Siege of Aden
Siege of Aden | |
---|---|
Arabia 12°46′47″N 45°2′57″E / 12.77972°N 45.04917°E | |
Result | Yemeni Tahirid victory |
1,700 Portuguese
800 Malabar natives
39 pieces of ordnance captured
The siege of Aden occurred when the Portuguese Governor of India, Afonso de Albuquerque, launched an unsuccessful expedition to capture Aden on 26 March 1513.
Background
Aden was an independent city-state whose strategic location allowed it to control the entrance of the Red Sea.[4][5] It became a wealthy trading area due to its location at the crossroads of busy trade routes into the Red Sea.[4] Albuquerque's plan to capture Aden would allow him to dominate the Red Sea and strike a military blow at Mamluk Egypt. Aden was one of four strategic places that Albuquerque wanted to capture: Aden – to control the straits of Mecca (Red Sea); Hormuz – to control the straits of Basra (the Persian Gulf); and Diu and Goa – to ensure sovereignty of all the other districts of India.[6]
Siege
Albuquerque's fleet sailed from
Aftermath
Albuquerque stated: "I think that if I had reconnoitred Aden first, I would not have launched our attack where I did."
References
- ^ a b c Hunter, F. M. (1877). An Account of the British Settlement of Aden in Arabia. London: Trübner & Co. p. 162.
- ^ R.B.Serjeant, The Portuguese Off the South Arabian Coast: Ḥaḍramī Chronicles, with Yemeni and European Accounts of Dutch Pirates Off Mocha in the Seventeenth Century, 1963, Clarendon Press, p. 47
- ^ R.B.Serjeant p. 47
- ^ ISBN 0-7509-2346-6.
- ^ ISBN 0-415-23979-6.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-691-65415-7.
- ^ Vogel, Theodore (1877). A Century of Discovery: Biographical Sketches of the Portuguese and Spanish Navigators from Prince Henry to Pizarro. London: Seeley, Jackson, & Halliday. p. 125.
- ISBN 978-0-8129-9400-1.
- ISBN 978-1-57607-919-5.