Dutch capture Quilon

In 1650s the Dutch possessed only the unfortified factories at Kayamkulam and Cannanore. They took Quilon on 29 December 1658, but the Portuguese reconquered it on 14 April 1659. On February 10, 1661 the Dutch commander Van der Meyden came to Malabar with this intentions, and at Ayyacotta he had an interview with the Calicut prince. It was agreed that Calicut, the most powerful ruler on the Malabar and an enemy of the Portuguese, was to conduct the attack on the Portuguese fort at Cranganore by land and the Dutch by the sea. According to the treaty, the Fort Cranganore was to be made over to Calicut after its successful capture. Van der Meyen dispersed a Nair detachment sent to stop his advance on the way and appeared before Fort Palliport (February 16). The Portuguese made no attempt to resist and fled by the backwaters.
On March 21, Ryckloff Van Goens signed a treaty with the local chief of Paliyam on a ship anchored on the coast. The Dutch forces soon put boots on the ground and attacked the palace of the queen at Mattanceri. Subsequently, the queen was taken as a prisoner. Later in December 1661, the Portuguese Quilon was captured by a Dutch expedition under Ryckloff Van Goens. This is often regarded as the beginning of the Dutch presence in Malabar.

Capture of Cochin in 1663.

On January 3, 1662 Van Goens was joined by the Calicut army, and they besieged the Fort Cranganore in the heat of tropical son. After a fortnight the fort surrendered (15 January), and the Dutch demolished the fort with exception of the bastion, where they stationed a garrison. Now a new treaty was signed between Calicut and Van der Meyden. Calicut agreed to cede Fort Cranganore and Vypin to the Dutch after the capture of the Portuguese fort at Cochin.

Capture of Cochin

Capture of Quilon in 1661.

The allies moved towards Cochin and marched upon the palace of the raja on 5 February 1662. In the battle the raja was killed with two of his juniors. The Dutch installed another prince on throne, and proceeded to besiege the Portuguese fort. Cochin and the chief of Paliyam supplied the Dutch in these prolonged siege. It was not easy to starve it into surrender as the Portuguese resisted heroically. Native rulers of Porca and Cembakasseri kept the besieged supplied with provisions. Though disrupted by monsoon rains and deaths of the ruler of Calicut and important Dutch officers, the garrison was finally capitulated on January 8, 1663. The terms of the capitulation were that all the unmarried Portuguese residents were returned to Europe, and all married Portuguese and Mestiços were transferred to Goa. The last governor of Portuguese Cochin was Inácio Sarmento. About four thousand people, so was said, were the banished. Decades of Portuguese supremacy in Malabar came to an end. Fort Cochin now became the primary trading post of the Dutch colony.

Battles for supremacy on Malabar

Kochi City around 1665.

Quilon in 1756.

The alliance between Calicut and the Dutch had no chance of crystallizing into a long lasting friendship. Calicut had sought the Dutch cooperation that he might once more recover his hold on the Cochin raja (before the Portuguese arrival, Cochin was his vassal state). Hence his stipulation for the cession of Vypin and reduction of the Cochin raja to the position of a Calicut tributary in the treaty of 1662. But, the Dutch had established themselves in Cochin and Calicut asked them to fulfill their treaty obligations.
It was in these circumstances, Calicut welcomed the English and allowed them to establish a factory at Calicut in 1664. The Dutch authorities at Amsterdam were alarmed and wrote to their officers in India to "spare no pains" to secure expulsion of English from Calicut. The Dutch carried off four or five guns from Calicut and attacked Cranganore. The Dutch at once summoned their allies, Cochin, Tekkumkur, Vatakkumkur, Paravur, Cempakasseri and Mangatt. Calicut forces, including Moplahs and supported by a Portuguese named Pacheco, were at first successful. After a year of desultory fighting the Calicut forces withdrew, and the Dutch destroyed the Fort Round and built a bastion near Cranganore.

The Bolgatty Palace, built in 1744 for the commander of Dutch Malabar, is one of the oldest existing Dutch palaces outside of the Netherlands.

In 1669, Dutch Malabar became a separate commandment of the Dutch West India Company; before this year it had been governed from Batavia.^[1] In 1670, the Calicut ruler was persuaded by his prince to go to Cranganore to encourage the Nairs. But, the Dutch made a surprise attack on the Zamorin's camp. 30 Dutch lost their lives these raid, and in the confusion of the battle the Royal Sword of the Calicut was destroyed. Calicut ruler fell back to Papinivattom, and the prince attacked the bastion and captured it. In 1673 Van Rheede came to Cochin as its Commander. He re-occupied the bastion, and demanded the cession of Chetwai- the route to Cochin from Calicut. He himself came to Port Ponani in 1678, and met with the Calicut ruler. Tired with hostilities from most of the natives, the Dutch opened negotiations with Calicut. The Commissary General of Batavia, the head of the Dutch Government in the East Indies, came to Ponani in 1696 without even touching at Cochin. In the meantime, Calicut formed a large anti-Dutch alliance and signed a new treaty with the English. In following years, they made raids deep into Cochin areas (1701–1710). The Dutch were forced to took part in this battles with Cochin and began to construct a fort for the security of Chetwai. Soon, Calicut sent a force to pull down the fortifications and expulsed the Dutch from Chetwai (1714). The Chief of the English factory had a great hand in promoting this. Calicut resolved to follow up this success by attacking Cranganore and Pappinivattom. But, the Dutch under Councillor William Bucker Jacobs retaliated by defeating the Calicut and the English armies and on April 10, 1719 the Dutch formally took command of Fort William, as the fort at Chetwai now called. This deceive Dutch victory was a heavy blow to the English and Robert Adams.
The Dutch slowly began to feel their forts and garrisons in Malabar as a heavy economical burden. The English East India Company began to dominate trade and commerce in Malabar. On September 10, 1691 the Dutch transferred Chetwai back to Calicut and reduced the size and strength of forces across Malabar. The fear of Dutch forces anchored in the minds of the native rulers began to shade. In 1721, the supreme council in Batavia agreed that they will be no longer supporting their unfortunate native ally Cochin against the Calicut.

Defeat against Travancore and Kew Letters

Cochin

Quilon

Cannanore

Kayamkulam

Cranganore

Pallipuram

Purakkad

Map of the main forts on the Malabar Coast of India (Vengurla and Barselor not shown)

The Dutch never succeeded in establishing a pepper trade monopoly in Malabar, and were all the more frustrated in their attempts when the young ruler of Travancore started to expand his kingdom. The Travancore–Dutch War that followed culminated into the Battle of Colachel, which was disastrous for the Dutch. Eustachius de Lannoy, a naval commander in the Dutch army, was taken as POW and subsequently became a commander in Travancore army. De Lennoy later helped Travancore to establish an organized army, introduce better firearms and artillery and to build forts in European model in his state.
As a result of the Kew Letters, the Dutch settlements on the Malabar Coast were surrendered to the British in 1795, in order to prevent being overrun by the French. Dutch Malabar remained British after the conclusion of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814, which traded the colony with Bangka Island.