View source for Dutch–Portuguese War

{{Short description|Conflict for sea dominance from 1601 through 1661}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Dutch–Portuguese War
| image             = Slag bij Cadiz, SK-A-1367.jpg
| image_size        = 300px
| caption           = Portuguese galleon fighting Dutch and English warships
| date              = 1598–1663
| place             = [[Atlantic Ocean]], [[Northeast Region, Brazil|Northeastern Brazil]], [[West Africa]], [[Angola]], [[East Africa]], [[India]], [[Sri Lanka|Ceylon]], [[Myanmar|Burma]], [[Strait of Malacca]], [[Maluku Islands|Moluccas]], [[Mainland Southeast Asia|Indochina]], [[Macau]], [[Taiwan|Formosa]], [[Japan]]
| result            = [[Treaty of The Hague (1661)|Treaty of The Hague]]
| territory         = *Disestablishment of [[Portuguese Ceylon]], [[Portuguese Malacca]], [[Portuguese Gold Coast]], Portuguese Ambon, [[Portuguese Negapatam]], Portuguese Arguin, Portuguese Malabar, and Portuguese Tidore.
*Formation of the [[Dutch colonial empire]]
| combatant1        = '''{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Portugal|1578}}'''<hr>
'''Supported by:'''
{{plainlist |
*{{flag|Habsburg Spain|name=Spain}} (until 1640)
*[[Ming dynasty|Ming China]]
*[[Kingdom of Cochin]]
*[[Ormus|Kingdom of Hormuz]]
*[[Potiguara]]
}}
| combatant2        = '''{{flag|Dutch Republic}}'''<hr>
'''Supported by:'''
{{plainlist |
*{{flag|Kingdom of England|name=England}} (sporadic)
*{{flag|Kingdom of France|name=France}} (sporadic)
*[[Johor Sultanate]]
*[[Sultanate of Ternate]]
*[[Ayutthaya Kingdom|Kingdom of Ayutthaya]]
*[[Kingdom of Kandy]]
*[[Jaffna Kingdom]]
*[[Kingdom of Kongo]]
*[[Kingdom of Ndongo]]
*[[Tupis|Tupis of Rio Grande]]
}}
| commander1        = {{plainlist |
*{{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} [[Fernando de Mascarenhas|F. de Mascarenhas]]
*{{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} [[Matias de Albuquerque|M. de Albuquerque]]
*{{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} [[Martim Afonso de Castro|Martim A. de Castro]]
*{{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} [[Salvador de Sá]]
*{{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|António Teles de Meneses|pt|lt=A. de Meneses}}
*{{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} {{ill|Nuno Álvares Botelho|pt|lt=Nuno A. Botelho}}
*{{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} Álvaro de Meneses
*{{flagdeco|Portugal|1640}} Pedro da Silva
*{{flagdeco|Spanish Empire}} [[Luis Fajardo (Spanish Navy officer)|Luis Fajardo]]
*{{flagdeco|Spanish Empire}} [[Fadrique de Toledo, 1st Marquess of Valdueza|Fadrique de Toledo]]
*{{flagdeco|Spanish Empire}} [[Antonio de Oquendo]]
*{{flagdeco|Spanish Empire}} [[Lope de Hoces]]
*{{flagdeco|Spanish Empire}} Luis de Rojas
*Goda Varma I
*Veerarayira Varma
*Goda Varma II
*Veera Kerala Varma V
}}
| commander2        = {{plainlist |
*{{flagdeco|Dutch Republic}} [[John Maurice of Nassau|Maurice of Nassau]]
*{{flagdeco|Dutch Republic}} [[Piet Pieterszoon Hein|Piet Hein]]
*{{flagdeco|Dutch Republic}} [[Cornelis Matelief de Jonge|Cornelis de Jonge]]
*{{flagdeco|Dutch Republic}} [[Maarten Tromp]]
*{{flagdeco|Dutch Republic}} [[Rijckloff van Goens]]
*{{flagdeco|Dutch Republic}} [[Gerard Pietersz Hulft|Gerard Hulft]]
*{{flagdeco|Kingdom of England}} [[George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland|Earl of Cumberland]]
* [[Alauddin Riayat Shah II of Johor|Alauddin Shah II]]
* [[Abdullah Ma'ayat Shah of Johor|Abdullah Ma'ayat]]
* [[Abdul Jalil Shah III of Johor|Abdul Jalil Shah III]]
*[[Saidi Berkat|Said Syah]]
*[[Songtham]]
*[[Vimaladharmasuriya I|Vimaladharmasuriya]]
*[[Rajasinha II of Kandy|Rajasinha II]]
*[[Puviraja Pandaram]]{{KIA}}
}}
| campaignbox       = {{Campaignbox Dutch–Portuguese War}}
}}

