Dutch Ceylon facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Dutch Governorate of Ceylon Nederlands-Ceylon
1640–1796
Flag Coat of arms
Dutch territorial expansion in Ceylon 1690.
Status	Governorate
Capital	Galle Colombo
Common languages	Sinhala, Tamil, and Dutch
Governor
• 1640–1640	Willem Jacobszoon Coster
• 1794–1796	Johan van Angelbeek
Historical era	Imperialism
• Established	13 March 1640
• Disestablished	16 February 1796
Preceded by Succeeded by Portuguese Ceylon Kingdom of Sitawaka Kingdom of Kandy British Ceylon
Today part of	Sri Lanka

Dutch Ceyoln was an entity that existed from 1640 to 1796. It is called ලන්දේසි ලංකාව Landesi Lankava in Sinhala. In the early 17th century, Sri Laka (which was called Ceylon at the time), was divided between the Portugese, and several local kingdoms. The kingdoms were fighting agains each other very often. Although the Portuguese were not winning the war, their rule was rather burdensome to the people of those areas controlled by them. At some point, the king of Kandy asked the Durch for help. The Dutch East India Company ran the country. Even though they managed to control large aras near the coast, they did not countrol the mountain areas and the Kandxan kingdom in the center of the iland. The Durch inteerest in Ceylon was to have a stornghold against the Iberians (Spanish and Portugese) at the time.

Images for kids

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  A map of the lands of the Habsburg kings in the period of personal union of Portugal (blue) and Spain (red/pink) (1580–1640)

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  Vimaladharmasurya I receiving Joris van Spilbergen, 1603

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  The Batticaloa fort, around 1665

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  The Dutch storm the fort of Galle in 1640.

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  Galle fort as seen from the bazaar, between 1640 and 1672

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  1681 map of Dutch Ceylon and the Kingdom of Kandy (North is on the left).

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  By 1688 the Dutch controlled the regions outlined in green and magenta.

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  Dutch Colombo, based on an engraving of circa 1680

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  View of the port of Galle in Ceylon in 1754.