Naval Battle of Diu
In the naval battle of Diu on February 3, 1509, a fleet from Portugal defeated a united Egyptian-Arab-Indian fleet and achieved naval supremacy in the Indian Ocean for about 100 years .
prehistory
When the Portuguese discovered the sea route to India, they set up bases in the Indian Ocean such as Mombasa , Muscat , Hormuz and others. The new trade route bypassed the old spice route controlled by Venice and the Arabs. The Mameluk Sultan of Egypt, al-Ghuri , and the Sultan of Gujarat , Mahmud Begada , feared for their profits from the middlemen.
Al-Ghuri built a fleet in the Red Sea with the help of South Arabian rulers and was also supported by Venice and Ragusa ( Dubrovnik ), who also feared for their business. Al-Ghuri allied himself with the Sultan of Gujarat and this in turn with the Zamorin Raja of Calicut . The Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II was also involved militarily. The fleet consisted partly of European ship types and was equipped with heavy artillery.
In 1505, the first Portuguese governor and viceroy, Francisco de Almeida , came from Portugal to the Indian Ocean with 21 ships.
The new Mameluk fleet sailed from Egypt via Jeddah in 1507 under the command of Amir Husain Al-Kurdi and in 1508 reached the port of Diu largely unnoticed . The blockade squadron of the Portuguese under Afonso de Albuquerque , which was supposed to seal off the Red Sea, was busy capturing Hormuz and missed the Egyptian fleet. With the support of the Gujarat fleet, the united Muslim fleet succeeded in defeating a Portuguese fleet in the battle of Chaul . Above all, she benefited from the element of surprise. The Portuguese had heard rumors about a large fleet arriving from Egypt, but considered this to be implausible or considered the rumors to be exaggerated and not taken seriously. When the Egyptians finally started the attack on the port of Chaul, the Portuguese thought the ships were the long awaited squadron from de Albuquerque, because they could not believe that the Egyptians had large European ships. Until then, they had only encountered dhows , light galleys and other small ships in the Indian Ocean that had previously not posed any threat.
During the three-day naval battle, the Portuguese lost their flagship, São Miguel . The son of the viceroy and squadron commander Lorenzo de Almeida was also killed. This dealt a severe blow to the Portuguese position in India and destroyed their nimbus of military invincibility at sea. It was therefore extremely important for the Portuguese viceroy, for personal and political reasons, to make up for the defeat. By this time the Portuguese had made many enemies on the Malabar Coast . Until then, they had resigned to their fate, as the Portuguese carried out coastal blockades or plundered the cities when they resisted. But now many of their enemies rebelled against the increasingly stronger dominance of the Portuguese and hoped for the support of the Egyptian fleet.
The battle
On the Portuguese side, 18 ships (12 large and 6 small) - according to other sources a total of 23 ships - were involved under the command of Francisco de Almeida .
- 5 large naos
- 4 smaller naos
- 6 caravels
- 3 smaller ships
On top of them were 1500 Portuguese soldiers and 400 soldiers from Cochin . The navigator João da Nova also took part in the battle.
On the Muslim side there were 10 large ships and up to 100 smaller vessels ( dhows , galleys, etc.) from Diu and Calicut with a crew of about 4,000-5,000. However, Chaul's victory turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory . Hussain had lost most of his soldiers from Egypt in the first sea battle against the Portuguese. The Egyptian soldiers, who came from the Mediterranean region, knew how to handle their own artillery on the one hand, and how to endure the broadsides of Europe on the other. The Muslim side could not make up for their loss.
- 6 large carracks
- 6 galleys of the Mameluks
- 4 carracks from Gujarat
- 30 smaller ships from Diu
- about 70 smaller ships from Calicut.
When the Mameluke fleet encountered the Portuguese, they evaded the port of Diu , on an island south of the coast of the Indian state of Gujarat , and awaited the attack, anchored under the protection of the artillery of the port fortress. The Portuguese fired at the enemy with superior artillery, and later their marine infantry also intervened with superior handguns. The Portuguese ships were more robust, seaworthy and mostly larger than the opposing ships. Even if the smaller galleys and dhows got close enough to the Portuguese ships, they would be too deep in the water and their soldiers could not board the Portuguese ships. The Portuguese also benefited from the dispute in the Muslim camp. The governor of Diu Malik Ayaz knew the military power of the Portuguese and wanted to navigate between the two warring parties. As the ruler of a Muslim city, he could not openly ally himself with the Christian Portuguese. But at the same time he did not want to wage war against her and stir her anger. He had already attacked at the end of the battle of Chaul and limited the aid to the Egyptians in the battle of Diu to the bare minimum.
consequences
The Mameluk prisoners were also murdered in a particularly cruel way for their contemporaries; Almeida wanted to avenge his son's death. Almeida received the payment of 300,000 gold xerafim . Malik Ayaz submitted to the King of Portugal as a vassal. Diu himself officially remained part of Gujarat for a few years.
Before the battle, on December 6, 1508, the new governor Afonso de Albuquerque reached India, but Almeida refused to hand over his office and kept his successor under arrest until March 1509.
The victory ushered in the supremacy and monopoly of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean for nearly 100 years. The new trade routes to Europe gained in importance, Asian goods (not just spices) came to Europe with the elimination of intermediate trade, and the rise of new trading cities such as Lisbon and Antwerp began.
Geostrategically, Mamluk Egypt was eliminated as a major power and could only maintain its independence until the defeat at Aleppo and Cairo in 1517. Then the Ottoman rule began in Egypt .
Portuguese supremacy in the Indian Ocean lasted until the rise of the English East India Company at the beginning of the 17th century and the naval battle of Suvali in 1612.
Individual evidence
- ↑ It was not called the British East India Company until 1707.
Coordinates: 20 ° 0 ′ 0 ″ N , 71 ° 0 ′ 0 ″ E