The settlement eventually grew into a prominent Eurasian seaport on the Bay of Bengal during the Age of Discovery. Their influence grew into such a height that at one time, all ships entering the area had to purchase trading licenses first from the Portuguese.
On 9 May 1512, a fleet of four ships commanded by Joao da Silveira arrived in Chittagong. They were followed by several embassies from the Kingdom of Portugal to the Sultanate of Bengal. Silveira set up the first Portuguese settlement in Bengal at Chittagong in 1517. Many Malaccan Portuguese had also come to the Bengal before Silveira in Moorish ships as traders. However, most of the Portuguese settled in Pipli (now Orissa) by 1514.
In 1528, the Sultan of Bengal permitted the Portuguese to establish factories and customs houses near the Port of Chittagong. The settlement eventually grew into a prominent Eurasian seaport on the Bay of Bengal during the Age of Discovery. Their influence grew into such a height that at one time, all ships entering the area had to purchase trading licenses first from the Portuguese.
The Portuguese were keen on mounting their control elsewhere and in 1602, took away the Sandwip Island from Raja Kedar Rai. Portuguese pirates named Gonjalves and Carvalho ruled over the island for several years. Each year about 300 ships loaded with salt used to sail for Liverpool from Sandwip, which was also famous for its shipbuilding and salt industries. In 1616, the Mughals finally drove the Portuguese pirates away from Sandwip.
By the end of the sixteenth century, Chittagong Port had emerged as a thriving port, which attracted both Portuguese trade and settlement. According to a 1567 note of historian Caesar Federeci, every year thirty or thirty-five ships, great and small, anchored in Chittagong Port. In 1598 there lived about 2,500 Portuguese and Eurasians in Chittagong and Arakan. Major traded products in those days included fine silk, cotton muslin textiles, bullion, spices, rice, timber, salt and gunpowder. The Portuguese also encouraged intermarriage with the local population.
In 1615, the Portuguese Navy defeated an Arakan-Dutch fleet near the port city. However, the Portuguese presence in Chittagong was ultimately ephemeral. The fall of the Bengal Sultanate and the rise of the Arakanese Kingdom of Mrauk U changed the geopolitical landscape. The Portuguese settlement became a major bone of contention between the Mughal Empire, the Kingdom of Mrauk U, a Burmese Empire and the Kingdom of Tripura.
In 1632 Mughal arms further expelled the Portuguese from the Hughli port owing to Portuguese association with the slave trade, abduction and refusal to support Shah Jahan. In 1666, the Mughal viceroy Shaista Khan retook control of Chittagong after defeating the Arakanese in a naval battle. The Mughal conquest of Chittagong thus brought an end to the Portuguese dominance of more than 130 years in the port city.
The descendants of the Portuguese traders in Chittagong were known as Firingis. They now live in the areas of Patharghatta and Firingi Bazaar in Old Chittagong. The Portuguese also made great contribution in the Bengali language, with common household terms, such as, chabi (Key), balti (tub), perek (nail), alpin (pin), toalia (towel) etc.
What more, the Portuguese brought exotic fruits, flowers and plants, which became part of Bengali civilization and culture. The potato, cashew nut, papaya, pineapple, kamranga, guava and the Alfonso mango, among others were brought by them showing their zeal for agro-horticulture and in due course all became part of Bengali life. Even the Krishnakali plant with its varied colors is a gift of the Portuguese.
