Kandian Wars

Kandyan Wars
The Indian subcontinent on the eve of the Second Kandyan War; the entirety of Sri Lanka is shown as being under British control, when in fact the kingdom of Kandy endured in the mountainous interior.
Date 1796–1818 Location Kingdom of Kandy Result British victory End of 2357 years of Sinhalese independence
Belligerents
Kingdom of Kandy	British Empire
Commanders and leaders
King Vikrama Rajasinha	Hay MacDowall Adam Davy Colonel Barbut

British victory

The Kandyan Wars (or the Kandian Wars) refers generally to the period of warfare between the British colonial forces and the Kingdom of Kandy, on the island of what is now present day Sri Lanka, between 1796 and 1818. More specifically it is used to describe the expeditionary campaigns of the British Army in the Kingdom of Kandy in 1803 and 1815.

From 1638-58, the Dutch East India company had intervened in the Sinhalese–Portuguese War, capturing all the Portuguese possessions on the island of Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka). They established the colony of Dutch Ceylon, controlling the coasts and lowlands, whilst the Kingdom of Kandy maintained their independence in the mountainous eastern interior. In 1795 the Dutch Republic was overthrown with French assistance, forming the Batavian Republic as a puppet state. Britain, which was at war with France, feared that influence would result in French control or use of the strategically important port of Trincomalee and others on the island. Following the Kew Letters of 1795, the British occupied Dutch possessions in Sri Lanka. These included not only Trincomalee but Batticaloa, Galle, and Jaffna, as well as the entirety of Sri Lanka's lowlying coastal areas. The new colony of British Ceylon was determined to expand and control the entirety of the island, and had reformed traditional social structures like the caste system and the rajakariya (lit. "kingwork", labour and or tithes owed to the Kandyan king). This added to the tension between them and the still independent Kingdom of Kandy.

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