The '''Dutch–Portuguese War''' ({{Lang-nl|Nederlands-Portugese Oorlog}}; {{Lang-pt|Guerra Luso-Holandesa}}) was a global armed conflict involving Dutch forces, in the form of the [[Dutch East India Company]], the [[Dutch West India Company]], and their allies, against the [[Iberian Union]], and after 1640, the [[Portuguese Empire]]. Beginning in 1598, the conflict primarily involved the Dutch companies and fleet invading Portuguese colonies in the [[Americas]], [[Africa]], and the [[East Indies]]. The war can be thought of as an extension of the [[Eighty Years' War]] being fought in Europe at the time between [[Habsburg Spain|Spain]] and the [[Dutch Republic|Netherlands]], as [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portugal]] was in a [[dynastic union]] with Spain after the [[War of the Portuguese Succession]], for most of the conflict.

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.

Portugal repelled Dutch attempts to secure [[Colonial Brazil|Brazil]], [[Portuguese Mozambique|Mozambique]] and [[Portuguese Angola|Angola]], but the Dutch disrupted the Portuguese trading networks in Asia, where they captured [[Portuguese Malacca|Malacca]], [[Portuguese Ceylon|Ceylon]], the [[Malabar Coast]], and the [[Maluku Islands|Moluccas]]. In Africa the Dutch conquered the [[Portuguese Gold Coast]].

Portuguese resentment at Spain, which was perceived as having prioritized its own colonies and neglected the defense of the Portuguese, the weaker member of the union, was a major contributing factor to Portugal shaking off Spanish rule in the [[Portuguese Restoration War]]. Moreover, the Portuguese claimed that the Iberian Union was a reason for the attacks on their colonies by the Dutch.

==Introduction==
The war lasted from 1598 to 1663, and the main participants were the [[Kingdom of Portugal]] and the [[Dutch Republic]].

Following the 1580 [[Iberian Union]], Portugal was throughout most of the period under [[House of Habsburg|Habsburg]] rule, and the Habsburg [[Philip II of Spain]] was battling the [[Eighty Years' War|Dutch Revolt]]. Prior to the union of the Portuguese and Spanish Crowns, Portuguese merchants used the [[Low Countries]] as a base for the sale of their spices in [[Northern Europe]]. After the Spaniards gained control of the [[Portuguese Empire]] though, they declared an embargo on all trade with the rebellious provinces (see [[Union of Utrecht]]). In his efforts to subdue the rebelling provinces, Philip II cut off the Netherlands from the spice markets of Lisbon, making it necessary for the Dutch to send their own expeditions to the sources of these commodities and to take control of the Indies [[spice trade]]. This followed the [[Capture of Recife (1595)|capture of Recife]] in which the Dutch assisted the English in capturing the Portuguese colony.

Like the French and English, the Dutch worked to create a global trade network at the expense of the Iberian kingdoms. The Dutch Empire attacked many territories in Asia under the rule of the Portuguese and Spanish including [[Spanish Formosa|Formosa]], [[Portuguese Ceylon|Ceylon]], the [[Spanish East Indies|Philippines]], and commercial interests in Japan, Africa ([[History of Gabon|Mina]]), and South America.

