Shivaji
Shivaji Bhonsle, known as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, was an Indian warrior king and a member of the Bhonsle Maratha clan. Shivaji carved out an enclave from the declining Adilshahi sultanate of Bijapur that formed the genesis of the Maratha Empire, in 1674, he was formally crowned as the Chhatrapati of his realm at Raigad. Shivaji established a competent and progressive civil rule with the help of a disciplined military and he revived ancient Hindu political traditions and court conventions and promoted the usage of Marathi and Sanskrit, rather than Persian, in court and administration. Particularly in Maharashtra, debates over his history and role have engendered great passion and sometimes even violence as disparate groups have sought to characterise him and his legacy. Shivaji was born in the hill-fort of Shivneri, near the city of Junnar in Pune district on 6 April 1627 or 19 February 1630, per legend, his mother named him Shivaji in honour of the goddess Shivai, to whom she had prayed for a healthy child.
Shivaji was named after this local deity, Shivajis father Shahaji Bhonsle was a Maratha general who served the Deccan Sultanates. His mother was Jijabai, the daughter of Lakhujirao Jadhav of Sindkhed, at the time of Shivajis birth, the power in Deccan was shared by three Islamic sultanates, Bijapur and Golconda. Shahaji often changed his loyalty between the Nizamshahi of Ahmadnagar, the Adilshah of Bijapur and the Mughals, but always kept his jagir at Pune, Shivaji was extremely devoted to his mother Jijabai, who was deeply religious. This religious environment had a impact on Shivaji, and he carefully studied the two great Hindu epics and Mahabharata, these were to influence his lifelong defence of Hindu values. Throughout his life he was interested in religious teachings, and regularly sought the company of Hindu. Shahaji, meanwhile had married a wife, Tuka Bai from the Mohite family. He left Shivaji and Jijabai in Pune in the care of his jagir administrator, Dadoji has been credited with overseeing education and training of young Shivaji.
Shivaji as a boy was an outdoorsman and, though he received little formal education and most likely could neither read nor write. Shivaji drew his earliest trusted comrades and a number of his soldiers from the Maval region, including Yesaji Kank, Suryaji Kakade, Baji Pasalkar, Baji Prabhu Deshpande. However, Shivajis association with the Maval comrades and his independent spirit did not sit well with Dadoji who complained to Shahaji to no avail in making him compliant. At the age of 12, Shivaji was taken to Bangalore where he, his elder brother Sambhaji and he married Saibai from the prominent Nimbalkar family in 1640. Around 1645–46, the teenage Shivaji first expressed his concept for Hindavi Swarajya, in 1645, the 15-year-old Shivaji bribed or persuaded the Bijapuri commander of the Torna Fort, Inayat Khan, to hand over the possession of the fort to him. Firangoji Narsala, who held the Chakan fort professed his loyalty to Shivaji, on 25 July 1648, Shahaji was imprisoned by Baji Ghorpade under the orders of Mohammed Adil Shah, in a bid to contain Shivaji
Thanjavur Nayak kingdom
Thanjavur Nayak kingdom or Thanjavur Nayak dynasty were the rulers of Thanjavur principality of Tamil Nadu between the 16th to the 17th century. The Nayaks were originally appointed as provincial governors by the Vijayanagar Emperor in the 14th century, in the mid 16th century they became an independent kingdom, although continued their alliance with the Vijayanagagr Empire. Thanjavur Nayaks were notable for their patronage of literature and the arts, the Mannaru of the Mannargudi temple was their kula daivam. With the demise of the Chola dynasty in 1279, Thanjavur was ruled by a branch of Chola dynasty, the Vijayanagar rulers installed viceroys to rule over various parts of the empire. Sevappa Nayak, was the first Thanjavur Nayak king and he was the son of Timmappa Nayak, a Vijayanagara viceroy in the Arcot region from his wife Bayyambika. The work Raghunathabhyudayam written by Vijayaraghava Nayaka gives some details of Timmappa. Timmappa or Timmabhupati was the ruler of North Arcot with his capital at Nedungunram, the epigraphs of all of the Tanjore Nayaks show that they belonged to Nedungunram.
