Thread by @LiveHIndia

While the Portuguese, British, Dutch and French have left a firm colonial footprint across India, there is another European power that settled in India but is barely remembered. #DidYouKnow that the Danes had colonies in India and traded from here for more than 200 years?

The three most notable former Danish colonies in India are Tranquebar, now Tharangambadi in coastal Tamil Nadu; Serampore, on the Hooghly, near Kolkata; and the Nicobar Islands – all of them on the east coast of India, then called the Coromandel Coast.

The Danes kept a low profile in India. They had no military presence & did not expand territorially. The secret to their longevity here was their policy of neutrality. They traded as a neutral power to avoid confrontation & getting dragged into wars with stronger powers.

The royal charter establishing the first Danish East India Company was issued #OnThisDay in 1616. It gave a monopoly over all Danish trade in Asia (‘East Indies’). The Danes landed in India at Tranquebar in 1620. The magnificent Dansborg Fort they built is a museum today.

The Danes’ time in India was marred by bankruptcy, loss of ships and natural disasters. There were two Danish East India Companies (1616-50 & 1670-1729). A third trading venture, the Asiatic Company, was set up in 1770 and focused mainly on trade with China.

The Danes’ position as a colonial power in India was considerably weakened by the British, which was at war with Denmark in Europe in the early 19th century. This dealt a death blow to the Danish trade in India and their colonies gradually became a part of British-India.

By 1845, all Danish colonies in India were taken over by Britain, except the Nicobar Islands. Although the Danes had abandoned Nicobar in 1848, they sold the rights to the islands to the British in 1868. More:
livehistoryindia.com/story/monument…