Cochin - Art of War: Terrain

the trumar Raja the king of coochin was a man who had many troubles his throne was never secure and it wasn't just the political factions that surrounded him but members of his own family who were based in the nearby town of edali that were all maneuvering to seize his crown to make matters even worse he was a vassel to the samudri Raja of cut whose rule extended over many of the cities of the Malibar Coast including coochin thus the ruler of coochin needed something anything to stay on top opportunity would soon present itself when the

Portuguese had arrived in the Indian Ocean it wasn't long before War had broken out with Calicut the Europeans had dealt the samudri Raja one defeat after another they had bombarded the city several times and they had even destroyed the Calicut Fleet as a result many of the city states of the Malibar Coast rose up in defiance coochin was among them the triara Raja again the king of kin had welcomed in the Portuguese with open arms he allowed them to continue their trade in spice thus made them extremely wealthy and allowed them to build a fortress

in his City but now matters had taken a dramatic change for the worse the king of kochin now looked out at his City it was still rebuilding it was was not that long ago that it had been burned to the ground in February of 1503 Vasco deama the Admiral of India had left the Indian Ocean with his Armada he had left behind a flotilla of ships to guard coochin but those captains had abandoned their Post in search of plunder on the Red Sea and were subsequently destroyed by April of that year the samudri Raja also

known as the zamorin had sensed their weakness he raised a a massive Army of 50,000 Warriors in cakut and had marched on coin the tribe mpar Raja had at best 5,500 Warriors whom he placed under the command of his Heir Prince Narayan the warrior Prince had marched out and at the town of edali he put up a stout defense at the Fort of a river though outnumbered nearly 10 to one Narayan was able to hold off two direct assaults Roger Crowley in the book conquerors brings Justice to this Valiant stand quote after having some initial

military success the samud Raja bribed the prince's men into disaffection and N was killed the territory of coochin was eventually overrun but according to the laws of the Hindu military cast the 200 surviving members of the prince's Army swore themselves to Ritual death they shaved off all their hair and Advance towards Calicut killing everyone they met until they had been hacked down to the last man this sacrifice bought the king in the Portuguese time they retreated from coochin to the offshore island of vipen the samudri Raja of Calicut thus entered coochin and burned the city

to Embers but he wasn't able to reach the island of viin as the monsoon weather had set in the samudri fell back to Calicut as rain and rough Seas started to batter the Malibar Coast however he swore to return in August and D destroy all those who resisted him end quote in late August of 1503 The zamorin Returned but as he prepared to lay Siege to the island of viin his Scouts reported the arrival of an incoming Force two well armed ships had just entered the harbor of coochin they were under the command of Francisco

de Albuquerque a military man with a very short temper a few days later another Force ships would also arrive this new flet Tilla just happened to be under the command of Francisco's cousin his name was Alonso de Albuquerque this man possessed a natural flare for combat and his confidence was justified he was dedicated to Warfare in his nearly five Decades of life he had fought the Arabs in North Africa the Ottomans in Italy and the castilians in Portugal aonso was destined to also make a name for himself in the Indian Ocean in time he would

become one of the most impressive military commanders in history these six ships were a contingent to the fifth Portuguese Armada their presence was immediately felt the zamorin the samudri Raja dismantled his Siege and withdrew his army he decided to hold off hostilities till early the next year where he predicted correctly that the Portuguese Armada would once again have to leave make no mistake the udri was definitely going to be back and this time with greater numbers [Music] Francisco the Albuquerque immediately took the credit for quote routing the army of Calicut however all the Portuguese commanders

knew that coochin was by no means out of danger they had to move fast a punitive raid was launched in the vanad lagoon Villages that had helped the zamorin were attacked and destroyed the city of edali where the Rival family members of the king of coin lived was brutally raped Ed to the ground and many of those Rivals were put to death the Portuguese after all were not going to take any chances with someone else coming to power in coochin in record time Fort Santiago later named Fort Manuel was built at the mouth of the

