Attack in Hooghly

Last updated
Attack in Hughli
Part of Dano-Mughal War
A View of Chinsura the Dutch settlement in Bengal.jpg
A View of Chinsura, the Dutch settlement in Bengal
Date1671
Location 22°54′N88°23′E / 22.90°N 88.39°E / 22.90; 88.39
Result Danish victory
Belligerents
Danish Colonial Merchant Ensign India.png  Danish India
Commanders and leaders
Danish Colonial Merchant Ensign India.png UnknownFlag of the Principality of Bengal (15th-18th century).svg Unknown
Strength
6500 men
Multiple ships
2 ships
Casualties and losses
1500 dead [lower-alpha 1] 2 ships destroyed

The Attack in Hooghly (Danish; Angrebet i Hooghly) was a Danish attack on two Bengali ships during the Dano-Mughal War in 1671. The Danes succeeded in blowing up the Bengali ships, and violence continued off the coasts of Kalingapatnam and Balasore.

Contents

Background

Danish trade routes and settlements in India during the isolation from Denmark, 1643-1669 Danish India 1643-1669.png
Danish trade routes and settlements in India during the isolation from Denmark, 1643-1669

In 1642 the Danish East India Company declared war on the Mughal Empire. [1] [2] Because of the Dano-Swedish Wars Denmark did not have the means to send any ships to Danish India, and relations were subsequently cut. [3] Relations with Denmark were reestablished in 1669 together with a new Danish East India Company. [4] At this point the war against Bengal was approved by the Danish government, yet urged the Danes in India to sue for peace if advantageous. [4] [5]

In 1672 king Christian V of Denmark (r 1670–1699) requested compensation for the losses of Danish vessels, though this request was never fulfilled by the Mughals. [4] This, along with other factors, made the Danes increasingly brazen, and the Danes even attacked Bengal itself in 1671. [4]

Expedition to Bengal

In 1672 a Danish force of 6500 men were brought to Hooghly. [6] 1500 of the men was lost due to the sinking of a barge on the Ganges River. [6] The Danish East India Company sold most of their goods to two local Bengali merchants; Rangsordas and Sonderdas. [6] They sold their goods to them as a compromise not to trade with others for the next couple of months. [6] At Hooghly the Danes noticed two Bengali ships, which were returning from a voyage to Ceylon. [6] The ships were driven towards land near Hooghly, and the Danes subsequently blew the Bengali vessels up. [6] [4]

Aftermath

The renewed violence continued during the following years. [4] In 1673 the Danes took a large Bengali ship of 170 cargoes near Balasore, and transported it to Tranquebar. This also happened to another ship which was carrying Maldivian cowries the same year. [4] [7]

See also

Notes

  1. Lost due to the sinking of a barge on the Ganges River

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danish East India Company</span> Defunct Danish trading company

The Danish East India Company refers to two separate Danish-Norwegian chartered companies. The first company operated between 1616 and 1650. The second company existed between 1670 and 1729, however, in 1730 it was re-founded as the Asiatic Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danish India</span> Former settlements and trading posts of Denmark and Norway on the Indian subcontinent

Danish India was the name given to the colonies of Denmark in the Indian subcontinent, forming part of the Danish overseas colonies. Denmark–Norway held colonial possessions in India for more than 200 years, including the town of Tharangambadi in present-day Tamil Nadu state, Serampore in present-day West Bengal, and the Nicobar Islands, currently part of India's union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Danish and Norwegian presence in India was of little significance to the major European powers as they presented neither a military nor a mercantile threat. Dano-Norwegian ventures in India, as elsewhere, were typically undercapitalised and never able to dominate or monopolise trade routes in the same way that British, French, and Portuguese ventures could.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portuguese settlement in Chittagong</span> 16th Portuguese trading port in Bangladesh

Chittagong, the second largest city and main port of Bangladesh, was home to a thriving trading post of the Portuguese Empire in the East in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Portuguese first arrived in Chittagong around 1528 and left in 1666 after the Mughal conquest. It was the first European colonial enclave in the historic region of Bengal.

Walter Clavell was an English administrator employed by the East India Company as Chief of the factories in the Bay of Bengal.

