History
The first Danish East India Company was chartered in 1616 under King Christian IV and focused on trade with India. The first expedition under Admiral Gjedde took two years to reach Ceylon, losing more than half their crew. By the time they arrived, the island had been claimed by Portugal; by the end of 1619, a small Danish fleet had arrived at Trincomalee on the island's east coast; occupying the colossal Koneswaram temple in May 1620 to begin fortification of the peninsula before being defeated. The expedition instead established Dansborg in Tranquebar on the mainland coast and installed Captain Crappe as the first governor (opperhoved) of Danish India. During its heyday, the Danish East India Company and Swedish East India Company imported more tea than the British East India Company, smuggling 90% of it into Britain, where it could be sold at a huge profit. The company dissolved in 1650.
In 1670, a second Danish East India Company was established, before it too was dissolved in 1729. In 1730, it was refounded as the Asiatic Company (Asiatisk Kompagni) and opened trade with China at Canton. The first expedition went badly, with Den gyldne Løve lost with its cargo of silver off Ballyheigue, Ireland, on the outbound journey. The local landowners held the silver at their estate and pursued a salvage claim, but a gang of locals overpowered the Danish guard and made off with the hoard, causing a diplomatic row between Denmark-Norway and Britain. With the royal licence conferred in 1732, the new company was granted a 40-year monopoly on all Danish trade east of the Cape of Good Hope. Up to 1750, 27 ships were sent, with 22 surviving the journey to return to Copenhagen. In 1772, the company lost its monopoly and, in 1779, Danish India became a crown colony.
During the Napoleonic Wars, in 1801 and again in 1807, the British Navy attacked Copenhagen. As a consequence of the last attack, Denmark (one of few West European countries not occupied by Bonaparte) lost its entire fleet and the island of Helgoland (part of the duchy of Holstein-Gottorp) to Britain. Denmark finally sold its remaining settlements in mainland India in 1845 and the Danish Gold Coast in 1850, both to British.
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