Colachel War
The Battle of Colachel (or The Battle of Kulachal) was fought on 10 August 1741 between the Indian kingdom of Travancore and the Dutch East India Company.
During the Travancore-Dutch War, King Marthanda Varma's (1729–1758) forces defeated the Dutch East India Company's forces led by Admiral Eustachius De Lannoy on 10 August 1741.
The Dutch never recovered from the defeat and no longer posed a large colonial threat to India.
Background:
In the early 18th century, the Malabar Coast region of present-day Kerala was divided among several smaller kingdoms.
In the 1730s, Marthanda Varma, the ruler of Travancore, adopted an expansionist policy, and conquered several territories from these small states.
This threatened the interests of the Dutch East India Company's command at Malabar, whose spice trade depended on procurement of spices from these states.
Marthanda Varma and his vassals refused to honour the monopoly contracts that the Dutch had with the states annexed by Travancore, adversely affecting the Dutch trade in Malabar.
Outcomes of Colachel War
Eventually led to the end of Dutch trade in Kerala.
It did decrease the morale of the Dutch forces as the native chiefs saw that the Dutch force could be defeated.
One significant outcome was that the Dutch prisoners offered their services who proceeded to modernise the Travancore army on European lines.
The newly trained Travancore army proved to be devastatingly effective during Marthanda Varma’s war against other kingdoms of Kerala.
The Dutch trained Travancore military would go on to conquer most of modern-day Kerala.
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