History of Kochi
Muziris, a centre of global trade somewhere north to Kochi (presently identified with Kodungallur in Thrissur district), traces its history back many centuries, when it was the centre of Indian spice trade for hundreds of years, and was known to the Jews, Arabs, Yavanas (Greeks, Romans), and Chinese since ancient times.
[1] Kochi earned a significant position in Malabar Coast after the port at Kodungallur was destroyed by massive flooding of the river Periyar in 1341.
[3] There are also references to Kochi in accounts written by Italian traveller Niccolò Da Conti, who visited Cochin in 1440.
[4] Today, Kochi is the commercial hub of Kerala,[5] and one of the fastest growing second-tier metropolises in India.
[10] Zheng He delivered a stone tablet, inscribed with a proclamation composed by the Yongle Emperor himself, to Kochi.
[11] Zheng He delivered a stone tablet, inscribed with a proclamation composed by the Yongle Emperor himself, to Cochin.
[11] The Portuguese arrived at Kappad Kozhikode in 1498 during the Age of Discovery, thus opening a direct sea route from Europe to India.
In the year 1500, the Portuguese Admiral Pedro Álvares Cabral, landed at Cochin after being repelled from Calicut.
Promising his support in the conquest of Calicut, the admiral coaxed the king into allowing them to build a factory at Cochin.
The king sent Vasco Da Gama, who bombed Calicut and destroyed the Arab trading posts.
Later attempts by the Zamorin at conquering the Kochi port was thwarted by the Cochin Raja with the help of the Portuguese.
Kochi hosted the grave of Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese viceroy, who was buried at St. Francis Church until his remains were exhumed and interred in Portugal in 1539.
The Dutch successfully landed at Njarakal and headed on to capture the fort at Pallippuram, which they handed over to the Zamorin.
Harbour Engineer Robert Bristow, was thus brought to Cochin in 1920 under the direction of Lord Willingdon, then the Governor of Madras.
The Maharajah of Cochin, in 1896 initiated local administration, by forming town councils in Mattancherry and Ernakulam.
Then in 1949, Travancore-Cochin state came into being by the merger of Cochin and Travancore, with Parur T. K. Narayana Pillai as the first chief minister.
However, the Ernakulam municipality welcomed the proposal, suggesting the inclusion of more suburban areas in the amalgamated Corporation.
Major Balagangadhara Menon, the then Director of Local Bodies was appointed by the government to study the feasibility of the suggested merger.
Thus, on 1 November 1967, exactly 11 years since the conception of the state of Kerala, the corporation of Cochin came into existence, by the merger of the municipalities of Ernakulam, Mattancherry and Fort Kochi, along with that of the Willingdon Island and four panchayats viz.
