Kandyan Wars - Background

Background

The British, fearing that French control of the Netherlands would result in their controlling the strategically important port of Trincomalee, occupied Dutch possessions in Sri Lanka in 1795. These included not only Trincomalee but Batticaloa, Galle, and Jaffna, as well as the entirety of Sri Lanka's lowlying coastal areas. That the British were determined to expand and control the entirety of the island, and had reformed traditional social structures like the caste system and the rajakariya (lit. "kingwork", labour and or tithes owed to the Kandyan king) added to the tension between them and the independent kingdom of Kandy.

Mountainous central Sri Lanka remained independent, under the rule of the Nayaka kings of Senkadagala. Early British attempts at securing a treaty with mountainous kingdom were rejected. The internal stability of Kandy was shaky, as king Sri Vikrama Rajasinha found himself being constantly undermined and intrigued against by powerful Sinhalese nobles. He also faced a potential usurper in the form of Muttusami, brother-in-law of the previous king Rajadhirajasingha, who had fled to British controlled lands in the early 19th century and had been agitating against the beleaguered king ever since.

The earliest British garrison numbered about 6,000 which was increased through the recruitment of local sepoys, and the forces of the Empire further enjoyed exclusive access to the sea. Kandy, in contrast, had the advantage of being situated in difficult, mountainous terrain, and could also draw on four hundred years of experience resisting European colonists.