Dutch Ceylon facts for kids

Dutch Governorate of Ceylon
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

Vimaladharmasurya I receiving Joris van Spilbergen, 1603
The Batticaloa fort, around 1665
A map of the lands of the Habsburg kings in the period of personal union of Portugal (blue) and Spain (red/pink) (1580–1640)
Galle fort as seen from the bazaar, between 1640 and 1672
1681 map of Dutch Ceylon and the Kingdom of Kandy (North is on the left).
By 1688 the Dutch controlled the regions outlined in green and magenta.
Dutch Colombo, based on an engraving of circa 1680
View of the port of Galle in Ceylon in 1754.