harbor inside of the fort the Portuguese built their first church in India named Sao Bartholomew their message was clear the Europeans were here to stay Alonso de Albuquerque meanwhile LED negotiations with the queen region to the city of colam where spices were purchased and another Portuguese Factory was to be built however the monsoon winds were shifting and the time to leave was quickly approaching in late January of 1504 the fifth Portuguese Armada departed for home its Journey would be ill- fated Francisco de Albuquerque hit rough weather in the mosm beak Channel and was never heard

from again of the 10 ships that had been part of the Armada only five made it back to Portugal and those that did including the one carrying Alfonso de Albuquerque only barely made it however before Alfonso left he made a decision that would forever shape the Portuguese fortune in India Alonso had placed one of his most skilled and articulate captains in charge of the defense of coochin that man's name was Duart peso Pereira Duart Peko Pereira was born in Lisbon in the year 1460 he was the embod of a renaissance man he was intelligent well-educated

inquisitive and perfectly at home on the battlefield the great poet Louise de camoens would describe him as the Portuguese Achilles in the epic poem ladas where he was described as having a pen in one hand and a sword in the other Dart seemed to have been involved everywhere in the early Portuguese Empire in 1475 he graduated with a formal education and would go on to become the king of Portugal's personal Squire where he would become extremely well acquainted with the Intrigue of the Court later he would be involved in various Expeditions along the coast of

West Africa when he got Shipwrecked in one of his journeys he was picked up and saved by Bartholomew Diaz on his famous return from the Cape of Good Hope in 1494 Duart was also involved in the critical treaty yor deia which divided the world between the Spanish and the Portuguese in 1488 it was even hinted that he might have been the first European to have discovered the coast of South America 2 years prior to the celebrated time of cabal in 1500 he was an avid learner who wrote books on exploration studied the interaction of primates

calculated the ark Meridian to its most accurate degree and was one of the first Europeans to scientifically understand the relationship between the Moon and the tides indeed the mathematical models he formulated were able to predict the rhythm of the tides better than anyone had ever done before this last bit of knowledge by the way would one day strangely enough save his life in early 1504 the samudri of Calicut was busy at the work of logistics he had called in reinforcements from across his domain to gather an army of 60,000 Men by some estimates it was

as high as 87,000 he had expanded his Fleet to 200 60 ships albeit many were relatively minor and somewhat fragile vessels but they did have guns from the Ottomans the samudri purchased over 300 smaller cannons though they were a bit obsolete the venetians meanwhile had secretly dispatched two agents that had technical knowledge which allowed the king of Calicut to forge five larger cannons these Venetian Guns by the way were powerful enough to destroy Portuguese ships the Portuguese on the other hand had 150 men along with three ships two caravels and one carak the triara Raja

rallied his army and sent out a plea for Mercenaries he was hoping for 30,000 recruits only 8,000 showed up but many deserted leaving about 5,000 n Warriors in the end Dart Perera had been well informed of what his opponent was doing during the course of the entire battle the Portuguese commanders intelligence service was exceptional it revealed his enemy's movements composition Supply chains everything down to the five Venetian cannons that the samudri had made Perera first made it a point to bolster morale he wanted everyone to know that the Portuguese were here to defend the city

to the last he stockpiled food surveyed the land for the most defensible locations and had his men build wooden stockades he kept the population of coachin from abandoning the city instead he got them to work creating extra canid balls from Stone he also had the people carve 12T long Spears thousands of them Dart then created large wooden shields for his ships each were covered with mats of cotton thus his ships would be protected from small cannon fire he then began to deploy his men 39 men in the carak were positioned at Fort Manuel some of

the men were placed in the city of coochin and the rest were deployed along the Lagoon at various strategic Crossing points in these narrow forwards and Crossing points the wooden Spears were drilled into the lake bed at various depths some were embedded very deep to slow a person's movement across the shallow water whereas other Spears were positioned at a level that they would skewer a man alive if he fell on them the 5,000 Niar Warriors at coochin were also positioned alongside the Portuguese men now all that was left was to await the arrival of the

