In 1793, the
Kingdom of Great Britain and the
Dutch Republic went to war with the
French Republic, joining the ongoing
French Revolutionary Wars. Despite resistance from the
Dutch Army and a British expeditionary force, the Dutch Republic was overrun by the French in the winter of 1794–1795, the French reforming the country into the
Batavian Republic, a
client state of the French regime. Although war between Britain and the Batavian Republic had not been declared, the British government sent instructions on 19 January for Batavian shipping to be seized and, in conjunction with
Stadtholder William of Orange, living in exile in London, for Batavian colonies to be neutralised in order to deny their use to the French. On 9 February these orders culminated in the outbreak of war between Britain and the Batavian Republic. News of the conflict took some months to reach the East Indies, where British and French naval forces had fought an inconclusive campaign for control of the Indian Ocean trade routes since 1793. British forces, supporting those of the
East India Company, were principally operating from
Madras and
Calcutta in India, the French from their island bases of
Île de France (now
Mauritius) and
Réunion. Following an inconclusive engagement off
Île Ronde on 22 October 1794, the French squadron on Île de France had remained under
blockade at
Port Louis and thus most of the British naval forces in the East Indies were available for the campaign against the Batavian territories. Dutch colonisation of Ceylon did not span the whole island, which was mostly ruled by the interior
Kingdom of Kandy. European settlement was instead concentrated at coastal strips surrounding the significant ports of
Colombo on the west coast and
Trincomalee on the east, supplemented by smaller trading factories and settlements elsewhere. Trincomalee was particularly important as raiding forces based in the port could easily strike against British trade routes in the
Bay of Bengal, but the port had limited food supplies, poorly-developed facilities and a small garrison. This force was supported by a Royal Navy force led by Rainier in the ships of the line and , which sailed from Madras on 21 July.
Suffolk escorted a large convoy of East Indiamen transporting troops and supplies, augmented off
Negapatnam by additional reinforcements protected by the
frigates and . It was hoped by Stuart and Rainer that the Batavian governor
Johan van Angelbeek might be persuaded to allow a peaceful occupation of Ceylon by British forces, especially in light of the
Kew Letters from William of Orange, which advocated cooperation with British forces. A Major Agnew was sent ashore at Colombo to negotiate and his attempts to persuade van Angelbeek to allow 300 British troops to land at Fort Oostenberg, which overlooked Trincomalee, were successful. On arrival off the port on the eastern coast of Ceylon on 1 August however the commander of the defences refused to acknowledge the instruction, citing problems with the wording of the instructions. For two days attempts were made to convince the Batavian commander, the British position partially undermined by the wrecking of
Diomede in Trincomalee harbour after striking an uncharted rock. Although all of her crew and passengers were saved, large quantities of the frigate's military stores were lost. ==Invasion==