Dutch-Portuguese War | |||||||
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Portuguese Armada vs Chartered Fleets |
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Belligerents | |||||||
Kingdom of Portugal Supported by: Crown of Castile (until 1640) Kingdom of Cochin Potiguara Tupis Ming China |
Dutch Republic Supported by: Kingdom of England (until 1640) Johor Sultanate Kingdom of Kandy Kingdom of Kongo Kingdom of Ndongo Rio Grande Tupis Nhandui Tarairiu Tribe |
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Pedro da Silva António Teles de Meneses Nuno Álvares Botelho Matias de Albuquerque Martim Afonso de Castro Fadrique de Toledo Osório Salvador de Sá |
John Maurice of Nassau Piet Pieterszoon Hein Cornelis Matelief de Jonge Adam Westerwolt Gerard Pietersz. Hulft Alauddin Riayat Shah II Abdullah Ma'ayat Shah Abdul Jalil Shah III Earl of Cumberland |
The Dutch–Portuguese War was an armed conflict involving Dutch forces, in the form of the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company, against the Portuguese Empire. Beginning in 1602, the conflict primarily involved the Dutch companies invading Portuguese colonies in the Americas, Africa, India and the Far East. The war can be thought of as an extension of the Eighty Years' War being fought in Europe at the time between Spain and the Netherlands, as Portugal was in a dynastic union with the Spanish Crown after the War of the Portuguese Succession, for most of the conflict. However, the conflict had little to do with the war in Europe and served mainly as a way for the Dutch to gain an overseas empire and control trade at the cost of the Portuguese. English forces also assisted the Dutch at certain points in the war (though in later decades, English and Dutch would become fierce rivals).
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. English ambitions also greatly benefited from the long-standing war between its two main rivals in the Far East.
This war lasted from 1602 to 1663. The main antagonists were the polity of Portugal and that of the Netherlands.
Following the 1580 Iberian Union, Portugal was throughout most of the period under Habsburg rule, and the Habsburg Philip II of Spain was battling the Dutch Revolt. In his efforts to subdue the rebelling provinces, Philip II cut off the Netherlands from the spice markets of Lisbon, making it necessary for the Dutch to send their own expeditions to the sources of these commodities and to take control of the Indies spice trade.