The Dutch Republic had been Britain's ally against revolutionary France. Then, in the winter of 1794-95, French armies overran the Netherlands and transformed it into the Batavian Republic, a client state of the French regime. This left Dutch colonies around the world in an awkward position: were they allied territories or enemy assets? Britain decided the latter. Working with the exiled Stadtholder William of Orange, the British government ordered the seizure of Batavian colonies to deny their use to the French. On January 19, 1795, instructions went out to seize Batavian shipping. On February 9, war was formally declared. It would take months for these orders to reach the East Indies, where British and French naval forces had already been sparring for control of Indian Ocean trade routes since 1793.

Ceylon's strategic value was concentrated in two coastal ports. Colombo dominated the west coast; Trincomalee controlled the east. The interior remained the domain of the Kingdom of Kandy -- European settlement clung to the coastline. Trincomalee mattered most to the British because raiding forces based there could strike trade routes in the Bay of Bengal, but the port had limited food supplies, poorly developed facilities, and a small garrison. Colonel James Stuart led the invasion force, supported by Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier's naval squadron, which sailed from Madras on July 21 with a convoy of East India Company merchant ships carrying troops and supplies. Stuart and Rainier hoped the Kew Letters from William of Orange, which urged Dutch colonial governors to cooperate with the British, would make the campaign bloodless. Major Agnew was sent ashore at Colombo to negotiate, and Governor Johan van Angelbeek initially appeared willing to comply.

Appearances proved unreliable. When the British arrived off Trincomalee on August 1, the local garrison commander refused to acknowledge the governor's instructions, citing problems with their wording. For two days the British tried diplomacy while the loss of the Diomede and its military stores undercut their authority. On August 3, Rainier and Stuart ordered the invasion to proceed. Troops landed four nautical miles north of the port, unopposed, and advanced slowly through sandy terrain. Heavy surf and high winds stretched the disembarkation over ten days. The first gun emplacements approaching Trincomalee were not established until August 18. After a bombardment and brief negotiations, the Batavian commander surrendered. The garrison of 679 troops became prisoners, and the British seized more than 100 cannon. British losses in the entire Trincomalee campaign amounted to 16 killed and 60 wounded -- modest numbers that reflected the garrison's weak position rather than any lack of resolve.

With Trincomalee secured, Rainier took most of his squadron east to operate against Batavia, leaving Captain Alan Gardner to blockade Colombo. In February 1796, Stuart led a final expedition against the western capital. His forces landed at Negombo, an abandoned Dutch fort, on February 5 and marched overland to Colombo without opposition. Storming parties were prepared, but Governor van Angelbeek capitulated on February 15, and Stuart took the city peacefully. The entire island campaign, from first landing to final surrender, had lasted roughly six months. What followed lasted far longer. Unlike many colonies seized during the Revolutionary Wars, Ceylon was not returned to the Batavian Republic after the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. Britain held the coastal regions as a crown colony for 153 years, until independence was granted in 1948. The Dutch had held Ceylon for 156 years before the British took it. The Portuguese had been there before them. Trincomalee's harbor, deep and sheltered and strategically placed, kept drawing empires in, one after another.