Beginning The Portuguese had arrived in Malabar in 1505, establishing their dominance over Far Eastern trade and frequently intervening in the internal affairs of the native princes of the region. Seeing the massive amounts of wealth generated by the Portuguese in India other European powers, including the Dutch, wanted to usurp the Portuguese from their privileged position. A challenge to Portuguese domination was signaled by the arrival of the Dutch with the 1595-1597 expedition of Cornelius de Houtman to the East. The Dutch later allied themselves with the Zamorin in 1661, capturing and handing over the fort of Pallipuram in the same year. An further opportunity came in 1658, when a succession crisis in the Kingdom of Cochin saw the pro Portuguese candidate become King. One of the claimants to the throne, Vira Kerala Varma, with the support of the Chief of Paliyam who was the Prime Minister of Cochin, came to the Dutch in Colombo and requested their help in expelling the Portuguese. The Dutch accepted and allied with the Chief and the Rajas of Thekkumkur and Vadakkamkur attacked the Portuguese settlements in Malabar. An expedition, under Admiral Van Goens arrived in Quilon, capturing the city on the 8th of December 1661. The terms of the capitulation were that all the unmarried Portuguese residents were returned to Europe, and all married Portuguese and Mestiços were transferred to
Goa. The forts of Cochin, Cannore and Quilon were to be handed over to the Dutch.
Battles for supremacy on Malabar in 1756. Before the conquest of Cochin Van Goens had signed a treaty with the Zamorin which promised the Dutch the exclusive right to purchase pepper in Calicut territory at market price in exchange for the island of Vypin. He later demanded the vassalisation of Cochin. However the Dutch, having established themselves in Cochin, rejected these demands. The Dutch signed a treaty in 1662 with the Raja of Travancore which gave them a monopoly over the pepper trade alongside the right to protect the Christians of Travancore. In exchange the Dutch would send the Raja 15,000 fanams per year alongside a number of guns. However, as the goal of the VOC was a complete monopoly of the pepper trade on the Malabar coast they needed to make agreements with all the Chiefs of the region. To this end they asked the Factor of Quilon, Captain Nieuhoff, to negotiate with all the rulers on the coast. This he did, making treaties with the rulers of Kayamkulam, Purakkad, Madathumkur, Travancore and Quilon. , built in 1744 for the commander of Dutch Malabar, is one of the oldest existing Dutch palaces outside of the
Netherlands. In 1669, Dutch Malabar became a separate commandment of the
Dutch East India Company (VOC); beforehand it had been governed from
Batavia. In 1670, the Zamorin of Calicut ruler was persuaded by his prince to go to Cranganore to encourage the Nairs. But, the Dutch made a surprise attack on the Zamorin's camp. Thirty Dutch lost their lives this raid, and in the confusion of the battle, the Royal Sword of Calicut was destroyed. The Calicut ruler fell back to Papinivattom, and the prince attacked the bastion and captured it. In 1673, VOC representative
Hendrik van Rheede came to Cochin as its Commander. He re-occupied the bastion and demanded the cession of Chetwai - the route to Cochin from Calicut. He came to Port Ponani in 1678 and met with the Calicut ruler. Tired of the hostility shown by most of the natives, the Dutch opened negotiations with Calicut. The Commissary General of Batavia, the head of the Dutch Government in the East Indies, came to Ponani in 1696 without even stopping at Cochin. In the meantime, Calicut formed a large anti-Dutch alliance and signed a new treaty with the English. In the following years, they made raids deep into Cochin areas (1701–1710). The Dutch supported their ally Cochin and began to construct a fort for the security of Chetwai. Soon, Calicut sent a force to pull down the fortifications and expelled the Dutch from Chetwai (1714). The Chief of the English factory had a great hand in promoting this. Calicut resolved to follow up on this success by attacking Cranganore and Pappinivattom. But, the Dutch under Councillor William Bucker Jacobs retaliated by defeating the Calicut and English armies and on 10 April 1719 the Dutch formally took command of
Fort William, as the fort at Chetwai was called then. This Cochin-Dutch victory was a heavy blow to the English and Robert Adams. The Dutch gradually began to consider their forts and garrisons in Malabar an economic burden, while the British East India Company dominance of commerce in Malabar increased. On 10 September 1691 the Dutch transferred Chetwai back to Calicut and reduced the size and strength of their forces across Malabar. The fear of Cochin-Dutch alliance began to fade in the minds of Calicut rulers. In 1721, the supreme council of the
Dutch East Indies in Batavia agreed that it would no longer support its ally Cochin against Calicut, betraying a century old friendship.
Defeat against Travancore and Kew Letters The Dutch never succeeded in establishing a pepper trade monopoly in Malabar and were all the more frustrated in their attempts when the young ruler of
Travancore,
Marthanda Varma, started to expand his kingdom. The
Travancore–Dutch War that followed culminated in the
Battle of Colachel, which proved disastrous for the Dutch.
Eustachius De Lannoy, a naval commander in the Dutch army, was taken prisoner and subsequently became a commander in the Travancore army. De Lannoy later helped Travancore to establish an organized army, introduce better firearms and artillery, and to build European style forts in his state. As a result of the
Kew Letters, Dutch settlements on the Malabar Coast were surrendered to the British in 1795, in order to prevent them from being overrun by the French. Dutch Malabar remained British after the conclusion of the
Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814, which exchanged the colony for
Bangka Island. ==Forts and trading posts==