The Portuguese And The Dutch In India

For nearly a century, Portugal had a monopoly on the lucrative Eastern trade. She established trading settlements in Cochin, Goa, Diu, and Daman in India. The Portuguese combined the use of force with trade from the start. They were aided in this by the superiority of their armed ships, which allowed them to control the seas. Against the much more powerful land powers of India and Asia, a handful of Portuguese soldiers and sailors could maintain their position on the seas.

 

•    They also saw an opportunity to strengthen their position by exploiting the mutual rivalries of the Indian princes. 

 

•    They intervened in a dispute between the rulers of Calicut and Cochin over the Malabar Coast's trading centres and forts.

 

•    They attacked and destroyed Arab shipping from here, killing hundreds of Arab merchants and seamen in the process. 

 

•    They were able to secure many trading concessions from the Mughal Emperors by threatening Mughal shipping.

 

•    The Portuguese established their dominance over the entire Asian coast from Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to Malacca in Malaya and the Spice Islands in Indonesia under the viceroyalty of Afonso de Albuquerque, who captured Goa in 1510. 

 

•    They seized Indian lands along the coast and waged constant war to expand their trade and dominions and protect their trade monopoly from European competitors, not to mention piracy and plunder.

 

•    “The Portuguese followed their merchandise as their chief occupation, but, like the English and the Dutch... of the same period, had no objection to plundering when it fell in their way,” wrote James Mill, a famous British historian of the 19th century.

 

•    In religious matters, the Portuguese were intolerant and fanatical. They practised forcible conversion, offering people the choice of Christianity or the sword. This was particularly offensive to the people of India, where religious tolerance was the norm.” 

 

•    They also engaged in heinous acts of cruelty and lawlessness. Despite their barbaric behaviour, their Indian possessions survived for a century because they had control of the high seas, their soldiers and administrators maintained strict discipline, and they were spared the might of the Mughal Empire because South India was outside of Mughal influence. 

 

•    In 1631, they clashed with the Mughal power in Bengal, and were forced to flee their Hugli settlement. The English had already weakened their hold on the Arabian Sea, and their influence in Gujarat had dwindled by this time.

 

•    Portugal, on the other hand, was unable to maintain its trade monopoly or dominions in the East for long. It had a population of less than a million people, an autocratic and decadent Court, merchants with far less power and prestige than landed aristocrats, a lag in shipping development, and a policy of religious intolerance.

 

•    During the 15th century and the first half of the 16th century, the Portuguese and Spanish had left the English and the Dutch far behind. However, in the latter half of the 16th century, growing commercial and naval powers England and Holland, and later France, waged a fierce battle against the Spanish and Portuguese monopoly of world trade. 

 

•    In 1580, Portugal became a Spanish dependency. The English defeated the Spanish fleet known as the Armada in 1588, forever shattering Spanish naval supremacy. This allowed English and Dutch merchants to use the Cape of Good Hope route to India and thus participate in the East's race for empire. The Dutch eventually gained control of Indonesia, while the British gained control of India, Ceylon, and Malaya.

 

•    The Dutch had been dealing in Eastern produce for a long time, purchasing it in Portugal and selling it throughout Northern Europe. They developed better ships, scientific sailing techniques, and efficient business methods and organisation as a result of this. 

 

•    Their revolt against Spanish dominance in the Netherlands, as well as Portugal's merger with Spain, drove them to seek out alternative spice sources. Four Dutch ships sailed from the Cape of Good Hope to India in 1595. 

 

•    The Dutch East India Company was founded in 1602, and the Dutch States General — the Dutch parliament — granted it a charter authorising it to wage war, conclude treaties, acquire territories, and construct fortifications.

 

•    The Dutch were more interested in the Indonesian islands of Java, Sumatra, and the Spice Islands, where spices were produced, than in India. They quickly drove the Portuguese out of the Malay Straits and the Indonesian Islands, and defeated English attempts to settle there in 1623.

 

•    At the time, it appeared that the Dutch had successfully seized the most profitable segment of Asian trade. However, they did not completely abandon Indian trade. They also established trading depots in Gujarat (Surat, Broach, Cambay, and Ahmedabad), Kerala (Cochin), Madras (Nagapatam), Andhra Pradesh (Masulipatam), Bengal (Chinsura), Bihar (Patna), and Uttar Pradesh (Agra). 

 

•    They also took Ceylon from the Portuguese in 1658. Indigo, raw silk, cotton textiles, saltpetre, and opium were all exported from India. They, like the Portuguese, treated the Indians cruelly and ruthlessly exploited them.

 

•    The Asian trade piqued the interest of English merchants as well. The Portuguese's success, as well as the rich cargoes of spices, calicoes, silk, gold, pearls, drugs, porcelain, and ebony they carried and the high profits they made, piqued the interest of English merchants, who were eager to participate in such lucrative trade. 

 

•    They were, however, too weak to challenge the naval might of Portugal and Spain until the end of the 16th century. They looked for an alternative route to India for over 50 years without success. They gathered strength on the sea in the meantime. Drake sailed around the world in 1579. The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 resulted in the opening of the East Sea Passage.