The Dutch-Portuguese War (1602-1661) was an international conflict fought between the United Provinces and the Portuguese Empire over profitable overseas trade routes. Beginning in 1602, the conflict primarily involved the Dutch companies invading Portuguese colonies in the Americas, Africa, India and the Far East. The war was an extension of the Dutch Revolt, as Portugal was in a dynastic union with Spain, the Dutch republic's enemy, until 1640. The result of the war was that Portugal won in South America (Dutch Brazil) and Africa with the recapture of Angola, and the Dutch were the victors in the Far East and South Asia. The war would lead to the creation of the new Dutch Empire, turning a small republic into a colonial power with control over several new trade routes; this would lead to a series of wars with England.
Background[]
Following the 1580 Iberian Union, Portugal came under Habsburg rule, and it was ruled in personal union with Spain. While the Spanish Empire and Portuguese Empire remained separate in theory, King Philip II of Spain banned all trade with the rebellious Dutch United Provinces amid the Dutch Revolt. The Dutch were cut off from the spice markets of Portugal as a result of the embargo, forcing the Dutch to set about forming their own overseas empire to source commodities and take control of the East Indies spice trade. In 1592, the English capture of 900 tons of merchandise from India and China aboard the Portuguese Navy galleon Madre de Deus off the Azores during the Anglo-Spanish War invigorated the Protestant world's interest in Asia. In 1602, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was founded to re-establish the spice trade, and it opposed the Portuguese, who established chokepoints across the Indian Ocean to control trade. The Portuguese controlled Indian trade from Goa, East African trade from Kilwa, the Persian Gulf from Hormuz, the Indonesian spice trade from Malacca, and Chinese and Japanese trade from Macau.
War[]
On 25 February 1603, three Dutch VOC ships seized the Portuguese galleon Santa Catarina, and its sale doubled the capital of the East India Company. This incident caused a diplomatic crisisi between the Low Countries and Portugal, and the Dutch resolved to break the Portuguese monopoly on trade in the Indian Ocean. In 1621, the English and Dutch aided in the Persian reconquest of Hormuz from the Portuguese, but, following a naval battle in the Persian Gulf in 1625, the Persians were forced to grant the Portuguese a trading post in Kong. This allowed for the Portuguese to continue dominating trade in the Persian Gulf region, a setback for the Dutch and English.
Meanwhile, the Dutch set up a new colony at Jakarta on Java in Indonesia, and they attained naval superiority after destroying the Portuguese fleet off Carracks Island in 1615. The crucial route between Goa and Macau was now severed, and the Dutch also blockaded Goa from 1604 to 1645. The Portuguese colonies were then isolated and picked off one by one, and the Dutch captured Ambon Island in 1605, only for the Dutch to fail in their attempt to capture Malacca in 1606 at the Battle of Cape Rachado, as well as in their 1607 and 1608 attempts to capture Fort Sao Sebastiao on the island of Mozambique. In 1638, the Dutch attempted to attack Goa itself with aid from the Sultanate of Bijapur, but Portuguese diplomacy defeated their plan. In 1624, after a Portuguese-led Spanish Navy fleet sacked a Dutch ship near the Siamese shoreline, King Songtham allied with the Dutch and ordered the attacks and seizures of all the Spaniards.
In 1640, the start of the Portuguese Restoration War against the Spanish led to England allying with the Portuguese against the Spanish, removing England and Spain from the Dutch-Portuguese conflict. The Dutch continued their war with the Portuguese even after the end of Habsburg rule over Lisbon, capturing Malacca from the Portuguese in 1641. While the war had often seen Dutch and English fleets attack Portuguese Macau, the Dutch failed to capture it four times. In 1624, the Dutch established a colony on the island before seizing the whole entire island from the Spanish in 1642. In 1638, the Dutch intervened in the Sinhalese-Portuguese War on Ceylon, allying with the Kingdom of Kandy. The Dutch captured Batticaloa in 1639 and Galle in 1640 before the Dutch-Kandyan alliance broke down, leading to triangular warfare. The alliance was remade in 1649, and the Dutch captured Colombo in 1656 and drove the last Portuguese from Ceylon in 1658. However, the Dutch were so focused on their empire in Indonesia that the rest of the Portuguese colonies, namely those in Brazil and Africa, persisted. The Dutch briefly captured Sao Salvador de Bahia in 1624 before the Spanish and Portuguese recaptured the city of 1625; the Dutch returned in 1630 and captured Olinda and Recife before establishing the colony of New Holland, but Portuguese guerrilla attacks held the Dutch at bay and fought back two Dutch attacks on Bahia in 1638. In 1641, the Dutch captured Sao Luis, but most of Dutch Brazil revolted in 1645, and they were expelled from Recife in 1654, ending the Dutch presence in Brazil. Meanwhile, the Dutch captured the Portuguese fortress of Elmina in Ghana in 1637 after a failed attempt back in 1626, and they also captured Sao Tome in 1641 and the Portuguese Gold Coast in 1642. In 1641, the Dutch formed a three-way alliance with Kongo and Ndongo and captured Luanda and Benguela from the Portuguese, but a Portuguese expedition from Brazil recaptured Luanda from 1648. The war between the Dutch and Portuguese ended with the 1661 Treaty of the Hague, with the Portuguese defending Brazil, Angola, East Africa, Goa, Ormuz, and Macau, and the Dutch conquering the Portuguese colonies in Ghana, Malacca, Ceylon, Taiwan, and Indonesia.