The Art of War - The Portuguese in India C. 1500Foreword:First of all, let us recall one essential fact: Portugal is a small kingdom of less than a million inhabitants in 1500. India is months away from navigation. The Portuguese do not have the means to achieve substantial territorial conquests because they could not recruit and maintain enough troops to do so. The objective of the Portuguese in India is to confiscate for their benefit the maritime trade, so they will not take directly or indirectly (by means of agreements, factories, forts) that the main port and market cities which punctuate these trade routes. The nodal element of the Portuguese Armed Forces in India is therefore the warship (And at the defensive level: the fort) ...
The geographical and climatic context:2 things to keep in mind: at the climatic level the importance of the monsoon regime, and at the geographical level, the fact that Kerala (main Portuguese settlement area) is a very fragmented coastal region (because of the many rivers flowing into the Indian Ocean on its territory) and isolated from the subcontinent by the chain of Western Ghats.
The climate and its consequences:The monsoon closes ocean navigation and sailing from port to port from February to July. The weather conditions are such that war on land as well as on sea becomes impossible: during this period, garrisons and fleets Portuguese are isolated and could only rely to itself.
Generally in Kerala the rainfall is very abundant, and the climate warm (30 ° Celsius on average) and wet: the organisms are exhausted quickly, the diseases and the wounds do not heals.
All these parameters mean that the Portuguese will always have a hard time maintaining and rebuilding already small numbers at the start: the Portuguese fight systematically outnumbered, often very important! (Sanjay Subrahmanyam estimates that during the first years of the Portuguese presence in India, the total numbers present at the same time will never exceed 4000 men !!!).
The Portuguese will therefore complement their troops with Allied local ships and troops, with the additional benefit of having a better knowledge of the terrain thanks to the natives (Their main ally will be the famous corsair Timoji).
The terrain and its consequences:Estuaries, lagoons, swamps (Today Kerala is famous for its "BackWaters"), here are the types of land that the Portuguese will find most often around the port cities in which they will settle.
Their most important ships - the carracks - will rarely venture into these areas, both sea and land.
Their opponents will often have large fleets of small sailing boats and / or oars, including what the Portuguese call Paraos, the equivalent of our Fustas, small galleys with 20 to 40 rowers, equipped with light artillery, that the Portuguese will quickly implement or will be implemented by their allies.
Naval war:The warship is by far the most important and vital element of the Portuguese military strategy in India, if only because it is in these ships that the Portuguese go to India, because it is on board these ships that they come and go between the various allied ports or in their possession, and that it is often in these ships that they spend most of their time!
Warships are used to bomb enemy port cities and weaken them, bombardment eventually followed by a landing of troops to occupy or loot / burn the city.
The carracks are primarily intended to return to Portugal the holds loaded with spices, and will be engaged in combat only in case of need, bringing at that time a firepower superior to the caravels and larger boarding teams .
It is among the larger carracks that the Captains-Majors choose a Capitane, flagship.
The lighter and sweeter caravels are used for maritime patrols and the Pirates hunt, many in the area, while the carracks outside their fire support role load spices and other goods.
The Portuguese do not disdain to use their caravels to indulge in piracy against the merchant ships of the Arabian Peninsula or Calicut!
Soon, the Portuguese will use the same light boats than those used by natives to fight more effectively in wetlands, and / or use the services of their local allies. They will also build local fustas and brigantines.
The land war:The land war will be conducted with the objective of direct or indirect control (through the construction of a fort and the maintenance of a garrison) of port cities.
In fact the war on earth will be essentially a siege war, the Portuguese besieging a port city or being besieged in a port city!
Warships will be very useful in a role of fire support of their artillery for the attack or the defense of these cities. Part of their artillery may be unloaded, and artillery will be brought from Portugal for the attack or to fill the land defenses.
Outside crisis periods, the Portuguese will even bury some of their pieces of artillery to protect them from the climate and the sight of enemy spies, and will unearth them during the fighting (this is the case when the siege of Cannanore in 1507).
The role of the artillery will be so important that the Portuguese chroniclers make much of the loss of artillery pieces at the hands of the enemy, or the capture of enemy artillery (This is particularly true during the conquest of Goa).
On the other hand little or no cavalry, the horses not supporting the trip from Portugal and all the acclimatizing ways very badly in India: the few horses which will have the Portuguese will be captured to the enemy or bought on the spot. The war in Kerala is mostly a war of infantry and artillery!
Portuguese technological and technical superiority, keys to victory:The main - and decisive! - advantage of the Portuguese over their Moslem and Hindu opponents in India is their technological and technical superiority!
Technological given the quality of their weapons, and technical given the quality of their implementation!
Ships first:
The Portuguese mainly have 2 types of ships, intended for ocean navigation: the carrack and the caravel.
These two types of ships are so-called "round" vessels, with high gunwales, with real "castles" at the stern and at the bow.
The carrack is equipped with mostly square sails, has large holds, and carries a large number of heavy and light pieces of artillery. The crew is important in numbers. It is heavy, maneuvering badly but is very robust and powerfully armed. Its role is mainly to bring back spices to Portugal, but it will be used regularly also for the war.
