Portuguese Possession

The Portuguese presence in the western coast was mostly littoral , sufficient for them to have a broad enough base to facilitate their Ocean Empire where they largely controlled all trade in the area. Portuguese power waned from 1580 when Spain and Portugal were united under one crown. As a result erstwhile allies like the English and the Dutch who were at enmity with the Spanish turned foes and gradually but surely undermined Portuguese dominance. In 1665The Portuguese used a marriage contract to try and ensure English assistance against the Dutch but unfortunately for them this did not materialise. Portugal also had turned its face towards Brazil where the returns were much better than India and the Portuguese in India received increasing less military support from the mother country while the Marathas grew more powerful. Eventually, when the Peshwas, whose motherland was the Konkan, took control of the Maratha campaign, they took a personal interest in a establishing control of the region and in 1737 launched a blitzkrieg with the support of disgruntled locals, frustrated by the religious repression of hindusim and by 1739, after a siege of Bassien which was heroically defended by the Portuguese, they were victorious.