Luso-Maratha War (1729–1732)

The Luso–Maratha War was a military conflict fought between the Portuguese and the Maratha Empires, initiated by the Marathas invading and raiding Portuguese-controlled villages near the walled city of Damaon.

Context

After a war against the Marathas, João Saldanha da Gama Portuguese viceroy at Old Goa, had previously signed with the Maratha Confederacy a peace treaty in 1726, which resulted in the "peace of Bassein", which would prove to be brief.

Despite the peace treaty, in May 1729, Maratha forces under the command of Pilaji Jadhavrao raided two villages in the vicinity of the Portuguese fortified city of Damaon. Since the Marathas often excused their raids as the work of brigands, the captain of the Portuguese forces in the area, General Francisco da Guerra de Mesquita, was instructed by the viceroy to conduct limited retaliatory attacks against the border Maratha towns from which such raids had come.

The Marathas took Portuguese retaliation of their raids as a sign that the peace treaty had been broken. By the end of May 1730, the Marathas invaded the areas around Bassein (Vasai) and war spread across the Konkan region. The Mahratta Confederacy had not attacked Portuguese territory in so much force since the time of Sambhaji.

Course of hostilities

In spite of Maratha numerical superiority, lack of internal unity made military operations difficult, and the Portuguese viceroy was approached with a peace offer through the English East India Company governor Robert Cowan in Bombay. The viceroy proposed to return captured Maratha belongings, however he refused to sign a peace while Portuguese territory was occupied by Maratha forces while the Marathas refused to return captured spoils or make peace unless the Portuguese paid tribute and allowed Hindu temples to be built on their territory.

Realizing that the Marathas would not make peace unless directly threatened, the viceroy dispatched reinforcements from Goa were to general Guerra de Mesquita, along with instructions to persistently raid Maratha territory and also engage in psychological warfare by threatening to forcibly baptize Hindu prisoners, which in the words of the viceroy, "they resent much" though the general was forbidden from actually carrying out this task.