This is a post I had written a while ago on reddit, and I was just showing it to a friend, and I thought those of you who don't know might appreciate the story.
In the early 16th Century, the Portuguese landed on the island of Sri Lanka, and quickly they made a protectorate agreement with the King of the Kingdom of Kotte, who had been having trouble with rebellious and ambitious relatives, exchanging a yearly tribute in cinnamon and allowing the building of a fortified factory by the Portuguese in the coastal city of Colombo. A few years afterwards enough that King was ill, and made his two sons as co-regents, and soon after he was dead and his two sons started a civil war, each claiming the throne. The eldest son ruled briefly before he was replaced with his younger brother.
Side-note: The politics of this are complex, but there was a general regional confrontation between the muslim traders, which had dominated the Indian Ocean trade, and the Portuguese newcomers. This confrontation, which was provoked both by the Portuguese demands for removal of entrenched muslim interests in the Indian trade networks, and with the collusion of muslim traders to shut the Portuguese out of the Indian trade (They had allegedly successfully pushed incoming Chinese merchants and traders from India, earlier in the century using the same tactics), along with an assault and massacre of the Portuguese in Calicut, set the Portuguese against the powerful Calicut city-State, placing Calicut at war with the Portuguese, and ultimately created the diplomatic backdrop in which whole kingdoms and cities-states would interact with these strange fair-skinned people from across the world.
So the new monarch of Kotte was much more influenced by the muslim merchants, and through their connections, attempted to arrange Calicutan help to overthrow the Portuguese protection from their kingdom.
They attempted to storm the fortified factory in Colombo but were beaten off and repeatedly defeated by the handful of Portuguese garrison troops and eventually reinforced by Sri Lankan mercenaries.
The fortunes of the anti-Portuguese monarch sank, and he was assassinated in a coup by his own three sons, which divided his kingdom, the eldest of which became the King of Kotte, while the other ones became King of Sitawaka and Prince of Raigama. As the King of Kotte remained in control of all of the coast, the Portuguese then remained committed to protecting and exerting control over the King of Kotte.
Over all this time, the Portuguese kept increasing in number and influence, with traders and missionaries and soldiers arriving to support Portuguese and Catholic interests.
There was then a war between both brothers in the different thrones, with the fortunes of each rising and falling, and eventually the Portuguese also starting to support the King of Sitalawa, until a day when the King of Kotte was (Accidentally, allegedly) shot by a Portuguese soldier.
Two theories have been thought up in regards to this murder:
1. The King of Kotte steadfastly refused to be baptised, as that would demonstrate to his people, mostly Buddhists, that he was indeed a puppet of the Portuguese by this time. His son and heir however, had been educated by Catholic missionaries since a child, and was far more amenable to being baptised once he became a ruler. So the Portuguese had the King of Kotte shot so a more suitable monarch could succeed.
2. The King of Sitawala, using his new Portuguese friendship and connections, arranged for his enemy to be shot, so his realm would fall into turmoil and he could finally unify the Kingdom.
In the wake of its King's death and the succession of his son, the King of Sitawala broke all friendship with the Portuguese and intiated a successful general offensive that pushed back the territory under the control of the King of Kotte to just Colombo and its surrounding areas, with all of the former Kingdom of Kotte of previous kings under the rule of the King of Sitawala.
The new King of Kotte's name was Dharmapala, and less than a decade after he ascended to the throne, he was baptized as D. João I.
Nevertheless the bleak outlook, Portuguese by then permeated the whole island, and Sri Lankan kingdoms outside of that of Kotte also contended for Portuguese attention, and often made moves against Sitawala. In addition, the Portuguese fleet managed to keep certain coastal areas always supplied with men, and throughout the progress of decades, the Portuguese succeeded in driving the Sitawalese troops and relieve the hard predicament in which the Kingdom of Kotte found itself in. But that was not without its impending doom, as multiple times Sitawalese forces descended upon Colombo and besieged it for months before the Portuguese fleet inevitably came with reinforcements.
This predicament of course, made each King of Kotte become increasingly more dependent on Portuguese help, which the Portuguese of course exploited to their utmost.
Whether under duress or in recognition for the Portuguese help, in 1580, D. João I Dharmapala willed that on his death, the Kingdom of Kotte would pass to the Portuguese King D. Manuel II.
Meanwhile, the King of Sitawala, invaded the Kingdom of Kandy to the East, and conquered it. The surviving members of its royal family eventually made their way to Colombo, where they were baptised and put under the sway of the Portuguese.
Soon after, the successful King of Sitawala was poisoned by his son, who succeeded him, and albeit he had great skill in warfare as well, he made the mistake of converting to Hinduism, which hostilized much of his support base. Unfortunately, he could not count on the help of an outside source like the Portuguese.
In addition, the Portuguese sent one of the surviving royal members of the Kingdom of Kandy, also known as D. João, with a Portuguese detachment to create an uprising there and put D. João back onto the throne of Kandy. While initially successful, D. João died soon after and his successor wasn't fond of the Portuguese and killed them with his native troops. The King of Sitawala then went on campaign against the resurging Kingdom of Kandy, but his attack failed, and on returning to Sitawala, he brushed off of a poisonous plant and died.
A few years before, Portuguese troops had begun their invasion of the northern kingdom of Sri Lanka, the Kingdom of Jaffa, and had met with moderate success.
With the King of Sitawala's death in 1593 came his kingdom's rapid demise. Portuguese money and influenced flowed greatly during these days, and quickly the best generals of Sitawala deserted to the Portuguese side, and before the year was out, the Kingdom of Sitawala desintegrated before Portuguese advance. The whole of the Sitawalese kingdom was reincorporated into the Kingdom of Kotte.
D. João I Dharmapala ruled for more 5 years. Apparently his health had suffered due to poison attempts from the Kings of Sitawala during the war. He died childless in 1598, and according to his will, the recently enlargened lands of the Kingdom of Kotte became direct possessions of the King of Portugal, which by that time of D. João I Dharmapala's death, ironically enough, was the King D. Filipe II of Spain.
. Really too bad the king of Sitawala (or is it Sitawaka ? The map and the text don't agree) converted to Hinduism, he seemed to be able to drive the Portuguese out of Sri Lanka.
