Battle of Diu (1509)

The naval Battle of Diu was a critical sea battle that took place on 2–February 3, 1509 near the port town of Diu, India coord|20|N|71|E, between Portugal and a joint fleet of the Mamlûk Burji Sultanate of Egypt, the Zamorin of Calicut and the Sultan of Gujarat, with only technical maritime support from the Republic of Venice and the Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik).ref|rogers It is also referred to sometimes as the Second Battle of Chaul (Refer section below on precursor to battle).

This battle is critical from a strategic perspective since it marks the beginning of the dominance of the Europeans in the Asian naval theater. It also marks the spillover of the Christian-Islamic power struggle in Europe and the Middle East, into the Indian Ocean which was a dominant arena of international trade at that time. The battle set the stage for domination of trade in the Indian Ocean by the Portuguese for the next century, and thus greatly assisted the growth of the Portuguese Empire.

Background

The Portuguese followed this battle by rapidly capturing key ports/coastal areas around the Indian Ocean like Mombasa, Socotra, Muscat, Ormuz, Goa, Ceylon and Malacca. This allowed them to circumvent the traditional spice route controlled by the Arabs and the Venetians, and by routing the trade down the Cape of Good Hope, they also simultaneously crippled the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and the of Gujarat Sultanate. The Portuguese sea monopoly lasted until the advent of the British East India Company and the Battle of Swally in 1612.

The Samoothiri Raja (anglicised to Zamorin), was incensed at the Portuguese because of their conduct since Vasco da Gama had landed in his kingdom in 1498, and hence had joined forces with the Sultan of Gujarat.

The Egyptian fleet,was sent by the Mamluk Sultan , Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghawri , in 1507 to support, the then Muslim Sultan of Gujarat, Mahmud Begada.

Precursor to the battle

Diu was a critical outpost in the overall spice trade from India. The Mamluks along with the Venetians controlled the flow of spice from India to Europe in a symbiotic relationship. The Portuguese attempt to establish trade with India was to break this stronghold. The King of Portugal, Manuel I fresh from Vasco da Gama's exploits, sent out his first Viceroy, Dom Francisco de Almeida in 1505 with twenty-one ships to strengthen the fledgling Portuguese empire in East Africa and India.

The new Mamluk fleet set out for India in 1507, first fortifying Jeddah against a possible Portuguese attack. It then passed through Aden at the tip of the Red Sea, where it received support from the Tahirid sultan, and then, in 1508, crossed the Indian Ocean to the port of Diu.ref|palmira

In addition to enforcing Portuguese rule, the battle was undertaken to also avenge the defeat at the first Battle of Chaul in March 1508, where Dom Lourenço de Almeida, son of the Viceroy was killed. The Viceroy was so enraged at this death that he is supposed to have said, "He who ate the chick has also to eat the rooster, or pay for it".

At that battle the recently arrived Egyptian fleet, along with the fleet from the Sultan of Gujarat, had surprised the Portuguese fleet over three days of combat. The Egyptian fleet isolated his ship, but let the others escape, taking nine captives back to Diu. The "Mirat Sikandari", a Persian account of the Kingdom of Gujarat details this battle as a minor infraction.ref|Bayley

The Viceroy was forced to chase the Egyptian fleet to avenge his son's death, because soon on December 6,1508 his replacement, the next Viceroy, Afonso de Albuquerque, arrived with orders from the King of Portugal to replace him.

Battle

Mamluk Egyptian-Gujarat Fleet

* About 100 galleys and dhows

Portuguese ships

* Five large "naus": "Flor do Mar" (Viceroy's flagship), "Espírito Santo" (captain Nuno Vaz Pereira), "Belém" (Jorge de Melo Pereira), "Great King" (Francisco de Távora), and "Great Taforea" (Fernão de Magalhães)
* Four smaller "naus": "Small Taforea" (Garcia de Sousa), "Santo António" (Martim Coelho), "Small King" (Manuel Teles Barreto) and "Andorinho" (Dom António de Noronha)
* Four "caravelas redondas": (captains António do Campo, Pero Cão, Filipe Rodrigues and Rui Soares)
* Two "caravelas Latinas": (captains Álvaro Peçanha and Luís Preto)
* Two "gales": (captains Paio Rodrigues de Sousa and Diogo Pires de Miranda)
* One "bergantim": (captain Simão Martins)

