Kochi History

History of Kochi

Kochi was the centre of Indian spice trade for many centuries, and was known to the Yavanas Greeks and as well as Jews, Arabs, and Chinese since ancient times . According to many historians, the precursor state to Kingdom of Kochi came into existence in early 12th century, after the fall of the Chera Kingdom . The reign of the Kingdom was hereditary, and the family that ruled over the region was known as the Perumpadappu rulers in the local vernacular.

The Mainland Kochi remained the capital of the princely state since the 18th century. From 1503 to 1663, Fort Kochi was ruled by Portugal .In 1866, Fort Kochi became a municipality, and its first Municipal Council election was conducted in 1883. Th Maharaja of Cochin, who ruled under the British, in 1896 initiated local administration by forming town councils in Mattancherry and Ernakulam . In 1925, Kochi legislative assembly was constituted due to public pressure on the state.

In 1947, when India gained independence from the British colonial rule , Cochin was the first princely state to join the Indian Union willingly. In 1949, Travancore-Cochin state came into being with the merger of Cochin and Travancore . The King of Travancore was the Rajpramukh of the Travancore-Cochin Union from 1949 to 1956.

On 1 November 1967, exactly eleven years since the establishment of the state of Kerala, the corporation of Cochin came into existence. Kochi witnessed economic stagnation in the years following India’s independence. The city’s economic recovery gathered momentum after economic reforms in India introduced by the central government in the mid-1990s. Since 2000, the service sector has revitalized the city’s stagnant economy. Over the years, Kochi has witnessed rapid commercialization, and has today grown into a commercial hub of Kerala.