==Background==
In 1592, during [[Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)|the war with Spain]], an English fleet had captured a large Portuguese [[galleon]] off the Azores, the ''[[Madre de Deus]]'', loaded with 900 tons of merchandise from India and China, worth an estimated half a million [[Pound sterling|pounds]] (nearly half the size of English treasury at the time).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Roger |year=1986 |title=Early Modern Ship-types, 1450–1650 |url=http://www.newberry.org/smith/slidesets/ss06.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927060952/http://www.newberry.org/smith/slidesets/ss06.html |archive-date=2011-09-27 |access-date=2009-05-08 |publisher=The Newberry Library}}</ref> This foretaste of the riches of the East galvanized interest in the region.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Puga |first=Rogério Miguel |author-link=Rogerio Miguel Puga |date=December 2002 |title=The Presence of the "Portugals" in Macau and Japan in Richard Hakluyt's ''Navigations'' |url=https://redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=36100506 |journal=Bulletin of Portuguese/Japanese Studies |language=en |volume=5 |pages=81–116 |issn=0874-8438 |access-date=2022-03-26 |via=[[Redalyc]]}}</ref> That same year, Dutch merchants sent [[Cornelis de Houtman]] to Lisbon, to gather as much information as he could about the [[Maluku Islands|Spice Islands]]. In 1595, merchant and explorer [[Jan Huyghen van Linschoten]], having traveled widely in the [[Indian Ocean]] in the service of the Portuguese, published a travel report in [[Amsterdam]], the "Reys-gheschrift vande navigatien der Portugaloysers in Orienten" ("Report of a journey through the navigations of the Portuguese in the East").<ref>Van Linschoten, Jan Huyghen. ''Voyage to Goa and Back, 1583–1592, with His Account of the East Indies'': From Linschoten's Discourse of Voyages, in 1598/Jan Huyghen Van Linschoten. Reprint. New Delhi, AES, 2004, xxiv, 126 p., {{ISBN|81-206-1928-5}}.</ref> The published report included vast directions on how to navigate ships between Portugal and the East Indies and to Japan. Dutch and British interest fed by new information led to a movement of commercial expansion, and the foundation of the [[East India Company|English East India Company]] in 1600, and [[Dutch East India Company]] (''Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie'' or VOC) in 1602, allowing the entry of [[Chartered company|chartered companies]] in the so-called East Indies.

In 1602, the VOC was founded, with the goal of sharing the costs of the exploration of the [[East Indies]] and ultimately re-establishing the spice trade, which generated high profits in the new Dutch Republic and other European countries if the spices were bought at source and their supply could be controlled by a monopoly.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Israel |first=Jonathan |title=Dutch Primacy in World Trade 1585-1740 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1989 |isbn=0198227299 |location=New York}}</ref>

[[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).]]
At dawn on 25 February 1603, three ships of the VOC seized the ''[[Santa Catarina (ship)|Santa Catarina]]'', a Portuguese galleon. It was such a rich prize that its sale proceeds doubled the capital of the VOC. The legality of keeping the prize was questionable under Dutch statute and the Portuguese demanded the return of their cargo. The scandal led to a public judicial hearing and a wider campaign to sway public (and international) opinion. As a result, [[Hugo Grotius]] in ''The Free Sea'' (''[[Mare Liberum]]'', published 1609) formulated the new principle that the sea was international territory, against the Portuguese ''[[mare clausum]]'' policy, and all nations were free to use it for seafaring trade. The 'free seas' provided suitable ideological justification for the Dutch to break the Portuguese monopoly through its formidable naval power.

==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.]]

The Portuguese relied on four strategic bases in the East Indies: [[Old Goa|Goa]], [[Fort Nossa Senhora da Conceição|Hormuz]], [[Portuguese Malacca|Malacca]], and [[Portuguese Macau|Macau]]. The first served as the seat of Portuguese viceroys, head of all Portuguese possessions east of the Cape of Good Hope and connected India with Portugal proper; [[Ormus|Hormuz]] was a Portuguese protectorate, and the keystone of the Persian Gulf trade between [[Safavid Iran|Persia]], Arabia, [[Mesopotamia]], and rest of Asia and Africa. Malacca connected Goa to the [[Indian Ocean trade]] via [[Cape Comorin]] and [[Portuguese Ceylon|Ceylon]]; and Macau was the hub for the trade routes stretching from the [[South China Sea]] to the [[Sea of Japan]] and to the Spice Islands, east of [[New Guinea]] in [[Melanesia]]. The other locations were important but not crucial: including [[Diu, India|Diu]] along with [[Mumbai|Bombay]] (until the [[Marriage Treaty|English acquisition]]). These Indian cities controlled the approaches to the smaller [[Gulf of Khambhat|Gulf of Cambay]] and to the larger [[Arabian Sea]] as well.

