Danish India

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Danish India
Dansk Ostindien
Danish East India Company (1620-1777)
Dano-Norwegian colonies (1777-1814)
Danish colonies (1814-1869)
1620–1869
 

Flag of Denmark

Danish and other European settlements in India
Capital Fort Dansborg
Language(s) Danish, Tamil, Hindustani, Bengali
Political structure Colonies
King of Denmark (and Norway until 1814)
 - 1588-1648 Christian IV
 - 1863-1906 Christian IX
Governor
 - 1620-1621 Ove Gjedde
 - 1673-1682 Sivert Cortsen Adeler
 - 1759-1760 Christian Frederik Høyer
 - 1788-1806 Peter Anker
 - 1825-1829 Hans de Brinck-Seidelin
 - 1841-1845 Peder Hansen
Historical era Colonial period
 - Established 1620
 - Disestablished 1869
Currency Danish Indian rupee
Today part of  India

Danish India is a term for the former colonies of Denmark, and until 1814 Denmark–Norway, in India. The colonies included the town of Tranquebar in present-day Tamil Nadu state, Serampore in present-day West Bengal, and the Nicobar Islands, currently part of India's union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Fort Dansborg at Tranquebar established in 1620.
Colonial India
British Indian Empire
British Indian Empire
Colonial India
Dutch India 1605–1825
Danish India 1620–1869
French India 1759–1954
Portuguese India 1510–1961
Casa da Índia 1434–1833
Portuguese East India Company 1628–1633
British India 1613–1947
East India Company 1612–1757
Company rule in India 1757–1857
British Raj 1858–1947
British rule in Burma 1824–1942
1765–1947/48
Partition of India
1947

The Danish colonies in India were founded by the Danish East India Company, which was active from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The Danish colony's capital was Fort Dansborg at Tranquebar, established in 1620, on the Coromandel coast.

The Danish also established several commercial outposts, governed from Tranquebar:

In 1777 it was turned over to the government by the chartered company and became a Danish crown colony.

In 1789 the Andaman Islands became a British possession. During the Napoleonic Wars, the British attacked Danish shipping, and devastated the Danish East India Company's India trade. In May 1801 - August 1802 and 1808 - 20 September 1815 the British even occupied Dansborg and Frederiksnagore.

The Danish colonies went into decline, and the British ultimately took possession of them, making them part of British India: Serampore was sold to the British in 1839, and Tranquebar and most minor settlements in 1845 (11 October 1845 Frederiksnagore sold; 7 November 1845 other continental Danish India settlements sold); on 16 October 1868 all Danish rights to the Nicobar Islands, which since 1848 had been gradually abandoned, were sold to Britain.

[edit] Sources and references

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