samudri and his army on March 31st 1504 the zamorin of Calicut arrived he moved in on the Ford of kumbalam with the intent to cross the Lagoon and Advance on the city here Perera decided to make his stand but this sudden appearance of over 60,000 Warriors a Calicut shattered his men's morale many fled leaving only 90 Portuguese and a few hundred Nar Dart immediately deployed all three of his ships to the Ford the samudri Raj countered this by bringing up his big Venetian cannons herera quickly responded to this new threat he had his men keep

up a sporadic fire on the Cannons which in turn dispersed their Crews the three ships then quickly turned around and began to fire on anyone who attempted to cross the Ford of calan the Raja in turn ordered a portion of his Calicut Fleet to attack over a 150 ships moved in but it was low tide so only a handful could make it through through the shallow Waters of the Lagoon at a time the Portuguese Sailors brought their guns to bear and began to pick them off in peace meal when the Indians attempted to return fire

with their smaller cannons the cannonballs simply bounced off the padded wooden Shields that day wave after wave after wave of Naval attack was sent in all of them failed as the calut death toll soared the Carnage became so bad that even the wreckage of the Indian ships became an obstacle without this much needed Naval support the samudri would not dare have his men cross the kumbalam Ford by midday he called off the attack it was a humiliating beginning for the king of Calicut at least 30 ships destroyed and 1,500 casualties but the Raja was by

no means done on April 7th a week later the samudri Raja attacked again his plan this time was a two-pronged assault the first portion was a diversionary naval attack on the city if the Portuguese raced the secure coach Shin they would leave the pass of kumbalam open at which time the Raja of Calicut could cross with his men and attack of course it wasn't long before Dart Pereira knew of his strategy and planned accordingly the Portuguese Commander positioned his stronger carak at the mouth of the harbor and left his two faster caraval at the kumbalam

Ford the carak was soon fighting off the enemy erera had his faster caravels RAC to assist the carak when the Sam's men saw the incoming ships they realized that they were going to be caught in a crossfire they brought down their sails and quickly retreated Dart knew that the tide was going out at low tide the fort of kumbalam could be crossed he had all three of his ships get back to it as fast as they could the Portuguese ftill arrived just in the Nick at time and began to leash their guns on anything that

moved the Raj's fleet was battered and anyone attempting to cross the Ford soon found themselves in a watery grave this time the samudri would lose 19 ships and 300 men Dart wasted no time the next day on April 8th he took the offensive and had his ships launch a series of attacks along the entire Lagoon at key locations the Portuguese would make landfall to destroy the Raja supplies and prove that his soldiers were vulnerable even in their camps now while these attacks didn't do much damage it did psychologically stun the Warriors of Calicut and greatly

angered the samudri Raja who now fiercely wanted those Portuguese ships destroyed on April 9th 1504 the zamorin redeployed his Venetian guns near the city of coochin where the Portuguese Fleet had taken anchor the batteria guns that were placed were heavily defended with wooden ramparts making them impers ious to bombardment the samudri made it a point to keep his vulnerable Fleet back hoping that his cannons could finish the job then with a single command from the Raja the Cannons opened up and began firing on pera's ships now keep in mind that these guns were powerful enough

to demolish the ships and they had the range to hit them but their Crews were inexperienced and lacked the Precision to hit their targets one volley after another fell short Dart commanded his men to do nothing for several hours the Venetian guns fired without hitting anything and without taking any return fire this confused the samudri and his men who came to the decision that the Portuguese must be out of ammunition the Venetian guns were moved out of their protective positions to get a better shot and the Calicut Fleet decided to sail in to take advantage