One of Krishnadevarayas epigraphs mentions that Timmappa had the privilege of serving him as a door keeper and was the emperors dalavay who took part in the Raichur campaign. According to historian V. Vriddhagirisan, Timmappa Nayak was the brother of Nagama Nayak, Nagama Nayak was the father of Visvanatha Nayak. Hence Viswanatha Nayak and Chevvappa Nayak were cousins, the work Raghunathabhyudayam mentions that Timmappa and Bayambika had 4 sons, Pedda Seva, Chinna Seva, Pedda Malla and Chinna Malla. However, not much is known of the other 3 sons, of the 4 sons, Chinna Seva alias Sevappa Nayak seems to have distinguished himself. Before assuming power of the Tanjore kingdom, Sevvappa had distinguished himself under Krishnadavaraya as an administrator, sevappas wife Murtimamba was the sister-in-law of Achyuta Deva Raya and the sister of the Vijayanagara Queen, Thirumalamba. Some sources suggest that Sevappa acquired the Thanjavur Kingdom as stridhana from Achyutadeva Raya, Sevappa was a ceremonial betel bearer to Achyuta Deva Raya, the brother of Krishnadevaraya.
According to the book Arunachala, A short history of hill and temple in Tiruvannamalai, and Sevappa being a powerful and influential man of the locality was appointed the first nayak. The position of a betel bearer was not given to an outsider. Therefore, the position was given to a trusted member within the family. Sevappas son, Achuthappa Nayak, was named in memory of Achyuta Deva Raya and he led a peaceful reign of 54 years. Up until 1580 Achuthappa Nayak co- ruled with his father under the Yuvaraja title while immediately after that he was joined by his heir-son Raghunatha Nayak and he was said to be deeply religious and was well considered a master in the art of warfare
Battle of Copenhagen (1807)
The Second Battle of Copenhagen was a British bombardment of the Danish capital, Copenhagen in order to capture or destroy the Dano-Norwegian fleet, during the Napoleonic Wars. The incident led to the outbreak of the Anglo-Russian War of 1807, britains first response to Napoleons Continental system was to launch a major naval attack on the weakest link in Napoleons coalition, Denmark. Although ostensibly neutral, Denmark was under heavy French and Russian pressure to pledge its fleet to Napoleon. In September 1807, the Royal Navy bombarded Copenhagen, seizing the Danish fleet, a consequence of the attack was that Denmark did join the war on the side of France, but without a fleet it had little to offer. The attack gave rise to the term to Copenhagenize, the majority of the Danish army, under the Crown Prince, was at this time defending the southern border against possible attack from the French. There was concern in Britain that Napoleon might try to force Denmark to close the Baltic Sea to British ships, perhaps by marching French troops into Zealand, the British thought that after Prussia had been defeated in December 1806, Denmarks independence looked increasingly under threat from France.
George Cannings predecessor as Foreign Secretary, Lord Howick, had tried unsuccessfully to persuade Denmark into an alliance with Britain. He refused to publish the source because he said it would endanger their lives, some reports suggested that the Danes had secretly agreed to this. The Cabinet decided on 18 July to send Francis Jackson on a mission to Copenhagen to persuade Denmark to give its fleet to Britain. That same day, the Admiralty issued an order for more than 50 ships to sail for service under Admiral James Gambier. On 19 July, Lord Castlereagh, the Secretary of State for War, the fact that he has openly avowed such intention in an interview with the E of R is brought to this country in such a way as it cannot be doubted. Under such circumstances it would be madness, it would be idiotic. to wait for an overt act, the British assembled a force of 25,000 troops, and the vanguard sailed on 30 July, Jackson set out the next day. On 31 July, Napoleon ordered Talleyrand to tell Denmark to prepare for war against Britain or else Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte would invade Holstein, neither Talleyrand nor Jackson persuaded the Danes to end their neutrality, so Jackson went back to the British fleet assembled in the Sound on 15 August.
