Kaartje Waar in vertoont wert, hoe verre de Forten Baticalo en Tricoen male.. / t Fort Oostenburg in de binnen-bay van Tricoen Male.

Title

Kaartje Waar in vertoont wert, hoe verre de Forten Baticalo en Tricoen male.. / t Fort Oostenburg in de binnen-bay van Tricoen Male.

Description

Map below shows Tricomalee Bay and the surrounding area. Above Fort Oostenburg at Tricomalle Bay in Sri Lanka.

ca. 1726

Artist

Valentijn (1666-1777)

Francois Valentijn (1666-1777) was a Dutch minister and naturalist. He was employed as a minister of the East Indies at 19, and befriended another naturalist Georg Eberhard Rumpf (Rumphius). He also served as an army champlain on an expedition in easter Java. He then returned to Holland and completed this work. The work is still considered was “the most comprehensive work on Asia published in Europe during the early colonial period” (Landwehr). “The first book to give a comprehensive account in text and illustration, of the peoples, places, and natural history of Indonesia” (Bastin & Brommer).

Historical Description

Sri Lanka was known from the beginning of British colonial rule as Ceylon. Its geographic location and deep harbours made it of great strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road through to the modern Maritime Silk Road. Before the beginning of the Dutch governance, the island of Ceylon was divided between the Portuguese Empire and the Kingdom of Kandy, who were in the midst of a war for control of the island as a whole. The island attracted the attention of the newly formed Dutch Republic when they were invited by the Sinhalese King to fight the Portuguese. Dutch rule over much of the island was soon imposed. The Kingdom of Kandy was the last independent monarchy of Sri Lanka. In the late 18th century the Dutch, weakened by their wars against Great Britain, were conquered by Napoleonic France, and their leaders became refugees in London. No longer able to govern their part of the island effectively, the Dutch transferred the rule of it to the British, although this was against the wishes of the Dutch residing there. In 1972, the country became a republic named Sri Lanka, repudiating its dominion status.