of what seemed like an obviously golden opportunity this was precisely what DART Pereira was waiting for at Point Blank Range the Portuguese Fleet came to life one volley after another was Unleashed smashing the Raja ships to pieces and when the wind turned to their favor dart's men sailed up to the now exposed Venetian guns and utterly destroyed [Music] them a demoralized samudri Raja was forced to retreat his forces once again his casualty list was extensive it was in late April that dart's spies reported that the zamorin had taken down his camp at the kumbalam Ford

and had started to March North at first it seemed that the forces of Calicut were done and were retreating back to their city but soon it became apparent that they were only maneuvering into a new position at the island of arul the zamri Raja had regained his nerve for battle and was now ready to unleash everything he had Dart Pereira had previously surveyed the island of Aral in detail it was the closest island to the Peninsula that coin sat on a mere 500 ft of water separated the two in the northern part of the island

was the Ford of pagar and in the southern portion was the Ford of palti with only about 150 men there was no way the Portuguese could defend both Dart knew that the samudri was counting on this but he also knew a lot about the Fords he knew that pagar in the north was fordable on foot only at low tide and that poti in the South was only affordable with ships at high tide as the fairies could not operate in shallow water as mentioned before the Portuguese Commander had done his research on Tides he knew exactly

when the low and the High Tides would be he thus planned accordingly two stockades were built at both passes spikes and Spears were drilled into the Ford water beds he also had his men prepared to move back and forth quickly along with their cannons before the samudri Raja had even positioned himself on the island Dart had his men entered the island to cut down all the trees and vegetation so that there would be absolutely no cover on May 1st 1504 the zamorin attacked in force it was high tide which meant the attack would come in

the south at the Ford of paleri Dart had his men ready his ships and Shore batteries began opening fire on the zoran's men who were preparing to embark on their fairies as there was no vegetation to hide in they made easy targets and when the Sim's men attempted to set up their own cannons they too were easily picked off in fact at certain points the Portuguese Sailors would come ashore Rush the Indian batteries and Spike the Cannons to explode the samudri Raja ships were once again no match for the Portuguese caravels they were decimated by

concentrated gunfire this fighting went on for hours and soon the tide went out Dart now knew it was time to share shift to the northern Fort of pagar as predicted the zamorin had a column of shocked troops sent in but even before they could enter the fort they came under intense cannon fire those that did make it into the Lagoon moved slowly some of these soldiers had their feet impaled on the spikes that the engineers of Co chin had drilled into the shallow Waters making them move even slower they made little progress and took heavy

casualties but at the same time the situation for the Portuguese and the Nars Co chin was becoming desperate many were wounded and exhausted supplies and ammunition were running low it became evidently clear that the defenses that Dart had in place were simply not enough now had the samudri Raja attacked again immediately which he planned to do he simply would have overwhelmed The Defenders however that very night gale force winds and heavy rain struck the battlefield nobody could move what's worse a massive Calera epid epidemic broke out in the zamorin camp in the course of the

coming week kala would claim over 10,000 men that week gave the Portuguese time to greatly strengthen all of their defenses larger stockades more spikes in the water and rest for the men they were going to need it on May 7th 1504 the zamor launched his largest assault yet it was divided into three contingents 12,000 men made up the front another 12,000 men in the second wave and 15,000 along with Engineers to hack down the stockades brought up the rear it was low tide so once again the crossing would have to be at the Ford of

pagar the Portuguese were estimated to have about a 100 men along with about 200 Warriors of coochin so roughly 300 but in that narrow Corridor they were determined to make the zamorin's numbers count for nothing the zamorin gave the command for his army to advance and take the opposite bank they were immediately under Portuguese gunfire the soldiers of calicot waited into the water which slowed down their progress when they hit the embedded spikes and had their feet impale they went even slower however the zamorin's military timetable had not anticipated this the second and the third

wave came up precisely when they were supposed to but the slowed movement of that first wave forced them all together they became compacted into one giant mass of human bodies all slowly making their way across the water darts now had all of his cannons direct their fire into this mound the results were horrific cannonballs hit the mob of men gutting open large suedes some incoming rounds would tear their way through five or even six lines of men Portuguese Precision was spoton at one point a talented Gunner even fired directly at the zamorin's T killing one