The British published a proclamation demanding the deposit of the Danish fleet, on 12 August, the 32-gun Danish frigate Frederiksværn sailed for Norway from Elsinor. Admiral Lord Gambier sent the 74-gun third rate Defence and the 22-gun sixth rate Comus after her, Comus was much faster than Defence in the light winds and so outdistanced her. On 15 August, Comus caught Frederiksværn off Marstrand and captured her, the British took her into service as Frederikscoarn. 1/95th, 2/95th KGL Division, Major General van Drechel 1st Brigade, Colonel du Plat, 2nd Brigade, Colonel von Drieburg, 3rd, 4th, 5th Line Batts. 3rd Brigade, Colonel von Barsse, 1st and 2nd Line Batts, 4th Brigade, Colonel von Alten, 1st and 2nd Light Batts
Kingdom of England
In the early 11th century the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, united by Æthelstan, became part of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, a personal union between England and Norway. The completion of the conquest of Wales by Edward I in 1284 put Wales under the control of the English crown, from the accession of James I in 1603, the Stuart dynasty ruled England in personal union with Scotland and Ireland. Under the Stuarts, the kingdom plunged into war, which culminated in the execution of Charles I in 1649. The monarchy returned in 1660, but the Civil War had established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without the consent of Parliament and this concept became legally established as part of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. From this time the kingdom of England, as well as its state the United Kingdom. On 1 May 1707, under the terms of the Acts of Union 1707, the Anglo-Saxons referred to themselves as the Engle or the Angelcynn, originally names of the Angles. They called their land Engla land, meaning land of the English, by Æthelweard Latinized Anglia, from an original Anglia vetus, the name Engla land became England by haplology during the Middle English period.
The Latin name was Anglia or Anglorum terra, the Old French, by the 14th century, England was used in reference to the entire island of Great Britain. The standard title for all monarchs from Æthelstan until the time of King John was Rex Anglorum, Canute the Great, a Dane, was the first king to call himself King of England. In the Norman period Rex Anglorum remained standard, with use of Rex Anglie. The Empress Matilda styled herself Domina Anglorum, from the time of King John onwards all other titles were eschewed in favour of Rex or Regina Anglie. In 1604 James VI and I, who had inherited the English throne the previous year, the English and Scottish parliaments, did not recognise this title until the Acts of Union of 1707. The kingdom of England emerged from the unification of the early medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdoms known as the Heptarchy, East Anglia, Northumbria, Essex, Sussex. The Viking invasions of the 9th century upset the balance of power between the English kingdoms, and native Anglo-Saxon life in general, the English lands were unified in the 10th century in a reconquest completed by King Æthelstan in 927 CE.
During the Heptarchy, the most powerful king among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms might become acknowledged as Bretwalda, the decline of Mercia allowed Wessex to become more powerful. It absorbed the kingdoms of Kent and Sussex in 825, the kings of Wessex became increasingly dominant over the other kingdoms of England during the 9th century. In 827, Northumbria submitted to Egbert of Wessex at Dore, in 886, Alfred the Great retook London, which he apparently regarded as a turning point in his reign. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that all of the English people not subject to the Danes submitted themselves to King Alfred, asser added that Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, restored the city of London splendidly
Denmark
The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979.
In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government.
The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
Danish Gold Coast
The Danish Gold Coast denotes the colonies that Denmark-Norway controlled in Africa as a part of the Gold Coast, which is on the petroleum and natural gas rich Gulf of Guinea. It was colonized by the Dano-Norwegian fleet, first under indirect rule by the Danish West India Company, on April 20,1663, the Danish seizure of Fort Christiansborg and Carlsborg completed the annexation of the Swedish Gold Coast settlements. From 1674 to 1755 the settlements were administered by the Danish West India-Guinea Company, from December 1680 to 29 August 1682, the Portuguese occupied Fort Christiansborg. In 1750 it was made a Danish crown colony, from 1782 to 1785 it was under British occupation. On 30 March 1850 all of Denmarks Danish Gold Coast Territorial Settlements and forts of the Kingdom of Denmark were sold to Britain, the title of its chief colonial administrator was Opperhoved since 1658, only in 1766 upgraded to Governor. The following forts were in the possession of Denmark until all forts were sold to the United Kingdom in 1850, apart from these main forts, several forts and trading posts were temporarily held by the Danes.
