Cambodian–Dutch War

The Cambodian–Dutch War (Dutch: Cambodjaans-Nederlandse Oorlog; Khmer: សង្គ្រាមកម្ពុជា-ហូឡង់) from 1643–1644 was a conflict sparked by a coup which brought a new Cambodian King to the throne who converted to Islam with the help of Malay traders resident in the country. The new King initiated a massacre of Dutch East India Company employees and subsequently defeated the Dutch forces sent to extract retribution from the Cambodians.

Cambodian–Dutch War
Gezicht op Banda, zuidelijke Mekong Rijksmuseum
Date 1643–1644 Location Oudong, Mekong River Result Cambodian victory
Belligerents
Oudong Kingdom	Dutch East India Company
Commanders and leaders
Ocknia Rawy Sultan Ibrahim (also known as King Ramathipothei, formerly Prince Ponhea Chan)	Pierre de Rogemortes † Kapitein Hendricq Harouse (POW) Simon Jacobsz Dompkens (POW)
Strength
Unknown	1643: Unknown 1644: 432 troops 9 warships
Casualties and losses
An estimated 1,000 Cambodians dead	36 employees massacred, 156 soldiers dead, many warships and 276 soldiers captured

The Conflict

Van Galen visits the king of Cambodia.

In 1635, Cambodian ships brought products and silk to sell on the island of Java (Indonesia), but these goods were intercepted by the Dutch in the Sea of Makassar in the Sulawesi archipelago and detained for a year. The news of the detention reached the King of Cambodia, So the Cambodia king sent this problem to Samdech Preah Uotey to report this matter for the Dutch to release the Cambodian ships back, However there was no response, Dutch not reply for release the Cambodian ships back. In 1636, a Dutch cargo ship named "Noordwijk" that wanted to sell copper to the Annam but this ship lost map and came to the port of Peam province of Cambodia in the Kampuchea Krom region. At that time, the Cambodian Customs Ministry intercepted and confiscated 30 cannons and 500 haps of copper (1 hap = 15 kg), equivalent to 7.5 tons. The seizure of the goods did not release to the Dutch. Until 1637, the Dutch sent "Henry Hagenaar", the governor-general of Batavia of the Dutch East Indies Company (present-day Jakarta, Indonesia), to Cambodia with four other Dutch ships as a mediator to resolve the dispute over the detention of the Dutch ships. Henry Hagenaar arrived Cambodia in May and His ship face to face of the Portuguese ships , And they have a conflict, After Henry Hagenaar capture Portuguese ship and not care of Cambodia Law. When Henry Hagenaar came to meet the King of Cambodia in the capital of Oudong to The Royal Letter of Credence Ceremony, he was severely reprimanded by the King for his arbitrary seizure of a Portuguese ship. As a result, relations between the Dutch and Cambodia were not good at that time.

The massacred of 1642

Hollandse bootsman vermoord door Portugese zeeman in Cambodja.

In 1642 a Cambodian Prince named Ponhea Chan became King Reameathiptei I after overthrowing and assassinating the previous King. Malay Muslim merchants in Cambodia helped him in his takeover, and he subsequently converted to Islam from Buddhism, changed his name to Ibrahim, and married a Malay woman. He then started a war to drive out the Dutch East India Company, by first starting a massacre in the capital of the Dutch, commandeering two of their ships, and killing 36 Dutch employees of the Company in addition to the Company's ambassador, Pieter van Regemortes.

battle of Phnom Penh 1644

Three VOC-ships, Kievith, Leeuwerick and Dolphijn, fighting Cambodian troops in Phom Penh on June 12, 1644.

On the Mekong River, the Cambodians defeated the Dutch East India Company in a mostly naval war in 1644 with the Cambodian suffering 1,000 dead, and the Dutch forces suffering 156 dead out of 432 soldiers and multiple Dutch warships fell into Cambodian hands. The Dutch East India Company ambassador who was killed along with his men was Pierre de Rogemortes, and it was not until two centuries later that European influence in Cambodia could recover from the defeat inflicted on the Dutch.

Aftermath

This Muslim Cambodian King was ousted and arrested by the Vietnamese Nguyễn lords after Ibrahim's brothers, who remained Buddhists, requested Vietnamese help to restore Buddhism to Cambodia by removing him from the throne. In the 1670s, the Dutch left all the trading posts they had maintained in Cambodia after the massacre in 1643.

See also

• Cambodian–Spanish War
• Sino-Dutch conflicts
• Battle of Liaoluo Bay
• Trịnh–Nguyễn War
• Siege of Fort Zeelandia

Sources

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• Cormack, Don (2001). Killing Fields, Living Fields: An Unfinished Portrait of the Cambodian Church - The Church That Would Not Die. Contributor Peter Lewis (reprint ed.). Kregel Publications. ISBN 0825460026. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
• Fielding, Leslie (2008). Before the Killing Fields: Witness to Cambodia and the Vietnam War (illustrated ed.). I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1845114930. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
• Kiernan, Ben (2008). Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur. Melbourne Univ. Publishing. ISBN 978-0522854770. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
• Kiernan, Ben (2002). The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia Under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79 (illustrated ed.). Yale University Press. ISBN 0300096496. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
• Osborne, Milton (2008). Phnom Penh : A Cultural History: A Cultural History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199711734. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
• Reid, Anthony (1999). Charting the shape of early modern Southeast Asia. Silkworm Books. ISBN 9747551063. Retrieved 16 February 2014.