The long river of history is running endlessly, there are calm waves, there are also waves, let Xiaobian take you into history and understand history.
As a pearl in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka has always been coveted by South Indian forces, but it has always been able to repel enemy attacks again and again. After entering the Age of Discovery, the opponent was replaced by colonists from Europe. The Portuguese were the first to arrive. At this time, India was in the height of the Mughal Dynasty, and the Portuguese could only occupy some cities on the coast as bases. Compared with the many islands in Southeast Asia, it is not known which one to focus on, and Sri Lanka as a target is too obvious. In order to control the Indian Ocean, the Portuguese decided to concentrate their resources and take the entire island of Sri Lanka, which was isolated in southern India, but they did not do so.
By the time the Portuguese intervened in sri Lanka, the once-intact kingdom of Kot was in tatters. The Portuguese were able to establish the famous city of Colombo on the southwest coast and turn the kingdom of Kot into their puppets, eventually seizing the southwest coast region (green)
However, in the face of pressure from the Portuguese, the kingdom of Sitawaka, which was divided from the kingdom of Kot, also expanded rapidly to defend the independence of the nation. In 1582, the Kingdom of Stavaca merged with the Kingdom of Kandy (which had split off from the Kingdom of Kot in the 14th century), and in 1587, Stavaca almost unified the entire island and formed an alliance with the Tamils in the northern corner against the Portuguese.
King Mayedoun launched the Siege of Kot in November 1557 – November 1558 in an attempt to expel the Portuguese and annex Kotbenzong, but was defeated , which gave the Portuguese too much ambition.
With the support of their headquarters in Goa, India, the Portuguese intended to settle the Kingdom of Stavaka in one fell swoop.
The Battle of Mulleriava, which took place in May 1559, was considered the first major Portuguese defeat on the island of Ceylon. Due to the limited territory of the kingdom of Stavaca at this time, the brave and warlike Prince Rajanina had only a few thousand troops.
The Portuguese numbered more than 300, all well-equipped elite colonists, assisted by more than 2,000 Cote minions.
In the battle of the outpost, Stavaca's army suffered heavy losses and was suppressed by the intensive fire of the Portuguese. Prince Rajanina realized that the Portuguese had become less hostile, so he first adopted a defensive posture, drawing the Portuguese to the pass in the dense forest to defend the fortifications
The Portuguese offensive was thwarted, ammunition was depleted, and fatigued. They began to retreat, but were surrounded by the pursuing Prince Rajanina in the village of Mulelyava on the river, with no way to escape.
The Portuguese briefly thwarted the elephant attack of Stavaca's army, but eventually suffered a devastating blow, losing hundreds of Portuguese and thousands of minions, a total of 1600 killed (the Portuguese claimed to have lost 50, but not credible), and The Stavaca side counted the losses of the outpost battle, and the number of casualties was less than a thousand. The Portuguese governor of Colombo, João de Meneses, was almost spared.
Prince Rajanina was so famous that when he succeeded him as King Rajasinha I, he continued to expand the kingdom's territory, and by 1587 almost unified the entire island.
But when he gathered more than 20,000 soldiers and tried to wipe out the Portuguese forces on the island in one fell swoop, he suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Colombo because he was not good at attacking the stronghold, and after a year of siege, Portuguese reinforcements arrived, and at least 5,000 soldiers were wiped out by the Portuguese, and the kingdom of Stavaca was seriously injured.
After the death of Rojasingha I, there was civil unrest, and the nobles of all ethnic groups (including the Kandy nobles with indigestion in Stavaca) colluded with the Portuguese for power and profit. The Portuguese took the opportunity to frantically expand their power. By 1591, however, the Kot nobleman Vimal Dharma Surier, loyal to the Portuguese, had struck a blow against the Portuguese, expelling the Portuguese from the city of Kandy and abandoning Catholicism and establishing himself king of Kandy (presumably because Kandy was larger than Stahuaca).
