decided shortly after their arrival in the Eastern Seas to prevent the Arabs’ trade by the conquest of Ormuz. For its strategical position, dominating the entrance to the Persian Gulf, Ormuz was one of the two strategical strongholds on the trade routes between the Arab world and Asia ...

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The Portuguese Forts in Oman

Jalali Fort, Muscat, Oman (photo © by Fritz Gosselck)

Written by Marco Ramerini. Photos by Fritz Gosselck and João Sarmento. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. Oman is a country rich in fortifications, some of these were built along the Omani coast by the Portuguese in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, often altered from the original forms several forts built or modernized by the Portuguese are still visible today. ...

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The Fort of Malacca: Portuguese-Dutch Fortress of Malacca (Melaka)

Written by Marco Ramerini. Photos by Krzysztof Kudlek. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. The city of Malacca was conquered by the Portuguese in 1511. Soon after the conquest of the city, which was the most important commercial port in Asia, Afonso de Albuquerque built a fortress to defend the new Portuguese possession. The first fort, “A Famosa”, was built ...

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Flor de la Mar (Flor do Mar), 1511. A shipwrecked Portuguese Galleon

Flor de la Mar, Maritime Museum, Malacca, Malaysia. Author and Copyright Krzysztof Kudlek

Written by Marco Ramerini. Photos by Krzysztof Kudlek. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. The “Flor do Mar” or “Flor de la Mar” was a Portuguese galleon of 400 tons, which was part of the fleet sent to conquer the city of Malacca in 1511. The vessel was built in Lisbon in 1502 and at the time of its construction it ...

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Dutch Graves in Macau

Dutch graves in the Protestant cemetery, Macau. Photo by Magiel Venema

Photos by Magiel Venema. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. The Dutch have never had control over the Portuguese colony of Macao. But despite this they have used this Portuguese outpost in China for their trade. This is evidenced by the numerous tombs Dutch in the two ancient cemeteries of the city: the Roman Catholic cemetery and the Old Protestant Cemetery. The Roman ...

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