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| Battle of Mannar | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theDutch–Portuguese War | |||||||
 Depiction of the Battle of Mannar | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Portugal | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Rijckloff van Goens | Antonio de Amaral de Meneses | ||||||
TheBattle of Mannar was a short battle fought between theDutch and the opposingPortuguese forces on 22 February 1658. This battle, along with the subsequentcapture of Jaffna would mark the end ofPortuguese Ceylon.[1][2]
The Dutch, under the leadership ofGerard Pietersz Hulft, placed the main Portuguese base of Colombo under siege in 1655 and captured it. Which then allowedRijckloff van Goens to launch a campaign, with Mannar being one of his targets.[citation needed]
AdmiralRijckloff van Goens arrived before Mannar with a large fleet with the goal to capture the remaining Portuguese strongholds inCeylon, Mannar being one of them. And after a short conflict between the two, theIsland of Mannar was subsequently ceded to the Dutch.[1][3]
After the battle,Rijckloff van Goens marched towardsJaffna and took the city after asiege. This marked the end ofPortuguese influence in Ceylon,[1][2] and would then result in the Dutch and theKingdom of Kandy splitting the territory of the formerPortuguese Ceylon.
