Cambodian–Dutch War

Cambodian–Dutch War
Battle of Phnom Penh, 1644
Date 1643–1644 Location Cambodia, Mekong River Result Cambodian victory
Belligerents
Cambodia	Dutch East India Company
Commanders and leaders
Sultan Ibrahim (also known as King Ramathipothei, formerly Prince Ponhea Chan)	Pierre de Rogemortes †
Strength
Unknown	432
Casualties and losses
1,000 dead	36 employees massacred, 156 soldiers dead, many warships captured by the Cambodians

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.

War

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 35 Dutch employees of the Company in addition to the Company's ambassador, Pieter van Regemortes.

On the Mekong River, the Cambodians defeated the Dutch East India Company in a mostly naval war from 1643–1644 with the Cambodian forces suffering 100 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.

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.