The arrival of the Dutch in the Indian waters turned the scale against the Portuguese. The Zamorin and other minor princes looked to them for expelling the cruel Portuguese and in a pitched battle in January 1663 the combined forces of the Dutch and the Zamorin defeated the Portuguese at Cochin. The Portuguese commander surrendered the keys of the town to the Dutch Admiral, Van Goens and the Portuguese left Malabar Coast for good to consolidate their rule in Goa.
Thus, ended the hundred and sixty-five years of Portuguese relation with Malabar Coast. During these years their real influence was felt only at Cochin, Purakkad and Quilon. North of Cranganore upto Cannanore, their supremacy on the sea was effectively disputed by the Zamorin and the Mappilas. In this area they profited through piracy and plunder not through legitimate commercial activities.
Except at Cochin and Quilon, their political power was not directly felt anywhere in lower South India. But their presence in the Indian waters was constantly felt and keenly so, that their name passed for what was worst in man’s nature. To destroy life and property of Hindus and Muslims was a duty enjoined upon them in order to enhance trade opportunity and to spread the Gospel. Their cruelty had a religious bearing.
As Barros said, “It is true that there does exist a common right to all to navigate the seas, and in Europe we acknowledge the rights which others hold against us, but this right does not extend beyond Europe, and therefore the Portuguese as lords of the sea by the strength of their fleets are justified in compelling all Moors and Gentiles to take out safe-conducts under pain of confiscation and death. The Moors and Gentiles are outside the law of Jesus Christ, which is the true law that everyone has to keep under pain of damnation to eternal fire. If then the soul be so condemned, what right has the body to the privileges of our laws?
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It is true they are reasoning beings, and might if they lived be converted to the true faith, but inasmuch as they have not shown any desire as yet to accept this, we Christians have no duties towards them.” With the advent of the Portuguese, the number of the petty states increased, the old methods of warfare yielded place to new, fire-arms became common, and fortifications assumed an important role in state-organization under the Malabar princes especially the Kolattiris and the Zamorins. The Portuguese policy was to favour small principalities and encourage them to against their overlords; this was necessary for them to gain commercial advantages with less expense.
More than that, political disunity and conflict in Kerala would pave the way for their political ascendancy. The desire for establishing a Portuguese empire was so strong that, any local power rising in strength to unify Kerala would not have been tolerated by them. Their hostility towards the Zamorin of Calicut was conditioned by this bid to bring the whole of north and central Kerala under his hegemony was effectively thwarted by them.
The Portuguese patronage of Cochin reduced its Raja to the status of a vassal of the Portuguese king. The commercial and political advantages they enjoyed in Cochin made them for a time the arbiters in Kerala politics. Thus, it was the rivalry between Zamorin on the one side and Cochin Raja on the south and Kolattiri on the north on the other that provided the opportunity for the Portuguese to play a decisive role in the politics of Malabar.
Similarly the hostility that raged between the Muslim states of the Deccan namely Berar, Bidar, Ahmednagar, Bijapur and Golconda, and the Hindu state of Vijayanagar, gave them the chance to take possession of Goa. Any general combination against the Portuguese in South India was impossible as Hindu states of Malabar Coast were against each other, and Hindu and Muhammedans were engaged in a death struggle in Deccan. Strangely in Malabar Muslims and the Hindus Zamorin cooperated to defeat the Portuguese, while in Deccan Muslims helped them to secure the foothold in Goa.
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In the oceanic explorations, Portugal had two objectives, one commercial and the other religious. Thus, every expedition was accompanied by priests of different orders and large funds were appropriated for their services and maintenance. Violent measures were adopted with a view to forcing the people of the discovered lands to embrace the Catholic faith. Their pagodas were destroyed and an attempt was made to carry out their propagandism by fire and sword.
Commercial gain, the ostensible aim of these expeditions, had a religious tint about it, as it was intended to destroy the trade monopoly of the Muslims. In transferring the profits of Eastern trade to them the Portuguese sought the inward glee of seeing the hoted Moors suffer. In short their commercial interest in opening the sea routes was enlivened by their crusading spirit.