HISTORY OF MALACCA
Malacca — near the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia — is a charming town with a rich history. Strategically located on the Malacca Straits, a vital waterway between India, the Spice Islands, China and Europe, it was once one of the most important ports in the world. According to one old saying, "He who is the lord of Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice."
By the 15th century the predominate power in Indonesia was Malacca (Melaka), the trading kingdom based on the Malay peninsula. The Melaka kingdom controlled the strategic shipping lanes of the Malacca Straits and important commercial ports on northern Java. By the 16th century Melaka was the supreme power in Southeast Asia and Indonesia.
Part of maritime Silk Road, Malacca was founded in 1402 by Paramesvara, a prince who fled from Sumatra and established a port, which attracted trading ships from as far away as China, India and the islands near New Guinea. These ships carried things like sandalwood, pearls, porcelain, silk, gold, tin, and bird-of-paradise feathers as well as profitable cargos of cloves, pepper, cinnamon, mace, and nutmeg from the Spice Islands in what is now eastern Indonesia.
The Portuguese grabbed Malacca away from the Sumatran-Malay princes after a bloody six week battle in 1511. Portugal grew rich on Asian trade, which caught the attentions of other emerging European powers. In 1641, the Portuguese were ousted by the Dutch, who in turn were ousted by the British in 1795. At one time 86 languages were spoken in Malacca.
Strait of Malacca
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow strait of water that divides the Indonesian island of Sumatra from Malaysia and Singapore. It is also one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. The 890-kilometer-long waterway carries one third of the world’s trade and one half of the world’s oil supply. Carrying more ships everyday than the Panama and Suez Canals combined, its strategic importance can not be underestimated. The strait doesn't lie in international waters but is located in the territorial waters of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore and these countries are responsible for patrolling it.
More than 60,000 ships — equal to half the world's merchant fleet — carrying half the world's oil and 40 percent of its commerce pass through the Malacca Strait. The ship range from mammoth supertankers as large as city skyscrapers to tugs and barges. Lots of tankers going between the Persian Gulf and East Asia pass through the strait. As parts of the strait are only one kilometer wide ships have to sail at low speed.
Peter Gwin wrote in National Geographic: For centuries, this sliver of ocean has captivated seamen, offering the most direct route between India and China, along with a bounty of resources, including spices, rubber, mahogany, and tin. But it is a watery kingdom unto itself, harboring hundreds of rivers that feed into the channel, miles of swampy shoreline, and a vast constellation of tiny islands, reefs, and shoals. Its early inhabitants learned to lead amphibian lives, building their villages over water and devising specialized boats for fishing, trading, and warfare. [Source: Peter Gwin, National Geographic, October 2007]
Patrick Winn wrote in Global Post, “The Strait of Malacca is a natural paradise for seafaring bandits. Imagine an aquatic highway flowing between two marshy coasts. One shoreline belongs to Malaysia, the other to Indonesia. Each offers a maze of jungly hideaways: inlets and coves that favor pirates’ stealth vessels over slow, hulking ships. It's a narrow route running 550 miles, roughly the distance between Miami and Jamaica. This bottleneck is plied by one-third of the world's shipping trade. That's 50,000 ships per year — ferrying everything from iPads to Reeboks to half the planet's oil exports. Avoiding pirates by traveling fast is “practically impossible in the Strait of Malacca. The channel is simply too crowded and too shallow. Gigantic vessels are instead forced to churn through at slow speeds that invite pirates in fast-moving skiffs. (To save fuel, today's cargo ships often travel at about 14 miles per hour. That's slower than 19th-century sail boats.) [Source: Patrick Winn, GlobalPost, March 27, 2014]
Establishment of Malacca
Malacca was founded in 1402 by Paramesvara, a prince who fled from Sumatra and established a port which attracted trading ships from as far away as China, India and the islands near New Guinea. These ships carried sandalwood, pearls, porcelain, silk, gold, tin , bird-of-paradise feathers and spices such as cloves, mace and nutmeg from the Spice Islands in what is now eastern Indonesia. Malacca became an Islamic state after Prince Paramesvara converted to Islam. Malacca then became a major supply stop for ships traveling the trade routes between China and the Arab sultanates around the Persian Gulf.
