History
[edit]
Historical affiliations
Portuguese Malacca 1511–1641 Dutch East India Company 1641–1795 Dutch East Indies 1818–1825 British Straits Settlements 1825–1946 Crown Colony of Malacca 1946–1957 Federation of Malaya 1957–1963 Malaysia 1963–present
Sultanate of Malacca[edit]
Main article: Malacca Sultanate
Malacca Sultanate Palace Museum, modern reconstruction of the palace of the Malacca Sultanate
Before the arrival of the first sultan, the area that is now Malacca was a fishing village. Malacca was founded by Parameswara, also known as Iskandar Shah, after discovering a suitable port that was accessible in all seasons and on the strategically located narrowest point of the Strait of Malacca. In collaboration with his Proto-Malay privateers allies, called the Orang Laut ("sea people"), he established Malacca as an international port by compelling passing ships to call there and establishing fair and reliable facilities for warehousing and trade.
In 1403, the first official Chinese trade envoy, led by Admiral Yin Qing, arrived in Malacca. Later, Parameswara was escorted by Zheng He and other envoys in his successful visits. Malacca's relationship with Ming China granted it protection from attacks by Siam and Majapahit, and the settlement officially submitted to Ming China as a protectorate. This encouraged the development of Malacca into a major center on the trade route between China and India, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.
Mao Kun map, from Wubei Zhi, which comes from the early 15th century maps of Zheng He's navigators and cartographers, showing Malacca (滿剌加) near the top left.
During the early 15th century, Ming China actively sought to build in Malacca a commercial hub and a base of operations for their treasure voyages into the Indian Ocean. Malacca had been a relatively insignificant region, not even qualifying as a polity prior to the voyages, according to both Ma Huan and Fei Xin, and it was a vassal region of Siam. In 1405, the Ming court dispatched Admiral Zheng He with a stone tablet enfeoffing the Western Mountain of Malacca, as well as an imperial order elevating the status of the port to a country. The Chinese also established a government depot (官廠) as a fortified cantonment for their soldiers. Ma Huan reported that Siam did not dare invade Malacca thereafter. The rulers of Malacca, such as Parameswara in 1411, would pay tribute to the Chinese emperor in person. In 1431, when a Malaccan representative complained that Siam was obstructing tribute missions to the Ming court, the Xuande Emperor dispatched Zheng He, carrying a threatening message for the Siamese king, saying, "You, king should respect my orders, develop good relations with your neighbours, examine and instruct your subordinates and not act recklessly or aggressively". The early kings of Malacca—Parameswara, Megat Iskandar Shah, and Sri Maharaja—understood that they could gain Ming China's protection through skilful diplomacy and thereby establish a strong foundation for their kingdom against Siam and other potential enemies. Chinese involvement was thus crucial for Malacca to grow into a key alternative to other important and established ports.
According to Malaccan folklore, to enhance relations, Hang Li Po, a daughter of the Ming emperor of China, arrived in Malacca, accompanied by 500 attendants, to marry Sultan Mansur Shah, who reigned from 1456 until 1477. Her attendants married Malaccans and settled mostly in Bukit Cina.
Map of Malacca in 1602
Malacca again sent envoys to China in 1481 to inform the Chinese that, while Malaccan envoys were returning from China in 1469, the Vietnamese attacked them, killing some while castrating the young men and enslaving them. The Malaccans reported that Vietnam was in control of Champa and also sought to conquer Malacca, but the Malaccans did not fight back, because they did not want to fight against another state that was a tributary to China without permission from the Chinese. They requested to confront the Vietnamese delegation to China, which was in China at the time, but the Chinese informed them that since the incident was years old, they could do nothing about it, though the emperor sent a letter to the Vietnamese ruler, reproaching him for the incident. The Chinese emperor also ordered the Malaccans to raise soldiers and fight back with violent force if the Vietnamese attacked again.
Colonial era[edit]
See also: Portuguese Malacca, Dutch Malacca, Straits Settlements, and Crown Colony of Malacca
1630 map of the Portuguese fort and the city of Malacca
The construction of the Middelburg Bastion was carried out in 1660 during Dutch-rule in Malacca, it is strategically located at the mouth of Malacca River
In April 1511, Afonso de Albuquerque set sail from Goa to Malacca with a force of some 1,200 men and seventeen or eighteen ships. They conquered the city on 24 August 1511. After seizing the city Afonso de Albuquerque spared the Hindu, Chinese and Burmese inhabitants but had the Muslim inhabitants massacred or sold into slavery.
It soon became clear that Portuguese control of Malacca did not also mean that they controlled the Asian trade centred there. Their rule was severely hampered by administrative and economic difficulties. Rather than achieving their ambition of dominating Asian trade, the Portuguese had disrupted the organised network that had existed. The centralised port of exchange of Asian wealth was now gone, as was a Malay state to police the Strait of Malacca which had made it safe for commercial traffic. Trade was now scattered over a number of ports that fought amongst each other.
Dutch Malacca, c. 1750
The Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier spent several months in Malacca in 1545, 1546, and 1549. The Dutch launched several attacks on the Portuguese colony during the first four decades of the seventeenth century. The first attack took place in 1606 under the command of Dutch Admiral Cornelis Matelief de Jonge who laid siege to the town with the help of his ally, the Johor Sultanate. He engaged the Portuguese armada which had been sent from Goa to offer armed relief to the besieged port. On 14 January 1641, the Dutch defeated the Portuguese in an effort to capture Malacca, with the help of the Sultan of Johor. The Dutch ruled Malacca from 1641 to 1798 but they were not interested in developing it as a trading centre, placing greater importance on Batavia (Jakarta) and Java as their administrative centre. However they still built an administrative building, called Stadthuys, which is now a landmark. In the Dutch era the building was white, the current red paint was from a later date.
Malacca River 1907, Church of St. Francis Xavier in the background
Malacca was ceded to the British in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 in exchange for Bencoolen on Sumatra. From 1824 to 1942, Malacca was under the rule of the British, first by the East India Company and then as a crown colony. Due to dissatisfaction with British jurisdiction over Naning, Dol Said, a local chief, fought the East India Company in a war from 1831 to 1832, which resulted in a decisive British victory. It formed part of the Straits Settlements, together with Singapore and Penang. Malacca went briefly under the rule of Empire of Japan between 1942 and 1945 during World War II.
Post colonial era[edit]
After the war, Malacca was placed under a military administration until 1946. Subsequently, the Straits Settlements was abolished, as the British sought to consolidate the various political entities in British Malaya under a single polity named the Malayan Union. The now separate Crown Colony of Malacca was consequently merged into the Malayan Union, which was then replaced by the Federation of Malaya in 1948. The declaration of independence was made by the first Prime Minister of Malaya, Tunku Abdul Rahman, at Padang Pahlawan on 20 February 1956, which eventually led to the independence of Malaya on 31 August 1957. On 16 September 1963, Malaysia was formed with the merger of Malaya with Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore, and Malacca became part of it.
Malacca in 1971
The state capital, Malacca City, with a variety of architectures inherited from its colonial days, was declared a historical city on 15 April 1989 and granted city status on 15 April 2003 by the Federal Government of Malaysia. The city's historical core has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 7 July 2008. Malacca City along with George Town was confirmed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011.
