Dutch–Portuguese War: Difference between revisions

{{Infobox military conflict

| conflict = Dutch–Portuguese War

| image_size = 300px

| caption = Portuguese galleon fighting Dutch and English warships

| date = 1598–1663

'''Supported by:'''

{{plainlist |

*[[Potiguara]]

}}

'''Supported by:'''

{{plainlist |

*{{flag|Kingdom of England|name=England}} (sporadic)

*[[Johor Sultanate]]

*[[Ayutthaya Kingdom|Kingdom of Ayutthaya]]

*[[Kingdom of Kandy]]

*[[Kingdom of Kongo]]

*[[Kingdom of Ndongo]]

}}

| commander1 = {{plainlist |

*{{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} [[Fernando de Meneses, 2nd Count of Ericeira|F. de Meneses]]

*{{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} {{ill|Rui Freire de Andrada|pt|lt=Rui de Andrada}}

*{{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} {{ill|Nuno Álvares Botelho|pt|lt=Nuno A. Botelho}}

*{{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} Álvaro de Meneses

However, the conflict had little to do with the war in Europe and served mainly as a way for the Dutch to gain an overseas empire and control trade at the cost of the Portuguese. English forces also assisted the Dutch at certain points in the war (though in later decades, the English and Dutch would become fierce rivals). Because of the commodity at the center of the conflict, this war would be nicknamed the Spice War.

 

 

 

==Introduction==

 

[[File:DutchPortugueseWar1661.png|thumb|Map of the Dutch and Portuguese Empires following the war. <span style= "color:Blue;">Blue</span>: Dutch Republic. <span style= "color:Green;">Green</span>: Portugal.]]

The need of founding the VOC arose because, with the war with Spain and Portugal being united to Spain, the trade would now be directed through the southern Low Countries (roughly present-day Belgium), which according to the [[Union of Arras]] (or Union of Atrecht) were pledged to the Spanish monarch and were Catholic, as opposed to the Dutch Protestant north. This also meant that the Dutch had lost their most profitable trade partner and their most important source of financing the war against Spain. Additionally, the Dutch would lose their distribution monopoly with France, the [[Holy Roman Empire]], and Northern Europe.

 

The Portuguese Empire in the Indian Ocean was a traditional [[thalassocracy]] that had extended its reach to every major [[choke point]] in the ocean. Trade in the area corresponded also to a traditional triangular model whereupon small manufactures would be brought from Europe and traded in Africa for gold and several items, then these would serve to purchase spices in India proper which were then brought back to Europe and traded at immense profit which would be reinvested into ships and troops, to be sent eastwards.

[[File:AMH-6577-KB Bird's eye view of the city of Goa.jpg|thumb|Portuguese Goa in the late 16th century.]]

The [[Portuguese India|Portuguese State of India]], headquartered in [[Goa]], was a network of key cities which controlled the maritime trade in the Indian Ocean: [[Sofala]] was the base for Portuguese operations in East Africa and was supported by [[Kilwa]] to better control the [[Mozambique Channel]]; from here, the routes took the trade to Goa which was the hub for the rest of the operations and where the India convoy ships out of Europe arrived; from Goa, going northwards, the trade would be protected by the North and Adventurers Fleets all the way to [[Daman, India|Daman]] and [[Diu, India|Diu]] which oversaw the northern trade and the [[Gulf of Khambhat|Gulf of Cambay]]; while the Fleet of the North escorted merchant ships the Adventurers Fleet would also seek to disrupt the [[Mecca]] trade between northern India's Muslims and the [[Arabian Peninsula]]; the Diu fleet would then connect the trade to [[Hormuz Island|Hormuz]] which controlled the [[Persian Gulf]] routes and interrupted the [[Basra]]-[[Suez]] trade; southwards from Goa, the [[Kanyakumari|Cape Comorin]] fleet would escort the Goa merchants to [[Kozhikode|Calicut]] and [[Kochi|Cochin]] on the [[Malabar Coast]] and to [[Sri Lanka|Ceylon]] and the connection to the [[Bay of Bengal]]; in the Bay of Bengal, the most lucrative trade was on the [[Coromandel Coast]] where such settlements as [[São Tomé de Meliapore|São Tomé]] of [[Mylapore]] and [[Pulicat]] served as hubs; it was in the Coromandel and Ceylon settlements where the ships out of the [[Malacca]] route often laid anchor because they connected the Indian Ocean to the [[South China Sea]]; the Malacca fleet patrolled the [[Singapore Strait]] and the routes diverted to [[Sulawesi|Celebes]] and what is now [[Indonesia]] at large in the south, and northwards to [[China]] and [[Japan]]; China provided silk and china to [[Macau]] from where the "Silver Carrack" connected to Japan where several products were exchanged for Japanese silver.<ref name="Saturnino Battles">Saturnino Monteiro (2011) ''Portuguese Sea Battles'' Vol. V</ref>

 

===Casus belli===

[[File:The capture of the Portuguese carrack of St. Thomé.jpg|thumb|Dutch seizure of a Portuguese carrack traveling from [[Santhome|St. Thomé]] (India) to Malacca (Malaysia).]]