Prof. Dr. Nazeer Ahmed, PhD wrote in the Encyclopedia of Islamic History: “Around the year 1390, a prince from Java, Parameswara, was forced to flee his homeland. Landing on the west coast of Malaya with a loyal following of about a thousand young men, the prince lived off piracy for almost ten years. At that time, Siam (modern Thailand) was the imperial power in the area. Parameswara drove out the Siamese and established the town of Malacca in 1403. The name Malacca derives from the Arabic word Malakut-meaning market place. The Arabs had maintained a trading colony there since the 8th century.
“Once settled, the prince encouraged peaceful trade. The fame and fortune of the trading post grew until it attracted international attention. The Muslims dominated the trade in the Indian Ocean. Arabic had become the lingua franca of traders in this region. Islam was gaining a following in the islands of Indonesia. Across the Straits from Malacca, the powerful Muslim kingdom of Aceh was emerging. Local folklore has it that around the year 1405, Prince Parameswara fell in love with a princess from the court of Pasai, accepted Islam, married her and changed his name to Sultan Iskander Shah.
“Thus it was love that brought Islam to Malaya. The bride brought with her good fortune for Malacca. The following year, the Emperor of China, Chu Tin (1403-24) sent a delegation under admiral Yin Ching, offering trade and friendship. The offer was gladly accepted as the Sultan was under increasing military pressure from the Siamese to the north. More courtly transactions followed. In 1409, the great Chinese admiral Zheng Yi (commonly known as Admiral Ho) visited Malacca at the head of a large flotilla of great ships. Admiral Zheng Yi was the greatest seaman of the 15th century. He was a Muslim. The Emperor of China, realizing the importance of Islam in the Indian Ocean region, had appointed him as Admiral of the great voyage. Zheng Yi continued with his flotilla to Acheh, Sri Lanka, Calicut, Bijapur, Hormuz, Aden, Jeddah, Zanj (East Africa), Zanzibar, Shofala and then southwards, crossing what is today the Cape of Good Hope to the west coast of Africa. Admiral Zheng Yi brought an invitation for Sultan Iskander Shah to visit Peking.
“In 1411 Sultan Iskander Shah visited China, was warmly received and was given presents of silk, gems, horses, gold and silver. Malacca also received a “most favored nation status” from China and entered into mutual defense agreements to ward off further Thai encroachments into the Malay Peninsula. Upon his return, Sultan Iskander Shah ruled as a benevolent monarch. He invited Muslim scholars from as far away as Mecca, honored them and encouraged the spread of Islam. Malacca became not only the hub of international trade but also a center for Islamic learning and a rich prize that was to be fought over in succeeding centuries by emerging European Empires. Sultan Iskander Shah died in 1424. His grave is not to be found because the Portuguese, when they captured Malacca in 1510, they dug up the graves of all of the Sultans of Malaya and destroyed the tombstones. But the legacy of Sultan Iskander Shah lives. He was a prince who brought Islam to Malaya for the love of a beautiful princess.”
Malacca Sultanate
The commencement of the current Malay nation is often traced to the fifteenth-century establishment of Malacca (Malacca) on the peninsula’s west coast. Malacca’s founding is credited to the Srivijayan prince Sri Paramesvara, who fled his kingdom to avoid domination by rulers of the Majapahit kingdom.
Early Malaysian cities and states originated in the coast and then moved to interior. These traded expensively with Chinese traders, who began arrived in numbers in the 14th century. Groups such as the Acehese, the Bugis and the Mnangkabau fought for dominance over the peninsula.
Before colonization, Malaysia was ruled sultanas who ruled over fiefdoms. The largest and most powerful of these Malacca kingdom on the Malay peninsular that was dominant power 1400-1511. It vied with the Chinese and Thais for control of the region.
By the late fourteenth century, Malacca had become an important commercial power and cultural influence along the Strait of Malacca, largely as a result of its numerous advantages as a trading port and its commercial and military alliances with China and the Malay kingdom of Bintan, an island near Singapore and home of the Orang Laut. When Muzaffar Shah became Malacca’s ruler in 1444, he declared the kingdom a Muslim state, and Malacca’s growing commercial, military, and political influence helped spread the Islamic faith throughout the region.
