royal library. Portugal eventually took over the entire west coast, then
the east, but the Kandyan kingdom in the central highlands steadfastly
resisted domination.
The Portuguese brought religious orders, including the Dominicans
and Jesuits. Many coastal communities converted, but other resistance
to Christianity was met with massacres and the destruction of temples.
Buddhists fled to Kandy and the city assumed its role as protector of the
Buddhist faith, a sacred function solidified by another three centuries of
unsuccessful attempts at domination by European powers.The Dutch
In 1602 the Dutch arrived, just as keen as the Portuguese on dominating
the lucrative traffic in Indian Ocean spices. In exchange for Sri Lankan
autonomy, the Kandyan king, Rajasinha II, gave the Dutch a monopoly
on the spice trade. Despite the deal, the Dutch made repeated unsuccess-
ful attempts to subjugate Kandy during their 140-year rule.
The Dutch were more industrious than the Portuguese, and canals
were built along the west coast to transport cinnamon and other crops.
Some can be seen around Negombo today. The legal system of the Dutch
era still forms part of Sri Lanka’s legal canon.The British
The British initially viewed Sri Lanka in strategic terms, and considered
the eastern harbour of Trincomalee as a counter to French influence in
India. After the French took over the Netherlands in 1794, the pragmatic
Dutch ceded Sri Lanka to the British for ‘protection’ in 1796. The British
moved quickly, making the island a colony in 1802 and finally taking over
Kandy in 1815. Three years later, the first unified administration of the
island by a European power was established.
The British conquest unsettled many Sinhalese, who believed that
only the custodians of the tooth relic had the right to rule the land. Their
apprehension was somewhat relieved when a senior monk removed the
tooth relic from the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, thereby securing it
(and the island’s symbolic sovereignty) for the Sinhalese people.
Sinhalese angst grew further when British settlers began arriving in
the 1830s. Coffee and rubber were largely replaced by tea from the 1870s,
and the island’s demographic mix was profoundly altered with an influx
of Tamil labourers – so called ‘Plantation Tamils’ – from South India.
(These ‘Plantation Tamils’ were – and still are – separated by geography,
history and caste from the Jaffna Tamils.) Tamil settlers from the North
made their way south to Colombo, while Sinhalese headed to Jaffna. Brit-
ish colonisation set the island in a demographic flux.European-
Era For ts
Batticaloa
Jaffna
Matara
TrincomaleeSunil S Amrith’s
Crossing the Bay
of Bengal: The
Furies of Nature
and the Fortunes
of Migrants tells
the human,
economic and
environmental
history of the bay
whose ‘western
gateway’ was
once Ceylon.1658
Following a treaty with
the Kandyan kingdom,
the Dutch, who arrived
in 1602, establish a
monopoly on the spice
market and wrest con-
trol of coastal Sri Lanka
from the portuguese.1796
The Netherlands,
under French control,
surrenders Ceylon to
the British. The shift
is initially thought to
be temporary, and the
British administer the
island from Madras,
India.1802
After the decline of
the Dutch, Sri Lanka
becomes a British
colony. The island is
viewed as a strategic
bulwark against French
expansion, but its
commercial potential is
soon recognised.1815
Determined to rule
the entire island, the
British finally conquer
the Kandyan kingdom.
It’s the first (and only)
time all of Sri Lanka is
ruled by a European
power.History
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