Tharangambadi, formerly Tranquebar, is a town in the Mayiladuthurai district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on the Coromandel Coast. It lies 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) north of Karaikal, near the mouth of a distributary named Uppanar of the Kaveri River. Tranquebar was established on 19 November 1620 as the first Danish trading post in India. King Christian IV had sent his envoy Ove Gjedde who established contact with Raghunatha Nayak of Tanjore. An annual tribute was paid by the Danes to the Rajah of Tanjore until the colony of Tranquebar was sold to the British East India Company in 1845.
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.
The Gunboat War was a naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and Great Britain supported by Sweden during the Napoleonic Wars. The war's name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small gunboats against the materially superior Royal Navy. In Scandinavia it is seen as the later stage of the English Wars, whose commencement is accounted as the First Battle of Copenhagen in 1801.
Danish India was the name given to the forts and factories 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 undercapitalized and never able to dominate or monopolize trade routes in the same way that British, French, and Portuguese ventures could.
HMS Russell was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 10 November 1764 at Deptford.
The second British Invasion of the Danish West Indies took place in December 1807 when a British fleet captured the Danish islands of St Thomas on 22 December and Santa Cruz on 25 December. The Danes did not resist and the invasion was bloodless. This British occupation of the Danish West Indies lasted until 20 November 1815, when Britain returned the islands to Denmark.
Danish Asiatic Company was a Danish trading company established in 1730 to revive Danish-Norwegian trade on the Danish East Indies and China following the closure of the Danish East India Company. It was granted a 40-year monopoly on Danish trade on Asia in 1732 and taken over by the Danish government in 1772. It was headquartered at Asiatisk Plads in Copenhagen. Its former premises are now used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The privateer brig Admiral Juel was the second largest ship in Denmark-Norway to be granted letters of marque during the Gunboat War between Denmark and Britain. The British Royal Navy captured her in a notable single ship action in 1808.
Hermann Abbestée was Danish governor of Tranquebar from 1762 to 1775 and the first royal governor of Danish India from 1779 to 1788. He served as one of the seven directors of the Danish Asiatic Company from 1775 to 1778 and was also active as a trader.
Arveprinsen af Augustenborg, also referred to as Prinsen(Printzen)af Augustenborg 0r Arve-Prindsen, was an East Indiaman of the Danish Asiatic Company, constructed in Copenhagen in 1789. She sailed on eight expeditions to the Danish India between 1789 and 1807. In January 1808, she was condiscated by the British in the Bay of Bengal.
The Cattle War also commonly referred to as the Perumal War or the Perumal Naik-War was a colonial conflict between the Danish East India Company and the Thanjavur Maratha kingdom over the Danish governor Hans Georg Krog's expansionistic foreign policy. The conflict started over the raiding of Danish cattle by the local supervisor of a small land district, Perumal Naik.
The Tillali Massacre, or the Battle of Tillali was a confrontation on 30 June 1756 during the Cattle War, between the Danish command at the village of Tillali (Thillaiyadi) and the Raja of Thanjavur, Pratap Singh. The confrontation resulted in a Thanjavurian victory and a subsequent massacre of most Danish troops. After the victory, the Thanjavurian army led a further invasion into Danish Tranquebar and besieged Fort Dansborg.
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.
The Siege of Dansborg or the Siege of Fort Dansborg, was a siege of the newly finished Danish fort of Dansborg in Trangebar in 1624. The siege was initiated by the nayak of Thanjavur, Raghunatha, because of the Danish rejection of the demands from the nayak. The Siege, laid by general Calicut, was abandoned after the arrival of Danish reinforcements from sea. The event is mostly described by Icelander, Jón Ólafsson, in his work The Life of the Icelander Jón Ólafsson, Traveller to India.
The Capture of Tranquebar or the Surrender of Tranquebar was a British takeover of the capital of Danish India, Tranquebar. The capture was quick and successful, with the Dano-Norwegian governor, Peter Anker, surrendering within the arrival of the British.
The plunder of Nancowry' or the Battle of Nancowry was the British capture of the Danish colony at Nancowry Island in 1805.
The Capture of Serampore, alternatively the Capture of Frederiknagore, was a British capture of the Danish colony of Serampore on 8 May 1801 during the English Wars. The British met no resistance, and could subsequently quickly capture the settlement.
The Capture of Serampore, also commonly known as the Second Capture of Serampure, was a siege and capture of the Danish colony of Serampore by British forces on 28 January 1808. The Danes capitulated immediately after the arrival of the British, as the latter's forces were far superior.
United Kingdom 
Denmark-Norway 
Thomas Caulfield
HDMS Nancy