If both Diu and Hormuz would fall, that would prevent the [[Middle East]]ern markets from being taxed by Portugal, which would deny [[Lisbon]] the revenue from the southernmost course of the silk route. It was a lucrative trade but not as essential to the Indian Ocean spice trade network at large.

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

However, the VOC suffered from the same weakness as Portugal: lack of manpower. Thus, a Spanish-style colonization effort was never feasible and only dominion of the seas would allow it to compete. The Portuguese had a century head start in the region and their empire allowed them access to converted and loyal local populations, which shored up inland, what naval power could not ensure at sea. Hence, the Dutch directed their efforts to the periphery of the Portuguese Empire. Avoiding the Indian coasts, they set up their own headquarters in [[Southeast Asia]], in the city of [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]] (modern-day [[Jakarta]]). This put them safely distant from Goa but opportunistically close to Malacca and the sea lanes connecting the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Many battles were fought but the most decisive ones fatally injured the Portuguese Indian empire. The Dutch blockade of Goa between 1604 and 1645 deprived Portuguese India from a safe connection to Lisbon – and Europe – for the remainder of the war.

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

In 1615, a battle off the coast of Malacca destroyed Portuguese naval power in Southeast Asia. The Portuguese lost their naval supremacy to the Dutch in the crucial route between Goa and Macau. The sieges of Qeshm and Hormuz by the combined forces of Persia and England have largely dislodged the Portuguese from the Middle East. The 1639 expulsion of the [[Jesuits]] ([[sakoku]]) and subsequently the Portuguese, from Nagasaki, also doomed the economic viability of Macau. The [[Siege of Malacca (1641)|siege of Malacca]] of 1641, after many attempts, delivered the city to the Dutch and their regional allies, crucially breaking the spinal cord between Goa and the Orient.<ref name="Saturnino Battles" />

Portuguese establishments were isolated and prone to being picked off one by one, but nevertheless the Dutch only enjoyed mixed success in doing so.<ref>Boxer (1969), p. 23.</ref> [[Ambon Island|Amboina]] was captured from the Portuguese in 1605, but an attack on Malacca, the [[Battle of Cape Rachado]], the following year narrowly failed in its objective to provide a more strategically located base in the East Indies with favourable monsoon winds.<ref>Boxer (1965), p. 189.</ref> In [[Siege of Mozambique (1607)|1607]] and [[Siege of Mozambique (1608)|1608]], the Dutch twice failed to subdue the [[Fort São Sebastião|Portuguese stronghold]] on the [[Island of Mozambique]], due to the close cooperation between the locals and the Portuguese.
[[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.

In fact, Goa had been under intermittent blockade since 1603. Most of the fighting took place in west India, where the Dutch campaign in Malabar sought to replace the Portuguese monopoly on the spice trade. Dutch and Portuguese fleets faced off for control of the sea lanes as was the case with the [[action of 30 September 1639]], while on mainland India the war involved more and more Indian kingdoms and principalities as the Dutch capitalised on local resentment of Portuguese conquests in the early 16th century.

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]].

In 1624, [[Fernándo de Silva]] led a [[Spanish East Indies|Spanish]] fleet to sack a Dutch ship near the Siamese shoreline. This enraged King [[Songtham]] of [[Ayutthaya Kingdom|Siam]], who held the Dutch in great preference and ordered attacks on the Spaniards.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tricky Vandenberg |title=History of Ayutthaya - Foreign Settlements - Portuguese Settlement |url=http://www.ayutthaya-history.com/Settlements_Portuguese.html |access-date=2013-10-20 |publisher=Ayutthaya-history.com}}</ref>

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.

In 1640, the Portuguese took advantage of the [[Reapers' War|Catalan Revolt]] and themselves revolted from the Spanish-dominated Iberian Union. From this point onwards the English decided instead to re-establish their alliance with Portugal.

===VOC gains ground===
[[File:Overwinningh van de Stadt Cotchin op de Kust van Mallabaer - Victory over Kochi on the coast of Malabar.jpg|thumb|The capture of [[Kingdom of Cochin|Kochi]] and victory of the V.O.C. over the Portuguese in 1663. Atlas van der Hem (1682).]]