Prince Parameswara
The port of Malacca on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula was founded in 1402 by Parameswara, a Srivijaya prince fleeing Temasek (now Singapore), who was claimed in the Sejarah Melayu to be a descendant of Alexander the Great. Parameswara in particular sailed to Temasek to escape persecution. There he came under the protection of Temagi, a Malay chief from Patani who was appointed by the king of Siam as regent of Temasek. Within a few days, Parameswara killed Temagi and appointed himself regent. Some five years later he had to leave Temasek, due to threats from Siam. During this period, a Javanese fleet from Majapahit attacked Temasek. [Source: Wikipedia]
Parameswara headed north to found a new settlement. At Muar, Parameswara considered siting his new kingdom at either Biawak Busuk or at Kota Buruk. Finding that the Muar location was not suitable, he continued his journey northwards. Along the way, he reportedly visited Sening Ujong (former name of present-day Sungai Ujong) before reaching a fishing village at the mouth of the Bertam River (former name of the Malacca River), and founded what would become the Malacca Sultanate. Over time this developed into modern-day Malacca Town. According to the Malay Annals, here Parameswara saw a mouse deer outwitting a dog resting under a Malacca tree. Taking this as a good omen, he decided to establish a kingdom called Malacca. He built and improved facilities for trade. The Malacca Sultanate is commonly considered the first independent state in the peninsula.
At the time of Malacca's founding, the emperor of Ming Dynasty China was sending out fleets of ships to expand trade. Admiral Zheng He called at Malacca and brought Parameswara with him on his return to China, a recognition of his position as legitimate ruler of Malacca. In exchange for regular tribute, the Chinese emperor offered Malacca protection from the constant threat of a Siamese attack. The Chinese and Indians who settled in the Malay Peninsula before and during this period are the ancestors of today's Baba-Nyonya and Chetti community. According to one theory, Parameswara became a Muslim when he married a Princess of Pasai and he took the fashionable Persian title "Shah", calling himself Iskandar Shah. Chinese chronicles mention that in 1414, the son of the first ruler of Malacca visited the Ming emperor to inform them that his father had died. Parameswara's son was then officially recognised as the second ruler of Malacca by the Chinese Emperor and styled Raja Sri Rama Vikrama, Raja of Parameswara of Temasek and Malacca and he was known to his Muslim subjects as Sultan Sri Iskandar Zulkarnain Shah or Sultan Megat Iskandar Shah. He ruled Malacca from 1414 to 1424. Through the influence of Indian Muslims and, to a lesser extent, Hui people from China, Islam became increasingly common during the 15th century.
Power and Influence of the Malacca Sultanate
After an initial period paying tribute to the Ayutthaya, the kingdom rapidly assumed the place previously held by Srivijaya, establishing independent relations with China, and exploiting its position dominating the Straits to control the China-India maritime trade, which became increasingly important when the Mongol conquests closed the overland route between China and the west.
In 1405 the Chinese admiral Cheng Ho arrived in Malacca with promises to the locals of protection from the Siamese encroaching from the north. With Chinese support, the power of Malacca extended to include most of the Malay Peninsula. Islam arrived in Malacca around this time and soon spread through Malaya.
Within a few years of its establishment, Malacca officially adopted Islam. Parameswara became a Muslim, and due to the fact Malacca was under a Muslim Prince the conversion of Malays to Islam accelerated in the 15th century. The political power of the Malaccan Sultanate helped Islam’s rapid spread through the archipelago. Malacca was an important commercial centre during this time, attracting trade from around the region. By the start of the 16th century, with Malaccan Sultanate in the Malay peninsula and parts of Sumatra, the Sultanate of Demak in Java, and other kingdoms around the Malay archipelago increasingly converting to Islam, it had become the dominant religion among Malays, and reached as far as the modern day Philippines, leaving Bali as an isolated outpost of Hinduism today.
Malacca's reign lasted little more than a century, but during this time became the established centre of Malay culture. Most future Malay states originated from this period. Malacca became a cultural centre, creating the matrix of the modern Malay culture: a blend of indigenous Malay and imported Indian, Chinese and Islamic elements. Malacca's fashions in literature, art, music, dance and dress, and the ornate titles of its royal court, came to be seen as the standard for all ethnic Malays. The court of Malacca also gave great prestige to the Malay language, which had originally evolved in Sumatra and been brought to Malacca at the time of its foundation. In time Malay came to be the official language of all the Malaysian states, although local languages survived in many places. After the fall of Malacca, the Sultanate of Brunei became the major centre of Islam.
Portuguese Take Over Malacca
In 1511, about 50 years after the Portuguese seaman Vasco de Gama rounded Cape of Good Hope and reached India, the Portuguese grabbed Malacca away from the Malays after a bloody six week battle in 1511. Even though the Malay sultan occupied a well-protected fortified place, their bows, arrows, lances, spears and battle elephants were no match for the Portuguese canons and primitive muskets.
