Seven_islands_of_Bombay

Seven Islands of Bombay

Seven Islands of Bombay

16th century Portuguese colony

Further information: Portuguese India and Treaty of Bassein (1534)
Main article: History of Bombay under Portuguese rule (1534–1661)

The Seven Islands of Bombay (Portuguese: Ilhas de Bom Baim) were 16th-century Portuguese colonial possessions lying off the Konkan region by the mid-west coast of India.

Island of Bombay and Colaba

History

They were partly handed over to England under this title as part of the dowry of Catherine Braganza when she married Charles II in 1661. The isles and islets had earlier been part of indigenous polities like the Silhara dynasty and the Gujarat Sultanate before they were captured by the Portuguese Armadas in 1534. After acquiring them as through a royal dowry from the Kingdom of Portugal, Charles II leased Bombay and adjacent islets to the East India Company in 1668 for £10 per year.

By 1845, the islands had been merged[1] into one landmass by means of multiple land reclamation projects. The resulting island of Bombay was later merged with the nearby islands of Trombay and Salsette that lay to its north-east and north respectively to form Greater Bombay. These islands now constitute the southern part of the city of Bombay (Mumbai).

The original seven islands handed over to England were as follows:

Evolution of the seven islands of Bombay
  • The original seven islands
  • Map of Bombay in 1893.

There also are several smaller islands that lie to the east of the main seven islands:

See also

References

  1. [1]
    "Bombay: History of a City". The British Library. Archived from the original on 25 June 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2014.


Stub icon

This Mumbai location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Seven_islands_of_Bombay, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.