[[File:Dutch and Portuguese in Asia c 1665.png|thumb|The primary Dutch and Portuguese settlements in Asia, c. 1665. With the exception of Jakarta and Deshima, all Dutch settlements had been captured by the Dutch East India Company from Portugal.<ref name="autogenerated1">Boxer (1969), p. 24.</ref>]]

Despite the Portuguese proclaiming themselves as hostile to the Spanish crown, the VOC nevertheless took the opportunity to wrench away the string of coastal fortresses that comprised the Portuguese Empire. Malacca finally succumbed in 1641.

Important battles also took place in the South China Sea, initially with combined fleets of Dutch and English vessels, and subsequently exclusively Dutch ships assaulting Macau. [[Battle of Macau|Dutch attempts to capture Macau]], to [[Sino-Dutch conflicts|force China to replace the Portuguese or to settle the Pescadores]] failed, in part because of the long-standing diplomacy between the Portuguese and the Ming, but the Dutch were ultimately successful in acquiring the monopoly of trade with Japan. Meanwhile, the Dutch were unable in four attempts to capture Macau<ref>Shipp, p. 22.</ref> from where Portugal monopolised the lucrative [[Nanban trade|China–Japan trade]].

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.

The Dutch intervened in the [[Sinhalese–Portuguese conflicts|Sinhalese–Portuguese War]] on Ceylon from 1638 onwards, initially as allies of the [[Kingdom of Kandy]] against Portugal. The Dutch conquered Batticaloa in 1639 and [[Siege of Galle (1640)|Galle]] in 1640 before the alliance broke down. After a period of triangular warfare between the Dutch, Portuguese, and Kandyans, the alliance was remade in 1649. After exploiting and then double-crossing their Kandyan allies, the Dutch were able to capture [[Colombo]] in 1656 and drove the last Portuguese from Ceylon in 1658. Sporadic warfare with Kandy continued for over a century.

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.

In all, and also because the Dutch were kept busy with their expansion in Indonesia, the conquests made at the expense of the Portuguese were modest: some Indonesian possessions and a few cities and fortresses in [[South India]]. The most important blow to the Portuguese eastern empire would be the conquest of Malacca in 1641 (depriving them of the control over these straits), Ceylon in 1658, and the Malabar Coast in 1663, even after the signing of the [[Treaty of The Hague (1661)|Treaty of The Hague]] in 1661.

==Brazil: Governorate General vs. GWC==
{{Main article|Dutch invasions of Brazil}}
[[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.]]

Surprised by such easy gains in the East, the Republic quickly decided to exploit Portugal's weakness in the Americas. In 1621, the [[Dutch West India Company]] (''Geoctroyeerde Westindische Compagnie'' or GWC) was created to take control of the sugar trade and colonize America (the [[New Netherland]] project). The GWC benefited from a large investment in capital, drawing on the enthusiasm of the best financiers and capitalists of the Republic. However, the GWC would not be as successful as its eastern counterpart.

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]].
[[File:Nicolaes Visscher - Pharnambuci (Pernambuco, Brazil).jpg|thumb|right|Dutch siege of [[Olinda]] and [[Recife]], the largest and richest sugar-producing area in the world.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Levine |first1=Robert M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R28K2JA9PM8C&pg=PA121 |title=The Brazil Reader: History, Culture, Politics |last2=Crocitti |first2=John J. |last3=Kirk |first3=Robin |last4=Starn |first4=Orin |year=1999 |isbn=0822322900 |page=121 |publisher=Duke University Press |access-date=21 September 2016}}</ref><ref name="Sugar">{{Cite web |title=Recife – A City Made by Sugar |url=http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/102005410 |access-date=21 September 2016 |publisher=Awake!}}</ref>]]

In 1630 the Dutch returned, and captured [[Olinda]] and then [[Recife]], renamed ''Mauritsstadt'', thus establishing the colony of [[Dutch Brazil|New Holland]]. The Portuguese commander [[Matias de Albuquerque]] retreated his forces inland, to establish a camp dubbed ''Arraial do Bom Jesus''.<ref>Saturnino Monteiro (2011) ''Portuguese Sea Battles Volume VI – 1627–1668'' p. 57.</ref> Until 1635, the Dutch were unable to harvest sugar due to Portuguese guerrilla attacks, and were virtually confined to the walled perimeter of the cities. Eventually, the Dutch evicted the Portuguese with the assistance of a local landlord named [[Domingos Fernandes Calabar]], but on his retreat to Bahia, Matias de Albuquerque captured Calabar at [[Porto Calvo]], and had him hanged for treason.<ref>Saturnino Monteiro (2011) ''Portuguese Sea Battles Volume VI – 1627–1668'' p. 127.</ref>

