Battle of Colachel

Battle of Colachel
Part of the Travancore-Dutch War
Eustachius De Lannoy's surrender at the Battle of Colachel
Date August 10, 1741 Location Kolachel, India Result Decisive victory for the Kingdom of Travancore
Belligerents
Kingdom of Travancore	Dutch East India Company
Commanders and leaders
Marthanda Varma Ramayyan Dalawa	Eustachius De Lannoy
Strength
Travancore army	Unknown number of Dutch East India company troops, equipped with artillery
Casualties and losses
Light	Heavy, 24 officers including Eustachius De Lannoy captured

The Battle of Colachel (or Battle of Kulachal) was fought on 10 August 1741 [O.S. 31 July 1741] between the Indian kingdom of Travancore and the Dutch East India Company, during the Travancore-Dutch War. The Dutch never recovered from the defeat; and no longer posed a large colonial threat to India.

Almost all the pepper that the Dutch imported into their country came from the kingdom of Kayamkulam. When Marthanda Varma became king of the small kingdom of Venad, he started a policy of assimilating neighboring kingdoms into the new kingdom of Travancore. In a series of battles, Marthanda Varma annexed the kingdoms of Attingal and Quilon (now known as Kollam). On the pretext that the Rajah of Kayamkulam was involved in certain conspiracies against him, Marthanda Varma began a military campaign against Kayamkulam with the aim of incorporating the kingdom into Travancore.

This endangered the Dutch East India Company's interests since they feared that the British, who had already signed a treaty with Marthanda Varma, would gain the rights to the pepper trade in the Malabar area, thus ending the Dutch monopoly. With this threat to their commercial interests in view, the Dutch Governor of Ceylon Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff wrote to Marthanda Varma demanding that he should end the aggression against Kayamkulam. Marthanda Varma wrote back to Van Imhoff, ordering him not to interfere in matters that did not concern him.

In a subsequent meeting, Imhoff demanded that Marthanda Varma restore the annexed kingdom of Kayamkulam to its former ruling princess, threatening to invade Travancore should he refuse. Marthanda Varma countered that he would overcome any Dutch forces that were sent to his kingdom, going on to say that he was considering an invasion of Europe. Thus, the interview ended in tension and subsequently led to the Travancore-Dutch War. In 1741, the Dutch installed a princess of the Elayadathu Swarupam as the ruler of Kottarakara in defiance of the demands of Marthanda Varma. The Travancore army inflicted a crushing defeat upon the combined Kottarakara-Dutch armies and assimilated Kottarakara into Travancore, forcing the Dutch to retreat to Cochin. Following this, Marthanda Varma captured all of the Dutch forts in the area.

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