of the king's AIDS right next to him as the day progressed the artillery was relentless and yet the zamorin threw even more men into the fight surprisingly his men made it to the opposite Bank there they had to overcome a stockade but some of the Defenders abandoned their positions and ran for their lives it would seem that the zamorin had achieved his goal but then the tide came in and stopped all progress the Warriors of Calicut were now reduced to swimming back in the middle of Canon fire this attack would be one of the most

costly defeats the samudri had to endure but he knew he had come with an a hair's breath of Victory analyzing everything that had happened the king of Calicut now came up with one final plan to crush his enemy 3 weeks later in late may he had 30,000 men positioned at the Ford of pagar at the Fort of palti he had his men create floating castles essentially large lumbering rafts with towers and heavily reinforced walls each had the capacity to hold a large contingent of men at high tide he had his castles begin drifting Across the

Water spearheaded by fire barges Dart sent in his ships they were able to evade the fire barges but their cannons were in effective against the strong walls of the floating fortresses the zamorin's men had nearly made it to the other side and things were looking very Grim for the Portuguese Dart was remembered as uttering the line Lord don't make me pay for my sins just yet he then had all of his ships concentrate their fire on a single leading floating Castle now while it was not enough Firepower to destroy it it was able to undo

the structural Integrity of the craft the castle literally began to come undone and its heavy weight caused it to drag along the bottom eventually it got stuck seeing this the same process was repeated on the rest of the zoran's fleet which flowed them down and then the tide went out getting them all stuck in the mud Dart had his men quickly board the castles set them on fire and then had them Escape as the tide went out many of the men on those floating fortresses never made it back meanwhile to the north at the Ford

of pagar with a low tide the zamorin's men began to Coss but by now Pereira had his men and his ships redeployed at the Ford they would repeat their performance in the prior assault once again they would dish out massive Carnage and once again the zamorin's attack would [Music] fail that day the zamorin had the greatest number of casualties of any assault in the aftermath his nerves were shattered the morale of his men destroyed other assaults would be ordered over the next few days but they would never have the same resolve or fortitude again on

June 24th 1504 the king of Calicut now a Broken Man abdicated his throne he would pass his crown on to his nephew and Heir Prince nadarim now with poor weather coming in and few other options the army of Calicut retreated on July 3rd the Battle of coochin was over meanwhile on the other side of the world the king of Portugal Manuel I had laid down the plans to launch the sixth Portuguese Armada it was a powerful force built with the assumption that coachin and the other Malibar city states had likely already fallen thus this new

Armada was prepared for a massive fight but when the ships arrived in the Indian Ocean they were in for a shock Roger Crowley explains quote the fleet that relieved coin in the Autumn of 1504 was substantial 14 carxs including five large and newly built ones each carrying a substantial complement of soldiers Sailors and great Firepower with news of perera's great victory in the samri's abdication resounding up and down the Malibar Coast these new arrivals made a powerful impression on the trading cities and their rulers the word was out the Portuguese were evidently Invincible end quote

Duart peso Pereira had saved coochin and arguably the Portuguese Empire in India he would return to lison in 155 to a hero's welcome eventually he returned to being a renaissance man Pera would write books continue to explore and engage in his mathematical Pursuits however for a man who gave so much for his country he was ironically brought down by the Intrigue of the Portuguese Court he was falsely accused of corruption and theft briefly imprisoned eventually exonerated but he would never regain his former Fame he would die in obscurity in 1533 yet his contribution was undeniable

Portugal a small impoverished country only a few decades back was now in the cusp of incredible greatness the time of Discovery was over the sea Passage to India had become essentially a highway the time of Commerce creating new trade routes and outposts was well established the money was flowing in now the king of Portugal was about to unleash two incredibly gifted military commanders Francisco de almea and Alonso de Albuquerque the time of Conquest had [Music] begun