 

==Incursion into the East Indies: Batavia challenges Goa==

[[File:AMH-6472-KB Battle for Malacca between the VOC fleet and the Portuguese, 1606.jpg|thumb|Battle for Malacca between the VOC fleet and the Portuguese, 1606.]]

 

 

 

[[File:Goa Battle.png|thumb|Sea battle off Goa between the Dutch and Portuguese fleets in 1638]]

[[File:Battle at Goa.jpg|thumb|The blockade of [[Goa]]]]

 

 

[[File:Portuguese Malacca map.png|thumb|The strategic Portuguese fortress of Malacca, in Malaysia.]]

The Dutch found what they were looking for in [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]], conquered by [[Jan Pieterszoon Coen]] in 1619. The city would become the capital of the [[Dutch East Indies]].

 

For the next forty-four years, the two cities of Goa and Batavia would fight relentlessly, since they stood as the capital of Portuguese India and the VOC's base of operations. With the assistance of the [[Sultanate of Bijapur]] the Dutch would even attempt to [[Battle of Goa (1638)|conquer Goa]] itself, but Portuguese diplomacy defeated this plan.

 

 

After the [[Anglo-Persian capture of Qeshm|fall of Qeshm]] and [[Anglo-Persian capture of Hormuz|Hormuz]] to the Persians and English, the Portuguese struck out of their [[Muscat]] and Goa bases, which led to a destructive campaign against Persia's coastline and an alliance with [[Basra Eyalet|Ottoman Basra]]. Eventually, after a [[Battle off Hormuz (1625)|naval battle off Hormuz]] in 1625, Persia vied for a cease-fire with the Portuguese to be able to reestablish trade and provided Portugal with a trading post in [[Kong, Iran|Kong]]. Together with the reestablished Basra route, this temporarily made up for the loss of Hormuz. The pioneers of the destruction of the Portuguese and Spanish ''mare clausum'' doctrine were the [[Dutch East Indies|Dutch in portions of the East Indies]].

War between Philip's possessions and other countries led to a deterioration of the Portuguese Empire, as the loss of Hormuz to Persia, aided by England, but the Dutch Republic was the main beneficiary.

 

 

===VOC gains ground===

The Dutch established a [[Fort Zeelandia (Taiwan)|colony]] at Tayouan in 1624, present-day [[Anping District|Anping]] in the south of Taiwan, known to the Portuguese as Formosa and in 1642 the Dutch took northern Formosa from the Spanish by force.

 

 

In the aftermath of the destruction of the [[Treaty of Tordesillas|Tordesillas system]], Portugal had managed to retain Diu but not Hormuz. Goa and Macau had also survived but not Malacca. Nevertheless, the downfall of the Portuguese Indian empire was not territorial but economic: the competition of other European powers whose demographics were more numerous, access to capital easier, and access to markets more direct than Portugal's. Lisbon's distributive monopoly had been stolen from the Islamic world and accrued of more direct competition, it crumbled quickly.

[[File:Planta da Restituição da BAHIA, por João Teixeira Albernaz.jpg|thumb|right|[[Recapture of Bahia|"Map of the Portuguese liberation of the city of Salvador in Brazil in 1625"]], [[João Teixeira Albernaz, o Velho]], 1631.]]

 

 

The [[Dutch invasions in Brazil|Dutch invasion]] began in 1624 with the conquest of the then capital of the [[Governorate General of Brazil]], the city of [[Salvador, Bahia|São Salvador da Bahia]], but the Dutch conquest was short lived. In 1625, a joint Spanish–Portuguese fleet of 52 ships and 12,000 men rapidly [[Recapture of Bahia|recaptured Salvador]].

 

 

 

{{Main|Insurrection of Pernambuco}}

[[File:Victor Meirelles - 'Battle of Guararapes', 1879, oil on canvas, Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro.JPG|thumb|19th century painting of the Battle of Guararapes]]

===The recapture of Luanda and São Tomé===

[[File:Johannes Vingboons - 't eylant St. Thome (1665).jpg|thumb|The Island of São Tomé in 1665 by [[Johannes Vingboons]].]]

In 1648, the Portuguese governor of the captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, [[Salvador Correia de Sá]], organized a military expedition to [[Recapture of Angola|retake Luanda from the Dutch]], directly from Brazil. This is because the Portuguese were unable to send sufficient reinforcements to their colonies due to the ongoing [[Portuguese Restoration War|Restoration War]] in mainland Portugal.

 

{{Main|Treaty of The Hague (1661)}}

 

 

==See also==

* [[Dutch East India Company]]

* [[Dutch West India Company]]

** [[Anglo-Turkish piracy]]—[[Protestantism|Protestant]] sailors, including Dutchmen like [[Jan Janszoon]] or [[Sulayman Reis]], joined the [[Barbary pirates]] during this period in order to raid ships of the [[Iberian Union]].

** [[Liever Turks dan Paaps]]

{{Library resources box}}

* {{Cite book |last=Boxer |first=C. R. |title=The Portuguese Seaborne Empire 1415–1825 |date=1969 |publisher=A.A. Knopf |location=New York |oclc=56691 |author-link=C. R. Boxer}}

 

==External links==