The Portuguese fought back two Dutch attacks on Bahia in 1638. Nonetheless, by 1641 the Dutch captured [[São Luís, Maranhão|São Luís]], leaving them in control of northwestern Brazil between [[Maranhão]] and [[Sergipe]] in the south<ref name="WJ47">Klein p. 47.</ref>

=== Insurrection of Pernambuco ===
{{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]]

[[John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen|John Maurice of Nassau]] was recalled from the governorship of New Holland in 1644 because of excessive expenditure and under suspicion of corruption. Mutual hostility between the Catholic Portuguese and Protestant Dutch, and harsh measures to collect from indebted land-owners who had their estates ravaged in the war, ensured that Portuguese settlers came to resent the authority of the new Dutch administration.

In 1645, most of Dutch Brazil revolted under the leadership of ''[[mulatto]]'' landowner João Fernandes Vieira, who proclaimed himself loyal to the Portuguese Crown. GWC forces were defeated at the [[Battle of Tabocas]], virtually confining the Dutch to the fortified urban perimeters of coastal cities, defended by contingents of German and Flemish mercenaries. Still in that year, the Dutch abandoned São Luís. The [[Second Battle of Guararapes]], in 1649, marked the beginning of the end of Dutch occupation of Portuguese Brazil, until their [[Recapture of Recife (1652–1654)|final expulsion from Recife]] in 1654.

==West Africa and Angola==
[[File:Johannes Vingboons - D Stadt Loandas Pauli (1665).jpg|thumb|17th-century Luanda]]

At the same time, the Dutch organized incursions against the Portuguese possessions in Africa in order to take control of the [[Atlantic slave trade]] and complete the [[triangular trade]] that would ensure the economic prosperity of New Netherland.

In 1626, a Dutch expedition to take [[Elmina]] was [[Battle of Elmina (1625)|almost wiped out in an ambush by the Portuguese]], but in 1637, [[Battle of Elmina (1637)|Elmina fell to the Dutch]]. In 1641, (after a truce between Portugal and the Netherlands had been signed), the Dutch captured the island of [[São Tomé Island|São Tomé]] and before the end of 1642, the rest of [[Portuguese Gold Coast]] followed.

In August 1641, the Dutch formed a three-way alliance with the [[Kingdom of Kongo]] and Queen [[Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba|Nzinga]] of [[Kingdom of Ndongo|Ndongo]], and with their assistance captured [[Luanda]] and [[Benguela]], though without preventing the Portuguese from retreating inland into strongholds like [[Massangano]], [[Ambaca]], and [[Muxima]]. With a steady source of slaves now secure, the Dutch abstained from further action, presuming that their allies would suffice against the Portuguese. Nonetheless, lacking firearms and artillery, Queen Nzinga and the Kongo proved unable to decisively defeat the Portuguese and their cannibalistic [[Imbangala]] allies.

===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.

In early August, the fleet reached Luanda, where de Sá communicated to the Dutch garrison that since the Dutch would not respect the terms of the truce, the Portuguese felt no obligation to do so either. Although the Portuguese were outnumbered, a swift display of force achieved on 15 August the surrender of Luanda and all Dutch forces in Angola. Upon hearing of the fall of Luanda, Queen Nzinga retreated to [[Matamba]], while the Dutch in São Tomé abandoned the island, which was reoccupied by the Portuguese later that year.

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

The Dutch, determined to recover or retain their territories, postponed the end of the conflict. Due to the [[First Anglo-Dutch War]], the Dutch Republic had been unable to properly support the WIC in Brazil. With the end of the conflict with the English, the Dutch demanded the return of the colony in May 1654. The [[County of Zeeland|Province of Zeeland]] had the most to gain from the return of the colony, but [[Johan de Witt]], the Grand Pensionary of [[County of Holland|Holland]], preferred a monetary compensation. He did not want to reoccupy the colony and prioritized stronger trading ties with the Portuguese. To compensate Zeeland and save face he demanded eight million guilders from Portugal. The Portuguese, however, refused to return the colony or to pay the indemnity.{{sfn|Rowen|1985|pp=291–292}}{{sfn|Israel|1995|p=738}}

