Travancore-Dutch War

The Travancore–Dutch War was a war between the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Indian kingdom of Travancore, culminating in the Battle of Colachel in 1741.

The seeds for the war were laid when the Raja Marthanda Varma of Travancore began expanding his small kingdom by entering into territorial disputes with his neighbours, the Kingdoms of Kayamkulam and Kollam in 1731. These disputes began impacting the Dutch East India Company since they had factories for exporting pepper in these areas, collectively known as Dutch Malabar.

The destruction of crops in the war made it difficult for the Kollam merchants to fulfill their agreements with the Dutch. By 1733, VOC pepper exports dropped to less than half the quantities of 1730-31.

To help the three kingdoms mediate, the VOC deputed their emissaries, William Feling, Abraham Van De Welle, Ezechiel Rhabbi and Brouwer to Kayamkulam in May, 1734 to negotiate with the Raja, but they were unsuccessful.

The annexation of Eleyadathu Swarupam, the largest pepper producing area in southern Kerala by Travancore, in 1737, made a confrontation between Travancore and the VOC inevitable. The advent of British traders in this market also made the price of pepper soar. All of this forced the VOC to engage the Raja and thus began, in 1739, the Travancore–Dutch war that led to the Battle of Colachel.

Marthanda Varma crushed the opposition to his rule in his state and then absorbed the Kingdom of Attingal. His next target was Quilon, whose ruler Unni Kerala Varma was an ally of Kayamkulam. The Kayamkulam Raja formed an alliance with the rulers of Cochin, Purakkad and Vadakkumkur against Marthanda Varma. In 1734, the ruler of Kayamkulam was killed in battle. Marthanda Varma moved against Kottarakara, the capital of the Elayadathy Swarupam. In 1739, Marthanda Varma refused to recognise the claim of the senior princess of the Kottarakara family to the succession, following the death of the chief of the Elayadathu Swarupam. She in turn, appealed to the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch were unhappy with the annexation of the kingdoms of their allies and a meeting between Marthanda Varma and the Dutch factor Van Imhoff aggravated the situation with Van Imhoff threatening to attack Venad and Marthanda Varma threatening to carry war into Dutch Indian territories. In 1741, the Dutch formally installed the princess as the ruler of Kottarakara. A combined Kottarakara-Dutch army was decisively defeated by Marthanda Varma's army and the state of Elayadathu was annexed.

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