Dutch Ceylon

Dutch Ceylon existed from 1640 to 1796. It is called Landesi Lankava in Sinhala.

Dutch Governorate of Ceylon Nederlands-Ceylon
1640–1796
Flag of Dutch Ceylon
Dutch territorial expansion in Ceylon 1690. Dutch territorial expansion in Ceylon 1690.
Status	Governorate
Capital	Galle Colombo
Common languages	Sinhala, Tamil, and Dutch
Governor
• 1640–1640	Willem Jacobszoon Coster
• 1794–1796	Johan van Angelbeek
Historical era	Imperialism
•	13 March 1640
•	16 February 1796
Preceded by Succeeded by 20px Portuguese Ceylon 20px Kingdom of Sitawaka Kingdom of Kandy 20px British Ceylon 20px
Today part of	Sri Lanka

In the early 17th century, Sri Lanka (which was called Ceylon at the time), was divided between the Portuguese, and several local kingdoms. The kingdoms were fighting against each other very often. Although the Portuguese were not winning the war, their rule was rather burdensome to the people of the areas they controlled. At some point, the king of Kandy asked the Dutch for help. The Dutch East India Company ran the country. Even though they managed to control large areas near the coast, they did not control the mountain areas and the Kandxan kingdom in the center of the island. The Dutch interest in Ceylon was to have a stronghold against the Iberians (Spanish and Portuguese) at the time.

Dutch Ceylon Media

• United States Navy Band - Het Wilhelmus (tempo corrected).ogg

  United States Navy Band - Het Wilhelmus (tempo corrected)

• 

  A map of the lands of the Habsburg kings in the period of personal union of Portugal (blue) and Spain (red/pink) (1580–1640)

• SpilbergenVimala.jpg

  Vimaladharmasurya I receiving Joris van Spilbergen, 1603

• AMH-6134-NA Bird's eye view of the fort of Batticaloa.jpg

  The Batticaloa fort, around 1665

• The Dutch Storm the fort of Galle - 1640.png

  The Dutch storm the fort of Galle in 1640.

• Galle fort as seen from the bazaar, between 1640 and 1672

• 1681 map of Dutch Ceylon and the Kingdom of Kandy (North is on the left).

• By 1688 the Dutch controlled the regions outlined in green and magenta.