Sri Lanka 05 Sep 2010 15:35

viator = traveller in latin New Updated Viator Bibliography for Sri Lanka on line ! Nearly 4,000 titles !   The Dutch Forts of Sri Lanka Order this book the Military Monuments of Ceylon by William Adair Nelson, Rajpal Kumar DE SILVA Colombo, 2004 During the 1500s many major nations of Europe overflowed their boundaries. They took to the seas, both to the east and to the west, in sailing ships firing cannon broadside. Such ships and such cannon were to rule politics for the next three hundred years. First came the Portuguese and the Spaniards. After them came the Dutch, the British and the French. All of them founded overseas empires. In those empires they maintained themselves by building Forts, most of which have now disappeared. Of them, however, one astonishing historical survival exists to this day. This is the ring of, in general, perfectly preserved Forts built on a national scheme by the Dutch East India Company round the coasts of Ceylon during the 1600s and 1700s. Their preservation is in part an unexpected by-product of the supremacy of the Royal Navy throughout the 1800s. These Sri Lankan Forts were designed to withstand both the unconquered Sinhalese in the central hills and the rival British and French East India Companies. They fall into several coordinated groups, each with a chief fortress. Their main purpose was to render secure the Island's import and export trade. They were, in fact, the Netherlanders' chief export to Ceylon, for they were copybook patterns of fortifications then going up all over Europe. In all, they numbered close on forty and varied from large peninsular walled towns to small guard posts at water crossings. Their designs were clever, ingenious and varied. Astonishing as are the Forts, even more astonishing is that they are almost unknown outside Sri Lanka. WA Nelson's unique combination of his own written and photographic records, made in Ceylon over a period of five years, and his subsequent thorough historical research and reconstructions brings before us for the very first time an almost unknown period of Sri Lankan history. Incorporated into Nelson's book. The Dutch Forts of Sri Lanka, reproduced here as a facsimile, is his Report of 1984; this consists of Nelson's reassessment and photographs of the forts which he had visited nearly 50 years earlier. However, the political situation in the Island during his tour of August 1984 precluded him from visiting the northern group efforts. In 1988 Nelson gifted his Report of 1984 to RK de Silva who was able to travel in 2004 to all the existing Dutch forts, including those in the Jaffna peninsula, following the cessation of hostilities. The result was his Update of 2004, a report on their current condition. This publication thus comprises a complete reprint of Nelson's The Dutch Forts of Sri Lanka, his Report of 1984 and RK de Silva's Update of 2004. Extracts  p. 11 : Introduction  p. 17 : Colombo  pp. 82-83 : Jaffna  p. 92 : Jaffna Fort: 2004 Specifications  •  17.5 x 25.5 cm  •  152 pages  •  ISBN : 955-1220-00-5  •  48.8 euros