The Malayan-Portuguese War was an armed conflict involving the native Malays of Malacca and Johore and the European colonial powers of Portugal and the United Provinces. The conflict began with the Portuguese capture of Malacca in 1511, and the Portuguese fought a series of wars to maintain their foothold on the peninsula until the Dutch occupied Portuguese Malacca in 1641 during the Dutch-Portuguese War.
History[]
The Malay port city of Malacca, located near the narrow Strait of Malacca in Southeast Asia, became a prosperous trade port due to its maritime connections to both China and India. In 1505, King Manuel I of Portugal initiated a campaign to establish Portuguese domination over the Indian Ocean, planning to capture Aden in Yemen to block trade through Alexandria, capturing Ormuz in order to block trade through Beirut, and capturing Malacca to control trade with China. In 1509, King Manuel sent Diogo Lopes de Sequeira with four ships to establish contact with the Sultanate of Malacca, and he was initially well received by Sultan Mahmud Shah. However, the local Muslim community persuaded Mahmud Shah not to trust the Christian Portuguese, and the Sultan ordered that the Portuguese expedition be massacred. Several Portuguese were captured and killed, but the ships escaped.
In April 1511, Afonso de Albuquerque was sent from India with 1,200 troops and 18 ships to retaliate against Malacca. The Portuguese expedition's first attack on Malacca on 25 July 1511 was a failure, but Albuquerque - ignoring the advice of his captains - launched a second assault in August, overcoming strong resistance and artillery fire and capturing the city. Tristao da Cunha was then sent to Rome with gifts for Pope Leo X, including an elephant that Pope Leo X named "Hanno".
The Portuguese conquest of Malacca incensed Ming China, as the Sultanate had been a Chinese tributary state. The Chinese government tortured and executed 23 Portuguese expatriates in Guangzhou after the Malaccans informed them of the Portuguese seizure of Malacca City; the Chinese had already been angered by Portuguese banditry on their soil and piracy in their waters. In 1521, the Chinese formally expelled the Portuguese embassy, and, in the Battle of Tunmen, the Ming also inflicted heavy losses on the Portuguese fleet off Hong Kong after the Portuguese refused to comply with their demands to leave China, although they failed to encircle and destroy the fleet. The Chinese held the Portuguese embassy hostage and attempted to force the Portuguese to restore the Sultan of Malacca to the throne, and, when the Portuguese refused, the Chinese beat, strangled, and tortured the hostage diplomats. In 1522, the Portuguese admiral Martim Afonso de Merlo Coutinho led a fleet of 6 ships in a punitive expedition against the Chinese, but the Portuguese navy was again defeated at the Battle of Shancaowan. The Chinese then executed the last of the captive Portuguese diplomats, and the Chinese also exterminated the Portuguese pirate base at Shuangyu in Fujian.
Meanwhile, the Portuguese established the A Famosa fortress outside of Malacca to protect Portugal's access to the Spice Route in China (at the same time, the Portuguese built forts in Macau, China, and Goa). The Chinese boycotted Malacca after the Portuguese takeover, and the Chinese mercantile community on Java assisted in Muslim attempts to reconquer the city, providing the Malays with ships. The Johor Sultanate was founded in 1528 to succeed the Malacca Sultanate, and it led many of these reconquest attempts. During the 1530s, the Ottoman Empire allied with the Aceh Sultanate and sent a naval expedition to assist the Malays against the Portuguese in 1566, but the Portuguese defeated an Acehnese and Ottoman attempt to recapture Malacca in 1568.
During the Dutch Revolt, the United Provinces rebelled against the Habsburg Empire, which ruled over both Spain and Portugal in a personal union. The Dutch East India Company decided to take advantage of the war to eliminate the Portuguese trade monopoly by neutralizing Malacca, sending 11 ships to Johor to ally with the Sultanate against the Portuguese. In August 1606, the Dutch fleet clashed with the 20-ship Portuguese fleet of Martim Afonso de Castro at the Battle of Cape Rachado, and, while the Portuguese were victorious, they suffered heavy losses, and Johore decided to provide supplies, support, and ground forces to aid the Dutch against the Portuguese. Over the next several years, the Portuguese developed Malacca into a near-impregnable fortress. In 1641, the Dutch and Johorians combined forces to assault Malacca, capturing the city from the Portuguese and ending their colony in Southeast Asia. The Portuguese Empire's spice-producing Maluku Islands also fell to the Dutch, leaving only Portuguese Timor, Goa, Daman and Diu, and Macau in Portuguese hands until the 20th century.