(A Carrack , circa 1540- It's a wood model by Mamoli at 1/54 scale)The caravel is smaller and lighter than the carrack. Its small draft allows it to navigate the coast, to borrow estuaries and to venture in case of need on rivers and lagoons. His Latin sails allow him to go upwind. She carries light artillery. The crew is reduced. It is less powerful than the carrack but fast and manoeuvrable: it is the ideal ship for the reconnaissance, the patrols, the hunt for the pirates or ... the piracy!
The Portuguese Armadas made up of both carracks and caravels are versatile and efficient fleets!
Muslims and Hindus have only small merchant ships and / or war to oppose to the Portuguese: the Arab Sambuks, the Hindu Paraos are small ships, low on the water, provided with some artillery but light only. Crews are reduced.
(An Arab sambuk)Boarding the high Portuguese ships is a difficult or impossible task for the crews of Indian ships! Conversely, the boarding is facilitated for the Portuguese.
And yet the Indian artillery does not have the power and scope to threaten the Portuguese ships, while in the long and medium range the Portuguese artillery is wreaking havoc, so paradoxically the best chance of the Indians is to arrive the as close as possible and as soon as possible to Portuguese ships!
(I say Indians to refer indifferently to Hindus and Muslims)
To do this, they will preferably attack the Portuguese fleets at anchor, at night, and hide as much as possible under the foliage of the lagoons, estuaries and swamps to cover their approach. At a minimum, they will systematically try to attack Portuguese ships at the port.
Of course, where the Portuguese will rarely line up more than fifteen ships, sometimes much less, the Indians will often assemble fleets of several dozens, sometimes even nearly 200 small warships, and will rely on their number to overwhelm the Portuguese.
But the equation will soon prove impossible to solve for the Indians, who have little or no individual firearms, but especially bows, javelins and firepots: arrived within shooting range , they will be struck down by the Portuguese "espingardes" (arquebuses), who also use the crossbow. And in addition to the top of their "castles" the Portuguese have the advantage of the shooting position!
I also spoke of technical superiority, because the Portuguese are much more experienced and trained than the Indians in the use of firearms (Artillery or arquebus) and war in general, Kerala and the Malabar coasts knowing little armed clashes in this period of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century.
In fact, the only time the Indians will be able to threaten the Portuguese at sea will be when the Mamluk fleet, made up of Western-style warships (carracks and galeasses) and artillery and artillerymen worthy of the name, will intervene in Indian Ocean.
But these ships will be too few and their crews too little seasoned to tip the balance in their favor, and the threat will ultimately be neutralized by the Portuguese.
In 1517, the Ottoman Turks absorb the Mamluk Sultanate but will only intervene too much later in the Indian Ocean, and too little ...
In short, at sea, the superiority of the Portuguese is real, and from the moment when their objectives are limited to the coastal zones, this advantage on sea turns out to be absolutely decisive!
They will certainly have more difficulty on land where the Indians sometimes have a larger artillery (bombards), much higher numbers, and mercenaries (Persians, Turks, Renegades) more seasoned. But once established in their forts, the superiority of their firearms, their artillery and their training allows them to repel the waves of assault of an enemy often much higher in number (from 4 to 20 times more numerous).
(The Portuguese fort in Calicut) Let us add that dominating the seas, their ships often provide the Portuguese with a valuable fire support by bombarding the enemy from the sea, the land battles taking place almost systematically on the coastal fringes!
Another problem on earth is the presence of hostile Muslim city communities, likely to revolt at unwelcome moments (this is the case after the first take of Goa in 1510): the Portuguese will not hesitate to chase off or make slaughter of hostile muslims.
In short, at the price of superhuman efforts and major losses, the Portuguese dominate their enemies on land as well as on sea!
The Importance of Diplomacy and Intelligence:The Portuguese will, moreover, know very well use diplomacy and intelligence!
After the first trial and error, when they understand that there are no Christian kingdoms in India and that Muslims are many and influential, the Portuguese will play Indians against each other!
To counter Calicut, they will ally with his rival Cochin. By these means and whith their victories, their allies will be more and more numerous.
The Indians were quick to point out the Portuguese military superiority and the profits they can draw from their alliance: Cochin, or Cannanore will long be allied with the Portuguese, and many kings will rally to them to escape the suzerainty of the main kingdoms of the Kerala.
Timoji the Corsair will be a valuable ally of the Portuguese in providing men and light warships, as well as information on their enemies.
In parallel, the Portuguese will develop a very effective intelligence network, their informants will teach them a lot about the movements and the political situation of their enemies, and spread many false rumors distilled by the Portuguese that will deceive the enemy. Albuquerque will be particularly talented in this !
To life, to death !When an Aboriginal army or fleet is defeated, it has the opportunity to retreat to its lands and other ports.
When the Portuguese are defeated, the situation is quite different: on sea again they have the opportunity to reach an allied port, or even to return to Portugal.
On the ground the situation is very different if they cannot re-embark: the Portuguese soldiers have then no place to take refuge, and often clash with local suspicious or even hostile populations !
This parameter must be taken into account: the Portuguese have little escape in case of defeat, and that is also why they will often fight with a very high morale and a flawless self-sacrifice, succeeding in defeating local armies much higher in number, because for them it is absolutely a situation of life and death.
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April 28, 2024, 12:00:53 AM
