Colonial History of Malabar
crazy_mallu
History of the Malabar Coast.
I have prepared a rather thin timeline of the History of colonial
Malabar. This is in no way a comlete list. Its still very much
incomplete. I am still in search of some dutch records to improve the
acuracy of this list.
One gentleman in this newsgroup reffered to Dutch and Protugese
influence as a "rape" of Malabar. If this statement is a reflection of
the attitude towards the History by our people then we are in grave
danger of forgeting our past. Nations that have forgotten their past
have sadly repeated it. A memory of hardship and oppresion should
never be forgotten by a nation. It should inspire them to appreciate
and uphold their soverignty.
The events that took place in Malabar during the 17th and 18th century
has helped our race of People to be immerge as a more intellectually
mature and culturally rich state. Lets understand this and learn from
the experience.
I have spent time learning about out people. About how significant
Malabar was during the 17th century. I have been shocked and amazed at
how much importance the Europeans attributed to Malabar.
Here is a list of Historical
1122 Last King of the Chera Kingdom, Cheraman Permual embraces Islam
and Leaves for Mecca.
1288(?) Marco Polo Visits Koulum (Quilon)
1440 Niccolo di Conti Visits Quilon, Cochin and Calicut
1487 Portuguese Traveller Pero de Covilham Visits Calicut
1498 June 18, Vasco Da Gama Arrives in Calicut. Guided by an Arab
guide by the name of Ibn Malindi
1500 Dec 24 First Portuguese ship calls on the Port of Cochin. The
Fleet Admiral was Pedro Alvares Cabral
1502 The Portuguese under the leadership of Vasco Da Gama are allowed
to build a fort and settle in Cochin. The Rajas of cochin utilized
them as a pivotal force to deal with threats from the Zamorins of
Calicut.
Syrian Christians, forming at that time a large proportion of the
population, now felt the weight of Portuguese ascendancy;
1503 Sep 27
Afonso D'Albequerque lays foundation to build a Fort in Cochin. The
first such fort in India built by Europeans. Duarte Pacheco Pereira,
the head of the Portuguese fleet, with 100 men and three ships, stays
in cochin to assist the King of Cochin. The Zamorins attack with
50,000 men and 300 ships to drive the Portuguese out of Cochin.
Pereira managed to protect the fort and drive back the Zamorins.
1504 The first church of Cochin, São Bartolomeu, is built.
1505 The Arabs and the Portuguese settlers battle at Quilon (Kollam)
1505 – 1508 The Portuguese Timbre Fort at Cochin upgraded to stone
fort. The First Portuguese Viceroy in India: Francisco de Almeida set
up his headquarters in Cochin. Waged battles with the Arabs and other
regional kings. Won the battle at Diu and became a major Colonial
power in the region.
1506 Dom Francisco Almeyda begins Constuction on Santa Cruz Church in
Cochin.
1509 Don Fernando Coutinho makes an unsuccessful attack on Calicut.
1510 January 4th Annoyed by constant hostilities Afonso D'Albequerque
attacks Calicut with 3000 troops, Plunders the Palace and burns the
town. The Portuguese suffers heavy casualities and was finally
repulsed. To secure a permanent foothold on the coast of India, he
took Goa in March, 1510, abandoning it two months afterwards, only to
return in November, when he took the place again, and held it
thereafter for the Portuguese.
1510 Afonso D'Albequerque builds a school. Afonso Alvares was the
teacher.
1510 Construction of Madre de Deus, a parish church, begins.
1511 Truce is reached between the Portughese and the Zamorins. A
fortified factory is built on the northern Banks of the Kalayi river
in Calicut
1517 - 1519 The Portuguese Build fort St. Thomas in Quilon
1520 The Fransiscans starts a school in cochin
1524 Dec 24 Vasco da Gama dies and is buried at the São Francisco de
Assis Church.
