Negombo: History
The shallow waters of the Negombo Lagoon provided safe shelter for seafaring vessels and became one of the key ports along with Kalpitiya, Puttalam, Colombo, Kalutara and Galle, from which the Sri Lankan kingdoms conducted external trade.
The region was under the rule of the Sinhala monarchy based on Sri Jayawardanapura Kotte. The language used in the area was a regional dialect of Sinhala when the Portuguese arrived in the 16th century.
Negombo also served as a shelter for Arab vessels, whose descendants are the Sri Lankan Moors. Negombo was a major port known for its trading activity and was well known for its cinnamon cultivation. The cinnamon trade was controlled by the Sri Lankan kings and later by the Sri Lankan Moors.
Landing in the early 1500s, the Portuguese overthrew the Sinhala monarchy who were forced to relocate to Seethawaka. The Portuguese constructed a fort in Negombo and took over the trade of cinnamon to the west. During the Portuguese occupation, the Karava (the dominant seafaring clan of Negombo), who were previously Buddhist and Hindu were converted into Catholicism. Due to the sheer amount of conversions to Catholicism, present-day Negombo is sometimes known as 'Little Rome' due to nearly two thirds of its population being Catholic.
The Portuguese restructured the traditional production and management of cinnamon and maintained their control over the trade for more than a century. The decline of their power began in the 1630s when warfare between the Portuguese and the Kingdom of Kandy reached a stalemate. The King of Kandy turned to the Dutch for help.
The Dutch captured Negombo from the Portuguese in 1646 and negotiated an armistice with Portugal for ten years. During this period, the King of Kandy sought to provoke conflict between the nations by passing through the territories of the one to attack the other. On one occasion, he captured the fort of Negombo and sent the head of the Dutch commander, Adrian Vander Stell, to his countrymen in Galle. Although the Dutch managed to regain control of Negombo from the King by diplomatic means, hostilities continued. In particular, the disruption of the cinnamon trade was a favourite method of the King to harass the Dutch.
Throughout the eighteenth century, the demand for cinnamon from Ceylon outstripped the supply, and its quality appeared to have suffered. Other factors, including the continued hostility from the Kandyan Kingdom and a rival cinnamon exporter in the form of China, led to a 40% decline in the volume of cinnamon exported between 1785 and 1791, despite attempts to clear land around Negombo and create cinnamon plantations.
The legacy of the Dutch colonial era can be seen in the Negombo fort, constructed in 1672, and other Dutch buildings, including churches and the extensive canal system that runs 120 km (75 mi) from Colombo in the south, through Negombo to Puttalam in the north. …