Colonial Heads of Danish Gold Coast the office-holders of the Danish Gold Coast WorldStatesmen- Ghana Closing the Books, Governor Edward Carstensen on Danish Guinea, translated from the Danish by Tove Storsveen. Article about the Danish Gold Coast during the Napoleonic Wars
Portuguese India
The first viceroy, Francisco de Almeida, established his headquarters in Cochin. Subsequent Portuguese governors were not always of viceroy rank, after 1510, the capital of the Portuguese viceroyalty was transferred to Goa. Until the 18th century, the Portuguese governor in Goa had authority over all Portuguese possessions in the Indian Ocean, from southern Africa to southeast Asia. Portugal lost effective control of the enclaves of Dadra and Nagar Haveli in 1954, and finally the rest of the territory in December 1961. In spite of this, Portugal only recognised Indian control in 1975, after the Carnation Revolution, the first Portuguese encounter with the subcontinent was on 20 May 1498 when Vasco da Gama reached Calicut on Malabar Coast. Anchored off the coast of Calicut, the Portuguese invited native fishermen on board, one Portuguese accompanied the fishermen to the port and met with a Tunisian Muslim. On the advice of this man, Gama sent a couple of his men to Ponnani to meet with ruler of Calicut, over the objections of Arab merchants, Gama managed to secure a letter of concession for trading rights from the Zamorin, Calicuts Hindu ruler.
But, the Portuguese were unable to pay the customs duties. Later Calicut officials temporarily detained Gamas Portuguese agents as security for payment and this, annoyed Gama, who carried a few natives and sixteen fishermen with him by force. Nevertheless, Gamas expedition was successful beyond all expectation, bringing in cargo that was worth sixty times the cost of the expedition. Matters worsened when the Portuguese factory at Calicut was attacked by surprise by the locals, Cabral ordered his ships to bombard Calicut for an entire day in retaliation for the violation of the agreement. In Cochin and Cannanore Cabral succeeded in making advantageous treaties with the local rulers, Cabral started the return voyage on 16 January 1501 and arrived in Portugal with only 4 of 13 ships on 23 June 1501. The Portuguese built the Pulicat fort in 1502, with the help of the Vijayanagar ruler, Vasco da Gama sailed to India for a second time with 15 ships and 800 men, arriving at Calicut on 30 October 1502, where the ruler was willing to sign a treaty.
Gama this time made a call to expel all Muslims from Calicut which was turned down. He bombarded the city and captured several rice vessels and he returned to Portugal in September 1503. Francisco de Almeida left Portugal with a fleet of 22 vessels with 1,500 men, on 13 September, Francisco de Almeida reached Anjadip Island, where he immediately started the construction of Fort Anjediva. On 23 October, with the permission of the ruler of Cannanore, he started building St. Angelo Fort at Cannanore, leaving Lourenço de Brito in charge with 150 men. Francisco de Almeida reached Cochin on 31 October 1505 with only 8 vessels left, there he learned that the Portuguese traders at Quilon had been killed
Qing dynasty
It was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The Qing multi-cultural empire lasted almost three centuries and formed the base for the modern Chinese state. The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria, in the late sixteenth century, originally a Ming vassal, began organizing Banners, military-social units that included Jurchen, Han Chinese, and Mongol elements. Nurhaci formed the Jurchen clans into an entity, which he renamed as the Manchus. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of Liaodong and declared a new dynasty, in 1644, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital, Beijing. The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Central Asia, the early rulers maintained their Manchu ways, and while their title was Emperor, they used khan to the Mongols and they were patrons of Tibetan Buddhism. They governed using Confucian styles and institutions of government and retained the imperial examinations to recruit Han Chinese to work under or in parallel with Manchus.
They adapted the ideals of the system in dealing with neighboring territories. The Qianlong reign saw the apogee and initial decline in prosperity. The population rose to some 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, and ruling elites did not change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system. Following the Opium War, European powers imposed unequal treaties, free trade, the Taiping Rebellion and the Dungan Revolt in Central Asia led to the deaths of some 20 million people, most of them due to famines caused by war. In spite of disasters, in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s, Han Chinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order. The initial gains in the Self-Strengthening Movement were destroyed in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895, in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea, New Armies were organized, but the ambitious Hundred Days Reform of 1898 was turned back by Empress Dowager Cixi, a conservative leader.
Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries competed with reformist monarchists such as Kang Youwei, after the deaths of Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908, the hardline Manchu court alienated reformers and local elites alike. The Wuchang Uprising on October 11,1911, led to the Xinhai Revolution, General Yuan Shikai negotiated the abdication of Puyi, the last emperor, on February 12,1912. Nurhaci declared himself the Bright Khan of the Later Jin state in both of the 12–13th century Jurchen Jin dynasty and of his Aisin Gioro clan. His son Hong Taiji renamed the dynasty Great Qing in 1636, there are competing explanations on the meaning of Qīng. The character Qīng is composed of water and azure, both associated with the water element and this association would justify the Qing conquest as defeat of fire by water
East India Company
The company ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India. The company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600, wealthy merchants and aristocrats owned the Companys shares. Initially the government owned no shares and had only indirect control, during its first century of operation the focus of the Company was trade, not the building of an empire in India. The company eventually came to rule large areas of India with its own armies, exercising military power. Despite frequent government intervention, the company had recurring problems with its finances, the official government machinery of British India had assumed its governmental functions and absorbed its armies. Soon after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, London merchants presented a petition to Queen Elizabeth I for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean, one of them, Edward Bonventure, sailed around Cape Comorin to the Malay Peninsula and returned to England in 1594. In 1596, three ships sailed east, these were all lost at sea.
Two days later, on 24 September, the Adventurers reconvened and resolved to apply to the Queen for support of the project, the Adventurers convened again a year later. For a period of fifteen years the charter awarded the newly formed company a monopoly on trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. Anybody who traded in breach of the charter without a licence from the Company was liable to forfeiture of their ships and cargo, the governance of the company was in the hands of one governor and 24 directors or committees, who made up the Court of Directors. They, in turn, reported to the Court of Proprietors, ten committees reported to the Court of Directors. According to tradition, business was transacted at the Nags Head Inn, opposite St Botolphs church in Bishopsgate. Sir James Lancaster commanded the first East India Company voyage in 1601, in March 1604 Sir Henry Middleton commanded the second voyage. Early in 1608 Alexander Sharpeigh was appointed captain of the Companys Ascension, thereafter two ships and Union sailed from Woolwich on 14 March 1607–8.
Initially, the company struggled in the trade because of the competition from the already well-established Dutch East India Company. The company opened a factory in Bantam on the first voyage, the factory in Bantam was closed in 1683. During this time belonging to the company arriving in India docked at Surat. In the next two years, the company established its first factory in south India in the town of Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal
Kingdom of Kandy
Kingdom of Kandy was an independent monarchy of the island of Lanka, located in the central and eastern portion of the island. It was founded in the late 15th century and endured until the early 19th century, the kingdom was absorbed into the British Empire as a protectorate following the Kandyan Convention of 1815, and definitively lost its autonomy following the Uva Rebellion of 1817. Over the years, the Kingdom of Kandy has been known by many names, routes to the city were kept secret, and spreading information concerning them could often result in death. Many routes into the country became impassable during the annual monsoon. Though the kingdom had intermittent access to the port of Batticaloa it had no forces and could not prevent the Portuguese. The city of Senkadagalapura may have been founded as early as the century during the reign of Vikramabahu III of Gampola. Following the Spoiling of Vijayabahu in 1521, the kingdom of Kotte split into three competing states – Sitawaka and Bhuvanekabahu VIIs kingdom of Kotte, of these Sitawaka, under the dynamic leadership of Mayadunne, posed the greatest threat to the autonomy of the other states.
In 1522, the Kandyans secured Portuguese protection against Sitawaka, but any potential for alliance ended in 1546 when Portuguese, Kandy subsequently lent aid to the Jaffna Kingdom against the Portuguese in 1560. Kandy territory was invaded twice in the 1570s and 1580s, first in 1574, both eventually fell under Portuguese warship, converted to Christianity, and adopted the names Dona Catherina and Don Phillip respectively. In the meanwhile the Portuguese laid claim to the Kandyan realm, Wirasundara Mudiyanse, Rajasinhas viceroy in the area, rebelled soon after the initial conquest, though his uprising was crushed another occurred in 1588. Resistance eventually coalesced around Konnappu Bandara, son of Wirasundara, who had fled to Portuguese lands following his fathers murder by agents of Rajasinha, between 1591 and 1594, he returned to the area, seized the Kandyan throne under the name Vimaladharmasuriya I and married Dona Catherina. Victories over the Sitawakans and the Portuguese secured his position, the strategic situation in Sri Lanka changed dramatically during Vimaladharmasuryas rise to power.