In 1594, Portugal sent troops to capture the capital city of Sangatergala and made Princess Donna Gottilina the "Queen of Kandy". Soon, the Sinhalese army, which had come from the Low Lands to reinforce the Portuguese army, defected and, together with the Kandy army, completely annihilated the Portuguese army. Faced with the threat of the Portuguese, King Vimal Dharma Surier, while appealing to South India for help, actively prepared for war, forcing the Portuguese colonial authorities to slow down the annexation of Kandy. In 1594 and 1598, the king twice offered to Portugal to sign a peace treaty, both of which were rejected. In 1602, the Portuguese army launched another offensive. In 1603, the reinforced Sinhalese army defected again, and the Portuguese army returned to Colombo. Vimal Dharma Surier took advantage of the victory and captured several Portuguese forts.
From 1607 to 1615, the Portuguese army launched two attacks on Kandy every year, destroying farmland, slaughtering cattle, and burning farmhouses, but never won.
On 24 August 1617, King Senarat signed the Treaty of Kandy-Portugal with Portugal. In August 1630, Gustendino Desa led a massive invasion of the Uva region with 508 Portuguese soldiers and 5,000 Sinhalese soldiers. The king of Kandy avoided his sharp edge and, under the command of Prince Rajsingh, fought a decisive battle with the Portuguese army and completely annihilated the Portuguese army. The Sinhalese army took advantage of the victory and besieged the city of Colombo for several months.
On April 15, 1633, the King of Kandy signed the Peace Treaty with the Portuguese. In May 1638, Rajsingh II invited the Dutch fleet to the east coast and signed a treaty of cooperation in the expulsion of the Portuguese.
On 12 May 1652, the Dutch captured Colombo. In 1658, the Portuguese army was driven out of Jaffna, thus ending their rule on the island. But the Dutch were treacherous and reluctant to return the recovered territory to the Kingdom of Kandy. Rajsingh II was forced to retreat into the mountains. In 1670, the king launched an attack on the Dutch batteries and barracks, recovering large areas of territory and forcing the Dutch to stop military operations against the Kingdom of Kandy between 1679 and 1760. In 1739 Sri Vijayah Rajsinghe of South Indian descent ascended the throne and moved the capital to Kandy. From 1795 to 1796, the Netherlands and the British went to war several times, and the British replaced the Dutch rule in Colombo and coveted the entire island of Sri Lanka. In 1803-1805, the Great Boss Britain launched the First Kandy War, which was defeated by the Kandy military and civilians. In 1812, Robert Brownlegg became Governor-General of England. Like his predecessors, he was bent on conquering the Kingdom of Kandy and actively arming Indian and African soldiers. In May 1814, Kandy's Chief Minister of State, Ehelepol, launched an anti-imperial rebellion in Sapole Gemwa. King Sri Viglum Rajsingh sent the new Chief Minister of State to lead troops to suppress it, and Ehelepol immediately defected to the British when he saw that the situation was not good. Enraged, the king executed 47 rioters, 73 magistrates, and the wives and children of Ehelepole and Bousville. The king's unusual attitude and brutal manner of execution caused resentment among the broad masses of the Kandy people. On 10 January 1815, the British suddenly declared war on the Kingdom of Kandy, citing several minor incidents on the border where the Lowlands had been punished by the Kandy. Based on Ehelepol's offer, the British sent 3,000 soldiers from Colombo, Galle, Trincomalee, Matgrebwa and Migwa to Sangategrad in 8 corps. In early February, the new Chief Minister of State, Morrigot, defected to the British, and as a result the British captured the city of Kandy without resistance. It is hard to predict that the British took advantage of the infighting in the Kingdom of Kandy to easily annex the Kandy dynasty, which had resisted the three powers for more than two hundred years. The British also controlled Sri Lanka, the pearl of the Indian Ocean, and the control was constantly strengthened, first using the officials of the former Kandy dynasty to rule, and then boiling frogs in warm water to strengthen its despotism, and when the Sri Lankans reacted and wanted to resist, they were already trapped in it and could not resist. Since then, Sri Lanka has fallen into a colonial era of nearly 150 years. On 4 February 1948, Sri Lanka officially declared its independence and became a Dominion of the British Commonwealth, with the name ceylon.
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