Conclusion

Summary

The fall of Cochin in 1795 and the last VOC possessions on Ceylon in 1796 marked the end of a military presence of VOC or Dutch forces in South Asia. The peace treaty of Amiens saw the return of the Cape to the Batavian Republic, but Ceylon and the former VOC possessions in India remained in British hands. The Batavian Republic, allied to France, was hard pressed to defend its commerce in Europe, but even so a plan was launched in 1805 to recapture Ceylon. By December of that year, two ships of the line, Pieter Paulus and the aptly named Chatham, lay ready at Hellevoetsluis, along with the frigate Euridice and the French brigs Phaeton and Voltigeur and transports for a contingent of French troops of 3,000 men. But the expedition was cancelled due to the outbreak of war with Austria. Instead of Ceylon, the assembled troops went to Zeist and ultimately on towards Germany and the battle of Jena-Auerstadt. The newly founded Kingdom of the Netherlands would have some former VOC possessions in India restored to it in 1818. Chinsurah, Pulicat, Sadras, Bimilipatnam, Jaggernaikpuram, and Tuticorin were restored to the Netherlands in much the same way that Pondicherry was returned to France. But these towns would not remain part of the kingdom for long. In 1825 they, along with Malacca, were traded in exchange for the British possessions on Sumatra, primarily Bengkulu. All that remained of the VOC's presence in India and Ceylon were the ruins of its forts and warehouses and the archival records.

In studying both the realized plans of VOC fortifications and the debates between engineers on their unrealized plans, this book has shed light on several interrelated topics. In the first place this is of course the spread of European engineering ideas to the European colonies. Fortification design in Europe was a highly dynamic discipline, and this dynamism is reflected in the debates between engineers of various backgrounds working for the VOC in Asia. These engineers themselves, their backgrounds, social status, and aspirations are another topic on which this study has dwelt at some length.