1525 The Portughese abandon the fortified factory in Calicut.
1555 The Jesuits build a large three storied college to the Madre de
Deus church in Cochin
1599 Archbishop of Goa, Menzes held a synod at at Udayamperur, a
village east of Cochin and proclaimed the Portughese Tenets as
heretical and their service books purged of all Nestorian phrases.
1615 An English expedition headed by Captain Keeling visits Calicut.
And negotiates a trade treaty with the Zamorins.
1658 Dec. 29 The Dutch capture the port of Kollam, Destroys all
Portuguese Churches except The Church of St. Thomas
1659 Apr 14 The Portuguese re-capture Kollam from the Dutch
1661 Feb 16 The Dutch capture the fort of Pallipuram (near Cochin)
1961 Dec 24 Another Dutch expedition under Ryckloff Van Goens conquers
Quilon.
1961 Jan 15 Ryckloff Van Goens captures Cannanore
1962 Feb 5 Dutch launches attack on the Portuguese fort in Cochin but
fails.
1962 Nov The Dutch surrounds the Portuguese fort in Cochin and hold
them under siege for three months.
1963 Jan 8 The Portuguese surrender the fort at Cochin to the Dutch.
The Portuguese domination of Cochin comes to an end. The Portuguese
churches continued in for another century.
1663 The British makes settlement in Cochin.
1663 The Dutch East india Company has 11 Military outposts in Malabar.
Allepy, Ayacotta, Cheramangalam, Pappinivattam, Ponnani, Pallipuram,
Cranganore, Cherruwaye, Cannorem Cochin and Quilon. The last two being
the most important ones.
1664 The English trade settlement arrives in Calicut. Zamorins honour
the treaty of 1615.
1682 1697 The Dutch destroy Portuguese forts in Cochin.
1698 The French arrive in Calicut.
1706 Sep A Lutheran Missionary, Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg along with
Heinrich Pluetshau arrives in Tranquebar on the southeast coast of
India. Their conversions were opposed both by Hindus and by the local
Danish authorities, and in 1707-8 Ziegenbalg spent four months in
prison on a charge that by converting the natives he was encouraging
rebellion.
1716 Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg sets up printing press and translates
the Bible into Tamil.
1752 The sultan of cananore sends out a raiding party to capture the
ilands of Maldives. Don Hassan Manik of Maldives Drives the invaders
back after four months of occupation.
1765 Hyder Ali attacks Calicut, expels all foreign trade settlers from
Calicut. Destroys the cocoa-nut trees, sandal-wood and pepper vines
making it unattractive for foreign traders to be in Calicut. In the
process also destroyed the economic stability of Calicut.
1791 Tippu surrenders Cochin to the British
1795 The British capture Cochin from the Dutch
1776 Hyder Ali Invades the state of Cochin and forces the Raja to pay
tribute.
1782 The British drive Hyder Ali and his army out of Calicut.
1788 Calicut Attacked by the Son of Hyder Ali, Tippu, and massacres
civilians in Beypore.
1806 Dutch buildings and fortifications are blown up by the British.
Several private buildings are also destroyed.
1795 Dutch Loose Quilon (Kollam) to the British
Earthlink -News
Excellent info! What were your sources in gathering this info. Do you
have the balance of the history?
regards,
Anil Thomas
--
Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/
crazy_mallu
of cultures that shaped the commercial and cultural topography of
Malabar. The Dutch and the Arabs. Several accounts by Dutch, Italian,
Portuguese and Arab merchant/travellers have greatly helped in
compiling these timelines. I am currently using ships journals and
captains logs of the Dutch Vessels that traded with Kollam, Cochin and
Calicut. These Journals hold a wealth of information that have not yet
been published in India. In fact there is more information about trade
in Malabar during 1600s in Dutch historical archives than anywhere I
have seen. Regrettably, we Indians do not share the same enthusiasm
about the History of Malabar as Europeans do. I do not have an
academic training in Indian History, I hope my dear readers will treat
this statement as my own personal view.
Many events have taken place during colonial precence in malabar that
helped mould our race of people into the special breed it is today.