The Portuguese set up a trading post in Malacca, providing a key supply station and trading center for spices coming the East Indies and porcelain, silk and treasures from China. Portugal grew rich on Asian trade and fulfilled the saying: "Whoever is lord of Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice."
Magellan stopped in Malacca before his historical trip around the world. The Spanish missionary St. Francis Xavier confounded the Jesuit order and traveled 38,000 miles spreading the word of the Gospel. St Paul's church in the Portuguese quarter of Malacca, Malaysia is where Francis Xavier was displayed in an open coffin for ten months before he was buried in Goa.
St. Paul's Church on a hill in Malacca, according to Smithsonian magazine, is “where St. Francis Xavier is said to have denounced dissolute parishioners in the loth century for turning Portugal's most important colony into "the Babylon of the East." At the hill's bottom was evidence of the Portuguese population's comeuppance-the 18th-century Christ Church, whose floor the Dutch paved with the tombstones of their rivals. The most evocative symbol of the city's storied past could be found at the river's mouth: a replica of the Fiordo Mar, the Portuguese carrack that set sail for Goa with tons of gold and jewels looted from the Malacca sultanate- only to founder off Sumatra in 1511.”
Australia marine archaeologist Michael Flecker heads a marine archaeology consulting firm called Maritime Explorations. He has worked with Malaysia's Department of Museums to explore a Portuguese shipwreck in the Malacca Straits.
After the fall of Malacca to Portugal, the Johor Sultanate and the Sultanate of Aceh on northern Sumatra moved to fill in the power vacuum left behind. The three powers struggled to dominate the Malay peninsula and the surrounding islands. Johor founded in the wake of Malacca's conquest grew powerful enough to rival the Portuguese, although it was never able to recapture the city. Instead it expanded in other directions, building in 130 years one of the largest Malay states. In this time the numerous attempts to recapture Malacca led to a strong backlash from the Portuguese, whose raids even reached Johor's capital of Johor Lama in 1587.
In 1607, the Sultanate of Aceh rose as the powerful and wealthiest state in Malay archipelago. Under Iskandar Muda reign, he extended the sultanate's control over a number of Malay states. A notable conquest was Perak, a tin-producing state on the Peninsula. The strength of his formidable fleet was brought to an end with a disastrous campaign against Malacca in 1629, when the combined Portuguese and Johor forces managed to destroy all his ships and 19,000 troops according to Portuguese account. Aceh forces was not destroyed, however, as Aceh was able to conquer Kedah within the same year and taking many of its citizens to Aceh. The Sultan's son in law, Iskandar Thani, former prince of Pahang later became his successor. The conflict over control of the straits went on until 1641, when the Dutch (allied to Johor) gained control of Malacca.
Dutch Take Over Malacca From the Portuguese
The Dutch overpowered the Portuguese in Malacca in 1641 and controlled the port and the spice trade the Spice Islands (Mollucas) for 150 years. "Melayu" was also greatly prized for its natural resources.
In the early 17th century the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or VOC ) was established. During this time the Dutch were at war with Spain, who obtained the Portuguese Empire due to the Iberian Union. From there they expanded across the archipelago, forming an alliance with Johor and using this to push the Portuguese out of Malacca in 1641. Backed by the Dutch, Johore established a loose hegemony over the Malay states, except Perak, which was able to play off Johore against the Siamese to the north and retain its independence. The Dutch did not interfere in local matters in Malacca, but at the same time diverted most trade to its colonies on Java. [Source: Wikipedia]
The weakness of the small coastal Malay states led to the immigration of the Bugis, escaping from Dutch colonisation of Sulawesi, who established numerous settlements on the peninsula which they used to interfere with Dutch trade. They seized control of Johor following the assassination of the last Sultan of the old Malacca royal line in 1699. Bugis expanded their power in the states of Johor, Kedah, Perak, and Selangor. The Minangkabau from center Sumatra migrated into Malaya, and eventually established their own state in Negeri Sembilan. The fall of Johore left a power vacuum on the Malay Peninsula which was partly filled by the Siamese kings of Ayutthaya kingdom, who made the five northern Malay states — Kedah, Kelantan, Patani, Perlis and Terengganu — their vassals. Johore’s eclipse also left Perak as the unrivalled leader of the Malay states.