To the north, the Portuguese deposed the king Puviraja Pandaram of the Jaffna Kingdom in 1591, in 1594, Rajasinha I died and the kingdom of Sitawaka disintegrated. Kandy remained the sole native polity outside of European dominance, hostilities between the Portuguese and the Kandyans continued throughout the rest of Vimaladharmasuryas reign. The Kandyans lent aid to a rebellion led by Domingos Correa and Simao Correa, Sinhala subjects of Dharmapala, a Portuguese incursion in 1604 saw them capture Balane, but dissent amongst their Lascarin troops forced a withdrawal back to the coast. Relations between the Dutch Republic and the Kandyans were initiated on the 2 June 1602 when Dutch explorer Joris van Spilbergen arrived at Santhamuruthu on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka. Later that year the Dutch East India Company despatched Sebald de Weert to Kandy in an attempt to negotiate a treaty. The visit ended in disaster when the visitors offended their Kandyan hosts with their behaviour and in the ensuing fracas de Weert and a several of his entourage were killed
Maratha Empire
The Maratha Empire or the Maratha Confederacy was an Indian power that existed from 1674 to 1818 and ruled over much of the Indian sub-continent. The Marathas are credited to an extent for ending the Mughal rule in India. The Marathas are Hindu warrior group from the western Deccan Plateau that rose to prominence by establishing a Hindavi Swarajya, known for their mobility, the Marathas were able to consolidate their territory during the Mughal–Maratha Wars and controlled a large part of India. Chhattrapati Shahu, grandson of Shivaji, was released by Mughals after the death of Emperor Aurangzeb, following a brief struggle with his aunt Tarabai, Shahu became ruler and appointed Balaji Vishwanath and later, his descendants, as the peshwas or prime ministers of the empire. Balaji and his descendants played a key role in expansion of Maratha rule, the empire at its peak stretched from Tamil Nadu in the south to Peshawar in the north, and Bengal and Andaman Islands in the east. In 1761, the Maratha Army lost the Third Battle of Panipat to Ahmad Shah Abdali of the Afghan Durrani Empire which halted their imperial expansion into Afghanistan, ten years after Panipat, the young Peshwa Madhavrao Is Maratha Resurrection reinstated Maratha authority over North India.
In a bid to manage the large empire, Madhavrao I gave semi-autonomy to the strongest of the knights. They became known as the Gaekwads of Baroda, the Holkars of Indore and Malwa, the Scindias of Gwalior and Ujjain, the Bhonsales of the Nagpur and the Puars of Dhar and Dewas. In 1775, the East India Company intervened in a Peshwa family succession struggle in Pune, the Marathas remained the preeminent power in India until their defeat in the Second and Third Anglo-Maratha Wars which left the East India Company in control of most of India. A large portion of the Maratha empire was coastline, which had secured by the potent Maratha Navy under commanders such as Kanhoji Angre. He was very successful at keeping foreign naval ships, particularly of the Portuguese and British, securing the coastal areas and building land-based fortifications were crucial aspects of the Marathas defensive strategy and regional military history. The Maratha Empire is referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, the historian Barbara Ramusack says that the former is a designation preferred by Indian nationalists, while the latter was that used by British historians.
Maratha power was fragmented among several discrete fragments, although at present, the word Maratha refers to a particular caste of warriors and peasants, in the past the word has been used to describe Marathi people, including Marathas themselves. Shivaji was a Maratha aristocrat of the Bhosle clan who is considered to be the founder of the Maratha empire. Shivaji led a resistance to free the Maratha people from the Sultanate of Bijapur and he created an independent Maratha kingdom with Raigad as its capital and successfully fought against the Mughals to defend his kingdom. He was crowned as Chhatrapati of the new Maratha kingdom in 1674, the state Shivaji founded was a Maratha kingdom comprising about 4. 1% of the subcontinent, but spread over large tracts. At the time of his death is was dotted with about 300 forts, about 40,000 cavalry,50,000 foot soldiers and naval establishments all over the west coast. Over time, the kingdom would increase in size and heterogeneity, Shivaji had two sons and Rajaram
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