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| {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
| | #REDIRECT [[Kottayam War]] |
| {{Use Indian English|date=August 2019}}
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| {{Infobox military conflict
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| | conflict = Cotiote War
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| | partof = the Battles involving the British East India Company
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| | image =
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| | caption =
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| | date = 1793-1806
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| | place = [[Wayanad]]
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| | result = British victory
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| | combatant1 = {{flagicon image|Flag of the British East India Company (1707).svg}}[[British East India Company]]
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| | combatant2 = [[Kingdom of Kottayam]]
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| | commander1 = *[[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Arthur Wellesley]]
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| *[[Robert Bowles (East India Company officer)|Robert Bowles]]
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| *[[James Stevenson (East India Company officer)|James Stevenson]]
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| | commander2 = *[[Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja|Pazhassi Raja]]{{KIA}}
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| *[[Edachena Kunkan]]
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| *[[Kannavath Sankaran Nambiar|Kannavath Sankaran]]{{Executed}}
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| | strength1 = 14000
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| | strength2 = 6000
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| }} | | }} |
| The '''Cotiote War''' (Kottayathu war) refers to a series of continuous struggles fought between the [[Cotiote]] king, [[Pazhassi Raja]] Kerala Varma, and the [[East India Company]] across a span of thirteen years between 1793 and 1806. Pazhassi Raja aimed to preserve the independence and unity of his kingdom while the East India Company were determined to annex and dismember it. His own desire for independence and sense of betrayal by East India Company on their earlier promise to respect his country’s independence combined with constant exhortations of two of his noblemen, [[Kaitheri Ambu]] and [[Kannavath Sankaran Nambiar|Kannavath Sankaran]], led to outbreak of Cotiote War. It is the longest war waged by East India Company during their military campaigns on the [[Indian subcontinent]] – much longer than [[Anglo-Mysore Wars]], [[Anglo-Maratha Wars]], [[Anglo-Sikh Wars (disambiguation)|Anglo-Sikh Wars]] and [[Polygar Wars]]. It was one of the bloodiest and hardest wars waged by East India Company in India – [[Presidency armies|Presidency army regiments]] that operated suffered losses as high as eighty percent in 10 years of warfare.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kurup|first1=KKN|title=Modern Kerala: Studies in Social and Agrarian Relations|date=1988|publisher=Mittal Publication|location=Delhi|isbn=81-7099-094-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=History of Madras Army Volume III|url=https://archive.org/details/historymadrasar01wilsgoog}}</ref><ref>Kurup, KKN. 1980. ''Pazhassi Samarangal''. </ref> Cotiote army waged guerrilla warfare, chiefly centred in mountain forests of [[Aralam]] and [[Wayanad district|Wynad]], and larger zone of conflict extended from Mysore to the Arabian Sea, from Coorg to Coimbatore. Warfare peaked in early 1797, 1800 to 1801, and 1803 to 1804 and due to constant reverses, Bombay regiments were withdrawn and instead Madras regiments were deployed with an increase in number of troops - from 8,000 in 1803 to 14,000 in early 1804. Cotiote War ended within months of the death of Cotiote leader, Pazhassi Raja in a skirmish on 30 November 1805. Following this war, kingdom of Cotiote was annexed into [[Malabar District|district of Malabar]] in the [[Madras Presidency]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kurup|first1=KKN|title=Modern Kerala: Studies in Social and Agrarian Relations|date=1988|publisher=Mittal Publication|location=Delhi|isbn=81-7099-094-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=History of Madras Army Volume III|url=https://archive.org/details/historymadrasar01wilsgoog}}</ref><ref>Kurup, KKN. 1980. ''Pazhassi Samarangal''. </ref>
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| The [[Presidency armies|East India Company military]] had 6,000 men in the beginning which was increased to 8,000 in 1800 and to 14,000 in 1804 - Arthur Wellesley was in charge of operations between 1800 and 1804. Cotiote army manpower is not exactly known - estimates vary between 2,000 and 6,000. Cotiote army was well equipped with [[flintlocks|fire-locks]],<ref>{{cite book|title=Supplementary Despatches and Memoranda of Field Marshal Arthur Duke of Wellington|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo1.ark:/13960/t49p3n379;view=1up;seq=9}}</ref> but ran short of musket ammunition after 1799 and so used bows and swords widely. 10 years of war had caused 80 percent loss in the East India Company ranks - both European officers and Sepoys.{{fact|date=August 2019}} But no estimate is available about death roll in Cotiote armies.
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| ==References==
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| {{Reflist}}
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| {{British colonial campaigns}}
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| [[Category:Cotiote War| ]]
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| [[Category:Battles involving the British East India Company]]
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| [[Category:History of Kerala]]
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| [[Category:1790s in India]]
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| [[Category:1800s in India]]
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| [[Category:1792 in India]]
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| [[Category:1806 in India]]
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| [[Category:Colonial Kerala]]
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