The economic importance of Malaya to Europe grew rapidly during the 18th century. The fast-growing tea trade between China and United Kingdom increased the demand for high-quality Malayan tin, which was used to line tea-chests. Malayan pepper also had a high reputation in Europe, while Kelantan and Pahang had gold mines. The growth of tin and gold mining and associated service industries led to the first influx of foreign settlers into the Malay world — initially Arabs and Indians, later Chinese — who colonised the towns and soon dominated economic activities. This established a pattern which characterised Malayan society for the next 200 years — a rural Malay population increasingly under the domination of wealthy urban immigrant communities, whose power the Sultans were unable to resist.
In the eighteenth century, various struggles for political and economic influence fragmented authority in the Malay world, so that conflict and instability were the norm. In the peninsula’s western areas, two groups that had migrated to the peninsula for centuries, the Buginese and the Minangkabau, often fought each other. By 1740 the victorious Buginese ruled many peninsular states and continued to do so until they were defeated by an alliance of Johor and the Dutch in 1784. In eastern areas of the peninsula, Thai kingdoms often fought with and ruled Malay kingdoms from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Furthermore, Malay waters become some of the most dangerous in the world. Dutch monopolistic trade practices encouraged substantial black-market trade, and idle anak raja (sons of rulers) supported piracy as a means of income and recreation suitable to their elite status. Similarly, in Borneo piracy and slave raids supported by foreign powers were common. Piracy even forced the British East India Company to abandon two island settlements (in 1775 and 1776) off the coast of Borneo.
British Take Over Malacca from the Dutch
English traders had been present in Malay waters since the 17th century. Until the arrival of the British European power became fully apparent in Malaysia. Before the mid-19th-century British interests in the region were predominantly economic, with little interest in territorial control. Already the most powerful coloniser in India, they were looking towards southeast Asia for new resources. The growth of the China trade in British ships increased the Company’s desire for bases in the region. Various islands were used for this purpose, but the first permanent acquisition was Penang, leased from the Sultan of Kedah in 1786. This was followed soon after by the leasing of a block of territory on the mainland opposite Penang (known as Province Wellesley). In 1795, during the Napoleonic Wars, the British with the consent of the Netherlands occupied Dutch Malacca to forestall possible French interest in the area.
When Malacca was handed back to the Dutch in 1815, the British governor, Stamford Raffles, looked for an alternative base, and in 1819 he acquired Singapore from the Sultan of Johor. The exchange of the British colony of Bencoolen for Malacca with the Dutch left the British as the sole colonial power on the peninsula. The territories of the British were set up as free ports, attempting to break the monopoly held by other colonial powers as the time, and making them large bases of trade. They allowed Britain to control all trade through the straits of Malacca. British influence was increased by Malayan fears of Siamese expansionism, to which Britain made a useful counterweight. During the 19th century the Malay Sultans aligned themselves the British Empire, due to the benefits of associations with the British and the belief in superior British civilisation.
In 1824 British hegemony in Malaya (before the name Malaysia) was formalised by the Anglo-Dutch Treaty, which divided the Malay archipelago between Britain and the Netherlands. The Dutch evacuated Malacca and renounced all interest in Malaya, while the British recognised Dutch rule over the rest of the East Indies. By 1826 the British controlled Penang, Malacca, Singapore and the island of Labuan, which they established as the crown colony of the Straits Settlements, administered first under the East India Company until 1867, when they were transferred to the Colonial Office in London.
According to UNESCO: In 1795-1818, during the Napoleonic wars in Europe, Melaka came into British hands. By then Penang/George Town had been in existence for some time and as its rival, it was initially ordered to level Melaka. The fort was demolished, only the gate is left, but then the destruction was stopped. A few years later, in 1824, Melaka was finally brought under British administration. George Town was founded in 1786 by the British. Unlike the Portuguese and the Dutch they exercised a policy of free trade. People from all over the world were encouraged to settle in the new town and to produce export crops. To administer the island, a Presidency was set up under the jurisdiction of the East India Company in Bengal and in 1826 it became part of the Straits Settlements together with Singapore and Melaka. [Source: UNESCO]
“The development of both cities over the centuries was based on the merging of diverse ethnic and cultural traditions, including Malay, European, Muslim, Indian and Chinese influences. All this resulted in a human and cultural tapestry that is expressed in a rich intangible heritage that includes languages, religious practices, gastronomy, ceremonies and festivals.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: Malaysia Tourism websites, Malaysia government websites, UNESCO, Wikipedia, Lonely Planet guides, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Bloomberg, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Japan News, Yomiuri Shimbun, Compton's Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.
Updated in January 2026