The Portuguese had eighteen ships commanded by the Viceroy, with about 1,500 Portuguese soldiers and 400 natives from Cochin. The Allied side had one hundred ships, but only twelve were major vessels; the rest were small shallow-draught craft.After detecting the Portuguese, who approached from Cochin to the south, and fearing their technical superiority, the Egyptians decided to take advantage of the port of Diu and its fort, which had its own artillery. It was therefore decided to stay anchored at this port and await an attack from the Portuguese. This may also have been due to the training of the Egyptians, who were used to the more sheltered bays in the Mediterranean. There they also relied upon land-based artillery reinforcements to defeat the enemy.The Portuguese started the battle with a massive naval bombardment using their on board artillery, followed by hand-to-hand combat in the harbor of Diu.

These Portuguese ships had guns of greater caliber, better artillery crews, and were better manned and better built. The Portuguese naval infantry also had an advantage over the Egyptians, not only because they were heavily armed and equipped (armor, arquebuses and a type of grenade made of clay with gunpowder inside), but also because they were seasoned professional seamen.

The tough state-of-the art multi-rigged Portuguese carracks and the fast caravels were built to weather the storms of the Atlantic Ocean, had a stern rudder, compass, and were bristling with cannon to port and starboard as well as fore and aft. The Indian Ocean dhows and Mediterranean-type galleys launched by the coalition of the Samoothiri Raja, Gujarat and Egypt were inadequate. The Portuguese ships were able to shoot their cannons and thus dissuade the smaller craft from coming near them. Even when they did come near, the smaller craft would have been low in the water, and so unable to board the Portuguese ships while being sprayed with small arms and cannon.

Aftermath

The spoils of the battle also included three royal flags of the Mamlûk Sultan of Cairo, that were sent to Portugal and are even today displayed in the Convento de Cristo, in the town of Tomar, spiritual home of the Knights Templar.The Viceroy extracted a payment of 300,000 gold xerafins, but rejected the offer of the city of Diu which he thought would be expensive to maintain, although he left a garrison there. The prisoners from the battle of Chaul were also rescued.The treatment of the Egyptian captives by the Portuguese was brutal. The Viceroy ordered most of them to be hanged, burnt alive or torn to pieces by tying them to the mouths of the cannons, in retaliation for his son's death. Commenting on the battle after winning it, Francisco de Almeida said: "As long as you may be powerful at sea, you will hold India as yours; and if you do not possess this power, little will avail you a fortress on the shore."ref|ghoshInterestingly, after handing over the Viceroy's post to his successor, Dom Afonso de Albuquerque, Dom Francisco de Almeida left for Portugal in November, 1509, and in December, 1509 was himself killed by the Khoikhoi tribe, near the Cape of Good Hope.

References

* Rogers, Clifford J. "Readings on the Military Transformation of Early Modern Europe", San Francisco:Westview Press, 1995, pp. 299-333 [http://www.angelfire.com/ga4/guilmartin.com/Revolution.html]
* Brummett, Palmira."Ottoman Seapower and Levantine Diplomacy in the Age of Discovery", SUNY Press, New York, 1994, ISBN 0791417018 , pp. 35, 171,22
* de Camões, Luís. "The Lusiadas", 288pp, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002, ISBN 0192801511, 254
* Bayley, Edward C. "The Local Muhammadan Dynasties: Gujarat", London, 1886, 222
* Ghosh, Amitav "The Iman and the Indian: Prose Pieces", Orient Longman, New Delhi, 2002, ISBN 8175300477, 377pp, 107
* Monteiro, Cmdr. Saturnino ,"Batalhas e Combates da Marinha Portuguesa", Vol. I, A.N.C., Library Sá da Costa Editor, Lisbon 2001
* Kerr, Robert, "General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, arranged in a systematic order", 1881, 14 vols. [http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/kerr/index.html#index At Project Gutenberg, Columbia University]

Additional readings

* Subrahmanyan, Sanjay. "The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500-1700 - A Political and Economic History", 384pp, Longmans, London, 1993, ISBN 0582050685
* Brummett, Palmira."Ottoman Seapower and Levantine Diplomacy in the Age of Discovery", SUNY Press, New York, 1994, ISBN 0791417018
* Kuzhippalli-Skaria, Mathew. "Portuguese and the Sultanate of Gujarat, 1500-1573", 263pp, Mittal Publishers & Distr., New Delhi, 1986,

ee also

* Battle of Swally