Dutch–Portuguese War

A series of conflicts from 1602 to 1663 in which the Dutch Republic challenged Portugal’s colonial and commercial power across Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Dutch conquest of Malacca: The Dutch East India Company’s 1641 capture of Malacca from Portugal, aided by Johor. Its capture broke Portugal’s control of a strategic passage between the Indian Ocean and South China Sea.
Dutch East India Company: A Dutch chartered company founded in 1602 with a monopoly on Dutch trade in Asia and powers to wage war and make treaties. It organized Dutch attacks on Portuguese strongholds and trade across Asia.
Dutch Revolt: The long rebellion of the Netherlands against Spanish Habsburg rule, beginning in 1568 and producing the Dutch Republic. The revolt created the Dutch state whose conflict with Spain extended to Portuguese imperial possessions.
Dutch Brazil: The Dutch colony in northeastern Brazil, centered on Recife and held from 1630 to 1654. Its eventual loss ended the Dutch attempt to control Brazil’s sugar-producing northeast.
Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen: A Dutch count and governor-general of Dutch Brazil from 1637 to 1644. His administration strengthened Dutch rule in Brazil during the colony’s most stable period.
Dutch conquest of Ceylon: The Dutch East India Company’s seventeenth-century seizure of Portuguese strongholds in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. The campaign transferred control of Ceylon’s cinnamon trade from Portugal to the Dutch.
Dutch West India Company: A Dutch chartered company founded in 1621 to pursue trade, colonization, and warfare in the Atlantic world. It led Dutch operations against Portugal in Brazil and along the West African coast.
Iberian Union: The dynastic union of Portugal and Spain under one monarch from 1580 to 1640, while both kingdoms retained separate institutions. Dutch rebels treated Portuguese possessions as targets after Portugal entered the union with Spain.
Portuguese Restoration War: The Portuguese war of independence from Spain, fought from 1640 to 1668. Portugal’s restoration as an independent kingdom changed the political setting of overseas hostilities.
João IV of Portugal: King of Portugal from 1640 to 1656 and founder of the Braganza dynasty’s rule. He directed Portugal’s restored monarchy through the later stages of overseas conflict.

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