Realm
Portuguese-controlled territory in Asia, 16th–17th century
Portuguese Ceylon was the territory on Ceylon, modern-day Sri Lanka, controlled by the Portuguese Empire between 1597 and 1658.
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
Text from the Wikipedia article “Portuguese Ceylon”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Portuguese Ceylon (Portuguese: Ceilão Português; Sinhala: පෘතුගීසි ලංකාව; Tamil: போர்த்துக்கேய இலங்கை) was the territory on Ceylon, modern-day Sri Lanka, controlled by the Portuguese Empire between 1597 and 1658.
In Charles Nowell's History of Portugual, he explains the history of this possession:
Portuguese presence in the island lasted from 1505 to 1658. Their arrival was largely accidental, and the Portuguese sought control of commerce, rather than territory. They first started having connection with the Kindom of Kotte and were later drawn into the internal politics of the island with the political upheaval of the Wijayaba Kollaya, and used these internal divisions to their advantage during the Sinhalese–Portuguese wars, first in an attempt to control the production of valuable cinnamon and later of the entire island. Direct Portuguese rule did not begin until after the death of Dharmapala of Kotte, who died without an heir, and had bequeathed the Kingdom of Kotte to the Portuguese monarch in 1580. That allowed the Portuguese sufficient claim to the Kingdom of Kotte upon Dharmapala's death in 1597. Portuguese rule began with much resistance by the local population.
Eventually, the Kingdom of Kandy sought help from the Dutch East India Company, with whom they initially entered into agreement. In the Dutch–Portuguese War, the Dutch conquered of most of Portugal's Asian colonies, including Ceylon, between 1638 and 1658.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Portuguese Ceylon”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.