Editing Colombo (section)

===Dutch era===
[[File: Colombo, after Kip.jpg|thumb|left|Dutch engraving of Colombo in about 1680]]

In 1638 the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] signed a treaty with King Rajasinha II of Kandy which assured the king assistance in his war against the Portuguese in exchange for a monopoly of the island's major trade goods. The Portuguese resisted the Dutch and the Kandyans but were gradually defeated in their strongholds beginning in 1639.<ref name="cs4"/> The Dutch captured Colombo in 1656 after an epic siege, at the end of which a mere 93 Portuguese survivors were given [[Safe-conduct|safe conduct]] out of the fort. Although the Dutch (e.g., [[Rijcklof van Goens]]) initially restored the captured area back to the Sinhalese kings, they later refused to turn them over and gained control over the island's richest cinnamon lands including Colombo which then served as the capital of the Dutch maritime provinces under the control of the [[Dutch East India Company]] until 1796.<ref name="cs4">{{cite web |url=http://countrystudies.us/sri-lanka/9.htm |title=European Encroachment and Dominance: The Dutch |access-date=2006-12-02 |work=Sri Lanka: A Country study |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061005225414/http://countrystudies.us/sri-lanka/9.htm |archive-date=2006-10-05 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="cs3">
{{cite book
| last =Ross
| first = Russell R.
|author2=Savada, Andrea Matles
| title = Sri Lanka: A Country Study
| publisher = Defense Dept., Army
| date = 1990
| pages = 360
| isbn = 978-0-16-024055-3 }}</ref>