Latest / The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History / The Portuguese in Bengal: Pirates, Merchants, and the Fall of the Sultanate
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the British in Bengal, the Nawabs, the Mughals. But before the English East India Company became dominant, another European power left a deep and often brutal mark on Bengal: the Portuguese. Luna: I didn't realize the Portuguese were in Bengal in a big way. Lucas: Oh, they were here from the early 16th century, right after Vasco da Gama's voyages. They set up trading posts along the coast, especially in Chittagong and then at Hooghly. But they weren't just merchants. They became pirates, mercenaries, even slave traders. Luna: Slave traders? That's a different side to the story. Lucas: Exactly. The Portuguese in Bengal were known locally as 'Firingis' — a term that originally just meant a foreigner, but came to be associated with them. And they operated with a kind of lawless independence. They allied with the kingdom of Arakan — in present-day Myanmar — to raid the Sundarbans and the Bengal coast, capturing thousands of Bengalis and selling them into slavery. Lucas: The Arakanese themselves were slavers, and together with the Portuguese, they'd sweep into the river deltas, burn villages, and take people. It was a huge business. The slaves were sold to the Dutch, or to the Mughals, or even to plantations in the Portuguese colony of Goa. Luna: So this is the 16th and 17th centuries, while the Mughals are rising? Lucas: Yes. The Bengal Sultanate was in decline. The last independent sultan, Sulaiman Khan Karrani, died in 1572, and then Bengal was absorbed into the Mughal Empire. But Mughal control wasn't complete. The Portuguese exploited the power vacuum. Lucas: They built a fortified settlement at Hooghly — that's the same Hooghly we've mentioned before, near modern Kolkata. They had cannons, they had ships. And they started to act like a state within a state. Luna: How did the Mughals react to that? Lucas: Eventually, they couldn't tolerate it. In 1632, the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan — yes, the Taj Mahal Shah Jahan — sent a huge army under a general named Qasim Khan to wipe out the Portuguese at Hooghly. It was a full-scale siege. Lucas: The Portuguese had about 300 men, plus local allies. The Mughals had tens of thousands. But the Portuguese fought fiercely; they had cannons and muskets. The siege lasted three months. In the end, the Mughals broke through, and the Portuguese were either killed, captured, or fled. Luna: So that was the end of Portuguese power in Bengal? Lucas: Not entirely. Some Portuguese survived, and they scattered. Many went to Arakan, where they served as mercenaries for the Arakanese king. Others went to the court of a local ruler in Chandecan — that's a region in eastern Bengal. And there's a fascinating figure who emerges from that chaos: a Portuguese adventurer named Dom Sebastião. Luna: Dom Sebastião — sounds like a character out of a novel. Lucas: He really was. After the fall of Hooghly, Dom Sebastião gathered a band of Portuguese and local soldiers and set himself up as a kind of warlord in the Sundarbans. He built a fort, called it 'Fort of the Holy Spirit', and for a few years he ruled his own tiny kingdom, raiding and trading. But eventually, the Mughals and the Arakanese closed in, and he was killed in battle around 1640. Luna: So he was basically a pirate king. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the thing about the Portuguese in Bengal — they weren't a single organized colonial power like the British later. They were a mix of traders, soldiers, pirates, and renegades. They brought new things too, though. Lucas: They introduced crops like tobacco and chili, which became staples of Bengali cuisine. They also brought new shipbuilding techniques and firearms. And they left behind a community: the Firingi people, who are still in Bangladesh today, in places like Dhaka and Chittagong. They're Christians, often with Portuguese surnames. Luna: So there's a living legacy. Lucas: Yes. And it's a complicated one. Because the Portuguese also deepened the slave trade in Bengal, which had long-term effects. And their presence helped weaken the Bengal Sultanate, making it easier for the Mughals to take over. Then later, the British used many of the same Portuguese trading posts and routes. Luna: It's like the Portuguese were the first Europeans to really mess around in Bengal. Lucas: They were. And their story often gets overlooked because the British narrative is so dominant. But the Portuguese were there for over a century, and they shaped the region in ways that lasted. Lucas: One more thing: the Portuguese also left behind a rich set of written records — letters, reports, and even a dictionary of the Bengali language from the 17th century. So they're a key source for historians trying to understand what Bengal was like before British rule. Luna: That's amazing. A Portuguese-Bengali dictionary? Lucas: Yeah, it was compiled by a Portuguese missionary. It's a window into everyday life — words for rice, fish, boats, markets. It shows how integrated some Portuguese were into Bengali society, even as others were raiding the coast. Luna: So it's not all just violence and piracy. Lucas: No, it's a mix. And that's what makes the history so rich. The Portuguese in Bengal were pirates, missionaries, merchants, and slavers all at once. They were a chaotic, violent, and influential presence in a region that was itself in flux. Luna: I'm glad we're finally talking about them. Lucas: Me too. It's a part of Bengal's history that's often forgotten, but it helps explain a lot about how the region changed from a sultanate to a Mughal province, and then later to a British colony. Lucas: If you want to learn more, I recommend looking up the 'Battle of Hooghly' and the figure of Dom Sebastião. But for now, I think that's a good place to pause. Luna: Thanks, Lucas. That was fascinating.