Gabriel Boughton was an East India Company (EIC) ship surgeon who travelled to India in the first half of the seventeenth century and became highly regarded by Mughal royalty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dano-Mughal War</span> Danish colonial conflict against the Mughal Empire

The Dano-Mughal War, formally Danish East India Company's War against the Mughal Empire, was a colonial and maritime conflict between the Mughal Empire and the Danish East India Company over trade commerce in the Bay of Bengal. Lasting from 1642 to 1698, the conflict has also been referred to by historians as the Dano-Bengali Thirty Years' War

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skirmish at Pipli</span> Confrontation between the Danes and Mughals in Pipli

The Skirmish at Pipli or more formally the Destruction of the Danish factory at Pipli, was one of the two recorded land confrontations between the Danish East India Company and the Mughal Empire during the Dano-Mughal War. The Skirmish was a Mughal punitive expidition in retalition for the Danish arrest of a Persian merchant. The Skirmish ended in a Mughal victory, and the Danish factory in Pipli was destroyed and burned down.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danish rescue mission to Pipli</span> Danish rescue mission in Bengal

The Danish rescue mission to Pipli refers to a rescue mission by the Danish East India Company to rescue, then recently, imprisoned Danes from Mughal imprisonment at the trading station of Pipely. The mission was successful and the six imprisoned Danes were freed. The mission can also be referred to as the Mission to pipli.

Loss of the <i>St. Jacob</i> Seizure of a Danish ship by Benglis

The Loss of the St. Jacob also referred to as the Seizure of St. Jacob was a destruction and seizure of the Danish merchant ship, St. Jacob, by local Bengali authorities. The loss and destruction of the ship and its crew, led to the Dano-Mughal War, which would last for 56 years.

The Dano-Mughal Treaty was a peace treaty between the Mughal Empire and Denmark–Norway ending the 56-year-long Dano-Mughal War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Dansborg (1644)</span> Siege in Tranquebar, India 1644

The Siege of Dansborg or the Siege of Fort Dansborg, was a short siege lasting from 20 to 30 December 1644, between general Tiagepule of Thanjavur and the Danish command at Fort Dansborg. The conflict started over the Danish rejection of the general's demand to tax Tranquebar, and as a result, a series of confrontations followed. The confrontations had no major result, and an armistice may have been signed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willem Leyel's siege of Dansborg</span> Siege of Fort Dansborg, 1644

The Siege of Dansborg alternatively the Siege of Fort Dansborg sometimes also referred to as Willem Leyel's siege of Dansborg, was a siege initiated by traveler and seafarer, Willem Leyel, against the men loyal to governor Bernt Pessart. The siege was concluded after the men at Dansborg opened the gates for Willem Leyel, surrendered and accepted Leyel as the new governor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roland Crappé's raids on Portuguese colonies</span> Danish raids in India and Sri Lanka, 1619

Roland Crappé's raids on Portuguese colonies refers to a series of raids by Dutchman in Danish service, Roland Crappé, on Portuguese Ceylon and India. The raids were partially unsuccessful, in that Crappé's ship, Øresund, caught fire and sank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skirmish at the Strait of Malacca</span> Skirmish between Danes and Dutch in Malacca, 1644

The Skirmish at the Strait of Malacca was a skirmish between the claimed governor of Tranquebar, Bernt Pessart, and the local authorities of Dutch Malacca. The confrontation led to the imprisonment or death of all of Pessart's crew and the confiscation of the vessel, Dend gode Haab. Although Pessart and his crew would later be released and cooperate with the Dutch to spy on the Spanish in Manila.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sieges of Tranquebar (1655–1669)</span> Sieges in Tranquebar, India 1655-1669

The Sieges of Tranquebar or the War between Tranquebar and Thanjavur refers to the warfare between the Thanjavur Nayak kingdom and Danish Tranquebar between 1655 – 1669. The Thanjavurian sieges were repelled, mainly due to the new fortifications being build around Tranquebar, and a peace agreement was issued in 1669.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conflict between Willem Leyel and Bernt Pessart</span> Conflict and Danish civil war in India, between 1643–1645

The Conflict between William Leyel and Bernt Pessart refers to the tensions and minor civil war between Willem Leyel and Bernt Pessart over the governorship of Tranquebar and the Danish East India Company. The conflict led to the escape of Bernt Pessart, and the command at Tranquebar accepted Willem Leyel as governor of Danish India.

Capture of <i>St. Michael</i> Capture of Bengali ship by the Danes in 1644

The Capture of St. Michael or the Seizure of St. Michael, was a Danish seizure of a Bengali ship in the Bay of Bengal. The Danes captured the Bengali ship and the vessel was subsequently incorporated into the Danish Navy given the name St. Michael.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Balasore</span> Battle between Mughals and Europeans in Balasore, 1647

The Battle of Balasore was an engagement between Bengali and English ships against Danish ships at Balasore. When the English failed to persuade the Danes, the Bengalis started attacking the English vessel, yet the English were rescued by the Dutch.

Roland Crappé or Roelant Crappé was a Dutch colonial official serving the Dutch and Danish East India Company. He became director general of the Ceylonese department of the Danish East India Company in 1618 and became commander in chief and governor of Tranquebar upon his second arrival in the East Indies in 1624. During his leadership new factories and offices were established and Danish trade went exceptionally well. He died in 1644 only a few years after his homecoming to Denmark.

References

Book sources

Websites