Although this study is not intended to arrive at any specific
cunclusion, Its my means of knowing my people as others see it. So I
can better my understanding of them.
The timeline I posted earlier is only a skeleton to work with in
shaping a complete history.
Dutch archives of Mercantile activity in the region has been able to
shed new light on the history of Malabar. We have always had several
books written about Malabar and Kerala in general. The Europeans have
played the role of the villain in many of our history books. Which,
unfortunately, is the way we present history. Much of our early
history was written by British Historians, who cautiosly downplayed
the significance of other European settlers like the Fench Dutch and
Portuguese. The British East India Company has worked hard to
obliterate the Dutch and Portuguese cultural precence in Malabar by
destroying their constructions. Books written by Indian historians
have at times simply repeated the same passages written by the English
historians before them.
I thought it would be interesting to know what the rest of the world
actually thought of Malabar during the medeival period. How important
was this region? Did they occupy such an important role in
international commerce that countries in Europe would even risk war?
It may take a while before I know the answers. But I will keep it
posted on newsgroups. Which I believe will survive as a record for
posterity thanks to the good people at google.com.
Some of the books that I believe will shed light on the History of
Malabar are:
The Kulesekhara Perumals of Travancore. History and State Formation in
Travancore from 1671 to 1758 by Lannoy, M. de
Beschryving van oud en niew oost Indien
Dc Opkomst van het Nederlandsch Gezag in oost Indien by J. K. J. de
Jonge
Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the Beginning
of the Sixteenth Century , by Duarte Barbosa
Translated from Spanish by Stanley Hej. Reprint. First published in
1866, London. 1995, xx, 236 p., ISBN 8120610202
A True and Exact Description of the Most Celebrated East-India Coasts
of Malabar and Coromandel and Also of the Isle of Ceylon/Baldaeus
Philip. Translated from the High-Dutch printed at Amsterdam, 1672.
Reprint. First published in London in 1732.
Cosmas Indicopleustes (The Greek Indian explorer ) author of Christian
Topography
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH THE COUNTRIES OF MYSORE,
CANARA AND MALABAR, 1800, By Francis Buchanan
Earthlink -News <anilth...@earthlink.net> wrote in message news:<oprj848b...@news.earthlink.net>...
> > 1504 The first church of Cochin, São Bartolomeu, is built. 1505 The
> > Arabs and the Portuguese settlers battle at Quilon (Kollam)
> > 1505 â€" 1508 The Portuguese Timbre Fort at Cochin upgraded to stone
> > fort. The First Portuguese Viceroy in India: Francisco de Almeida set
> > up his headquarters in Cochin. Waged battles with the Arabs and other
> > regional kings. Won the battle at Diu and became a major Colonial
> > power in the region.
> > 1506 Dom Francisco Almeyda begins Constuction on Santa Cruz Church in
> > Cochin.
> > 1509 Don Fernando Coutinho makes an unsuccessful attack on Calicut.
> > 1510 January 4th Annoyed by constant hostilities Afonso D'Albequerque
> > attacks Calicut with 3000 troops, Plunders the Palace and burns the
> > town. The Portuguese suffers heavy casualities and was finally
> > repulsed. To secure a permanent foothold on the coast of India, he
> > took Goa in March, 1510, abandoning it two months afterwards, only to
> > return in November, when he took the place again, and held it
> > thereafter for the Portuguese.
> > 1510 Afonso D'Albequerque builds a school. Afonso Alvares was the
> > teacher.
> > 1510 Construction of Madre de Deus, a parish church, begins. 1511 Truce
> > is reached between the Portughese and the Zamorins. A
> > fortified factory is built on the northern Banks of the Kalayi river
> > in Calicut
> > 1517 - 1519 The Portuguese Build fort St. Thomas in Quilon
> > 1520 The Fransiscans starts a school in cochin
> > 1524 Dec 24 Vasco da Gama dies and is buried at the São Francisco de