The siege of Hooghly was a military engagement between the
Mughal Army and the
Portuguese garrison of Fort Hooghly, the result was the capture of the fort and expulsion of the Portuguese.
Background
The Portuguese founded the town of
Hooghly-Chuchura in 1579, but the district has thousands of years of heritage in the form of the great
Kingdom of Bhurshut. The city flourished as a trading port and some religious structures were built. One such structure is a Christian church dedicated to a statue of
Mary, brought by the Portuguese.
in 1628,
Shah Jahan
Shihab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram (5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), better known by his regnal name Shah Jahan I (; ), was the fifth emperor of the Mughal Empire, reigning from January 1628 until July 1658. Under his emperorship, the Mugha ...
became the new emperor of the
Mughal Empire, in the same time, news reached from
Qasim Khan Juvayni, the
Governor of
Bengal that the Portuguese were committing acts of piracy, smuggling, kidnapping, and the slave trade, Shah Jahan resolved to curb the Portuguese acts. It is reported by
Om Prakash that the Portuguese become brazen and confident as they though they are superior than the Mughals in open wide
naval conflict like
Ganges river while also boosted by the
Arakanese allies.
Thus in bolster the Portuguese act of raids which so sever that causing the
Nawabs of Bengal
The Nawab of Bengal ( bn, বাংলার নবাব) was the hereditary ruler of Bengal Subah in Mughal India. In the early 18th-century, the Nawab of Bengal was the ''de facto'' independent ruler of the three regions of Bengal, Bihar, ...
grew worried.
Siege
In 1632,
Shah Jahan
Shihab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram (5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), better known by his regnal name Shah Jahan I (; ), was the fifth emperor of the Mughal Empire, reigning from January 1628 until July 1658. Under his emperorship, the Mugha ...
ordered
Qasim Khan
Qasím Khan (or ''Qasim of Kasimov'') (died 1469) was the first khan of the Tatar Qasim Khanate, from 1452 to his death in 1469. He was the son of Kazan khan Oluğ Möxämmäd.
He participated in the battles of Belyov in 1437 and of Suzdal in ...
to attack the Portuguese and expel them totally. The Mughal Army consisted of 150,000 men, 90
war elephants, and 14,000 cavalry.
[Saugata Bhaduri, p. 61] In June, they arrived and besieged the fort, the Portuguese garrison consisted of only 300 Portuguese and 700 Indian converts, they also had 300 vessels, the fort was heavily fortified,
[Calcutta Review, 94-95, p. 265] they were led by Captain Manoel de Azavedo,
the Portuguese held out for 3 months, the Portuguese tried to negotiate with the Emperor by offering him a huge sum of money and promised to pay tribute, but at the same time they were making a great effort to complete their war preparations to resist the Mughal Army, so they prepared a division of artillery to fight the enemy. until when Mughals dug a
mine and blew a portion of the walls,
the Mughals swiftly entered the fort and defeated the garrison,
[John Clark Marshman, p. 139] The Mughals only lost 1000 men during the siege
while the Portuguese lost 1000 men, 4000 were enslaved including women and children, all ships were captured except 3, only 3000 escaped the sack
[Saugata Bhaduri, p. 62] and around 10,000 native Indians were liberated.
See also
*
Mughal–Portuguese War (1692–1693)
The Mughal–Portuguese War of 1692–1693Alexandre Lobato: ''Relações Luso-Maratas 1658-1737'', Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos, Lisboa, 1965, pp. 35-36. was a brief conflict between the Moghal Empire and Portuguese India, launch ...
References
{{coord missing, West Bengal
Hooghly
Hooghly
Hooghly
17th century in Portuguese India
Hooghly
1632 in India
1630s in the Mughal Empire