Kandy and the VOC sign a military agreement

The WIC authorized a campaign to seize Curaçao from Spain. The decision was part of a wider project to control Caribbean ports, shipping, and strategic routes. Curaçao would later become a major Dutch...

Johan van Walbeeck’s WIC expedition took control of Curaçao. The conquest brought the island into a Dutch imperial system built around military power and Atlantic commerce. Indigenous Caquetío...

The remaining Spanish force on Curaçao capitulated to the Dutch. Dutch control of the island consolidated after the conquest, while Indigenous inhabitants faced displacement and coercive colonial...

The Portuguese garrison agreed to surrender Elmina Castle to the Dutch. The fort became a major center of Dutch trade and, later, the transatlantic slave trade. Its history must be read through...

VOC forces seized Batticaloa from the Portuguese with support from the Kingdom of Kandy. The alliance reflected Kandy’s own strategy against Portuguese power; Dutch expansion then used the foothold to...

The VOC took Trincomalee’s Portuguese fort, gaining a strategically important harbor. The conquest formed part of an alliance with Kandy but also expanded Dutch military and commercial power along the...

A four-day naval engagement between Dutch and Portuguese forces began off Pernambuco. The contest concerned control of Brazilian ports and sugar exports in a colony where plantation wealth rested on...

The VOC captured Negombo from the Portuguese during its campaign to control Sri Lanka’s coastal forts and cinnamon trade. The Dutch advance depended on Kandy’s alliance, but the resulting company...

Dutch troops landed near Galle as the VOC campaign against Portuguese power continued. The operation opened a path to one of the island’s most important ports and fortified settlements.

The Portuguese garrison surrendered Galle to the VOC after Dutch troops landed nearby. Galle became a key base of Dutch rule and cinnamon extraction, which rested on labor and knowledge of local...