During the era of European colonialism, wars would be declared, peace treaties signed, and colonies could switch hands. As it could take months for these colonies to get the message, how did the European powers go about this? Was there some generally agreed upon time frame?

by Crowbarmagic

It is a very broad question I know, but in the end all European powers had about the same limit of speed in their communication (the speed of their ships) right (ignoring fleet size)? I've read about situations in which e.g. countries had skirmishes because one or both factions weren't aware their governments signed a peace treaty.

Would there be some kind of time frame in which skirmishes would still be allowed under a peace treaty because one couldn't expect e.g. a captain of a ship to know about it? And assuming yes, how did this 'clause' look like? Were there certain conditions written down?

Additionally: Has a country ever misused this 'buffer' period (attacking under the guise of 'I didn't know peace was declared')?

Again, sorry if the question is too broad. If it's not good enough I'll delete the post. It's just that I've read about tons of treaties, but it's never clarified how exactly they deal with the relatively slow communications.

Czone

My expertise in this is rather narrow, but I can give you one example from my Research Master thesis I handed in two days ago (the freedom is amazing btw). I will be focusing on the Treaty of Ryswick and the communication about it on Sri Lanka, then Dutch Ceylon.

The Treaty of Ryswick (Rijswijk in Dutch) was signed between 20 September and 30 October 1697 and ended the Nine Years war. The news about the peace between the Dutch Republic and France arrived with Governor Gerrit de Heere, who was then on an inspection tour around the island of Sri Lanka, on the 25th of May 1698.^1

On the 12th of July 1698, De Heere was on his way to Jaffna and received a letter from the Commander and Council of Nagapatnam, the base of operations in mainland India for the Dutch East India Company (VOC). The letter contained complaints about the "torments" that the "unreasonable servants of the Great Mogol [Mughal Emperor]" exacted upon the Dutch at Pondichéry.^2 Apparently, two months after they received word they had to vacate the French colony, they still hadn't. In fact, De Heere sent an order to Colombo to have a fluyt sail to Point Pedro to pick up one hundred soldiers to be sent to Coromandel.^3 On the 17th of July, he sent another letter to Colombo to ship sixty men to Jaffna to strengthen the garrison, from which men had been drawn to reinforce the Dutch on India. Ceylon often functioned as a secondary rendez-vous besides Batavia and as a place to move reinforcements from to mainland India.

One of the first things De Heere did when he received word of the peace with France was to send a letter to the King of Kandy. Kandy, which controlled all the bits of Sri Lanka that the Dutch didn't hold (which was most of it) technically also owned the land the Dutch occupied. The Dutch Governors referred to themselves as "the king's loyal servant in Colombo",^4 but occupied the land until the Kandyan king would pay off debts incurred when the Dutch kicked the Portuguese off the island for him. These debts were enormous though, so there was no realistic way for the king to actually pay them.^5

In the letter, De Heere simply informs the Kandyan King that the Dutch are no longer at war with the King of France, using very polite and subordinate phrasing to keep the King happy (after all, while he could not fight the Dutch off the island, he could certainly wreak havoc on their cinnamon trade, which was the point of occupying the coast).

So, De Heere was certainly aware of the peace with France, but the Dutch did not actually relinquish control of Pondichéry. Perhaps someone more versed in earlier Sri Lankan history can shine a light upon the wars between the Dutch and the Portuguese for control over its coast. If I recall correctly, there were multiple occasions where the Dutch and Portuguese (and Spanish) made peace, but the VOC "totally hadn't heard about it yet!" and quickly took another fort or two from the Portuguese, or simply refused to give up forts they were supposed to return to Iberian control.

^1 (Dutch) National Archives, The Hague, VOC archives (1.04.02), inventory number 1604B, henceforth VOC 1604B, folio 470v.

^2 VOC 1604B fol. 536v-537r. The Dutch words used are "quellingen" and "vercsheijde onredelijcke bedienden van den groten mogol".

^3 VOC 1604B fol. 537r-537v.

^4 De Heere does it in the letter as well, he signs the letter: "His Mighty Monarch, and unconquerable Emperor's loyal governor and obedient servant signed: Gerrit de Heere", or in Dutch: "Sijn Grootm: Monargh, en onverw: keijsers getrouwen gouverneur en gehoorsamen dienaar getekent: Gerrit de Heere". VOC 1604B fol. 473v.

^5 S. Arasaratnam, Ceylon and the Dutch, 1600-1800 (Hampshire 1996) 109. See also idem, 'The Consolidation of Dutch Power in the Maritime Regions 1658-1687', in: K. M. de Silva (ed.), History of Sri Lanka Vol. II 1500-1800 (Sri Lanka 1995) 211-232, there 212-213. Femme Gaastra has shown that the debt did shrink in the VOC records, unlike what Arasaratnam claims. However, they calculated this based on a set price they paid for cinnamon, despite selling it for 30-50 times as much money in Europe. F. S. Gaastra, Bewind en Beleid bij de VOC: De financiële en commerciële politiek van de bewindhebbers, 1672-1702 (Zutphen 1989) 72.