Portuguese Ceylon

E12377

Portuguese Ceylon was the period of Portuguese colonial rule over parts of the island of Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka) from the early 16th to mid-17th century, marked by control of coastal regions and the spice trade.


Statements (53)
Predicate Object
instanceOf Portuguese overseas possession
early modern polity
former colony
capital Colombo
colonialPower Kingdom of Portugal
conflictWith Dutch East India Company
Kingdom of Kandy
continent Asia
controlledAreaType coastal regions
country Portugal
didNotControl interior Kingdom of Kandy at most times
dominantColonialReligion Roman Catholicism
endDate 1658
endDateApproximate mid-17th century
endEvent expulsion of Portuguese by the Dutch and the Kingdom of Kandy
followedBy Dutch Ceylon
fortifications Colombo Fort
Galle Fort (early Portuguese fortifications)
Jaffna Fort
governedBy Portuguese viceroy in Goa
captain-major of Ceylon
governor of Ceylon
heritage Portuguese loanwords in Sinhala and Tamil
spread of Catholic communities in Sri Lanka
introducedLanguageContact Portuguese Creole in Sri Lanka
languageOfAdministration Portuguese
localLanguages Sinhala
Tamil
locatedIn Ceylon
locatedInPresentDay Sri Lanka
mainPort Colombo
Galle
Negombo
majorExport areca nut
cinnamon
elephants
pepper
partOf Portuguese Empire
precededBy indigenous Sri Lankan kingdoms
preExistingReligions Buddhism
Hinduism
Islam
primaryEconomicActivity spice trade
region South Asia
religionPolicy promotion of Roman Catholicism
startDate 1505
startDateApproximate early 16th century
startEvent arrival of Lourenço de Almeida in Ceylon
strategicImportance control of Indian Ocean trade routes
monopoly over cinnamon trade
successorState Dutch Ceylon
timePeriod Age of Discovery
early modern period


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