In the aftermath of the war against the English the Dutch fleet was worn and weary, and not able yet to undertake major operations so the Dutch instead authorized privateering assaults upon the Portuguese. In 1657 the Dutch fleet was again fit for large operations and the war resumed.{{sfn|Rowen|1985|pp=291–293}} Between 1657 and 1661 Dutch fleets, besides operating in the [[Second Northern War]], regularly cruised before the Portuguese coast. Portuguese privateers also did considerable harm to Dutch West African and American shipping, but the blockades of the Portuguese coast crippled Portuguese maritime trade, while the VOC finished its conquest of Ceylon and the [[Dutch conquest of Malabar (1658-1663)|Malabar coast]] in India at the same time.{{sfn|Bruijn|2011|pp=72–73}}{{sfn|Blok|1928|p=147}}

In 1661 Portugal agreed to compensate the Dutch with eight million guilders and ceded the colonies of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and the Maluku Islands (part of present-day Indonesia). On August 6, 1661, the Dutch Republic formally ceded Brazil to the Portuguese Empire through the Treaty of The Hague.<ref name=":11">{{Cite web |date=2019-06-26 |title=Assinatura do Tratado de Haia oficializa devolução de território brasileiro a Portugal |url=https://history.uol.com.br/hoje-na-historia/assinatura-do-tratado-de-haia-oficializa-devolucao-de-territorio-brasileiro |access-date=2023-10-04 |website=UOL}}</ref>

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=48em}}
* [[Portuguese Empire]]
* [[Dutch Republic]]
* [[History of Portugal]]
* [[History of the Netherlands]]
* [[Dutch Brazil]]
* [[Dutch Loango-Angola]]
* [[Colonialism]]
* [[Dutch East India Company]]
* [[Dutch West India Company]]
* [[Sinhalese–Portuguese conflicts]]
* [[Acehnese–Portuguese conflicts]]
* [[Malay–Portuguese conflicts]]
* [[Portuguese–Safavid wars]]
* [[Ottoman–Portuguese confrontations]]
** [[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]]
** [[Ottoman embassy to Aceh]] - in response to the presence of Europeans in the Indian Ocean after the voyages of [[Vasco da Gama]] and others, the [[Ottoman Empire]] undertook a series of naval operations to project power, and protect the Sunni caliphate's merchants and pilgrims from Dutch and Portuguese privateers.
** [[Black Legend (Spain)]]
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
{{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}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book |last=Blok |first=P.J. |title=Michiel de Ruyter |publisher=Martinus Nijhof |year=1928 |language=nl|url=https://www.dbnl.org/arch/blok013mich01_01/pag/blok013mich01_01.pdf#page=147}}
* {{cite book |last= Bruijn |first= J. R. |date= 2011 |title= The Dutch Navy of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries |location = Oxford |publisher= Oxford University Press |isbn= 9780986497353 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AZBHDwAAQBAJ&q=%22north+Foreland%22}}
* {{cite book|last = Israel|first = J. I.|author-link = Jonathan Israel|date = 1995|title = The Dutch Republic: its rise, greatness, and fall, 1477–1806|publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]|isbn = 9780198730729}}
* {{cite book|last = Rowen|first = H. H.|date = 1985|title = John de Witt: statesman of the "True Freedom"|publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn = 9780521303910}}


==External links==
* [http://www.colonialvoyage.com/ Dutch and Portuguese colonial legacy throughout Africa and Asia ]
* [http://www.zum.de/whkmla/military/17cen/17cenindex.html Wars Directory]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070301172531/http://www.ancruzeiros.pt/anchistoria-comb-p4.html Naval Battles of Portugal (Portuguese)]
* [https://www.marinha.pt/pt/a-marinha/historia/combatesnavais Portuguese Armada's history of naval battles (Portuguese)]

{{Dutch colonies}}
{{Portuguese overseas empire}}
{{Transitional period topics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dutch-Portuguese War}}
[[Category:17th century in Angola]]
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[[Category:History of Malacca]]
[[Category:Kandyan period]]
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[[Category:Maritime history of Portugal]]
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[[Category:Wars involving England]]
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[[Category:Wars involving Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:Wars involving the Dutch Republic]]