The Sultanate of Malacca was a Malay sultanate founded by Parameswara in 1400. He was a Buddhist Srivijayan prince and a descendant of the Macedonian King, Alexander the Great.
Parameswara assumed the title Sultan Iskandar Syah due to his marriage to a princess from Pasai. Although he did not convert to Islam, his marriage to the Muslim princess encouraged a number of his subjects to embrace Islam.
The Sultanate thrived on entrepôt trade and became the most important port in Southeast Asia during the 15th and the early 16th century. Furthermore, Malacca was as a major player in the spice trade, serving as a gateway between the Spice Island and high-paying Eurasian markets. One of the factors that contributed to the rise of Malacca was the monsoon winds that enabled Arab and Indian traders from the west to travel to China in the east and vice versa. At the height of its power, the Sultanate encompassed most of modern day Peninsular Malaysia, the site of modern day Singapore and a great portion of eastern Sumatra.
At the same time, Malacca had a good relationship with Ming, resulting in admiral Zheng He's visits. Parameswara had met the admiral to receive a Letter of Friendship (and the admiral did not kneel down before the sultan! - contrary to some claims!), hence making Malacca the first foreign kingdom to attain such treatment (or making Malacca a de facto colony of Ming). In 1409, the sultan paid tribute to the Ming emperor to ask for protection against Siam. Moreover, one of the sultans, Mansur Shah even married a Ming princess named Hang Li Po (deals'-sweetener, maybe!). This Sino-Malacca relationship helped deter Siam from further threatening Malacca. (Sino-Malay ties- this is happening now.) This begin to sound like the Khurds needed protection by the US army in Iraq!
In April 1511, Alfonso d'Albuquerque (picture above) set sail from Goa to Malacca with a force of some 1200 men and seventeen or eighteen ships. The Viceroy made a number of demands - one of which was for permission to build a fortress as a Portuguese trading post near the city. All the demands were refused by the Sultan. Conflict was unavoidable, and after 40 days of fighting, Malacca fell to the Portuguese on August 24. Although Malacca seems to have been well supplied with artillery, but the combination of Portuguese firepower, determination and fanatical courage prevailed. A bitter dispute between Sultan Mahmud and his son Sultan Ahmad also weighed down the Malaccan side. (disunity- also happening now?)
Albuquerque remained in Malacca until November 1511 preparing its defences against any Malay counterattack. Sultan Mahmud Shah was forced to flee Malacca. The sultan made several attempts to retake the capital but his efforts were fruitless. The Portuguese retaliated and forced the sultan to flee to Pahang. Later, the sultan sailed to Bintan and established a new capital there. The sultan then retreated to Kampar in Sumatra where he died two years later. He left behind two sons named Muzaffar Shah and Alauddin Riayat Shah II.
Muzaffar Shah was invited by the people in the north of the peninsula to become their ruler, establishing the Sultanate of Perak. Meanwhile, Mahmud's other son, Alauddin succeeded his father and made a new capital in the south. His realm was the Sultanate of Johor, the successor of Malacca.
The Malaccan ruler was marred with difficulties: they could not become self-supporting and remained reliant on Asian suppliers (as had their Malay predecessors); they were short of both funds and manpower; and administration was hampered by organisational confusion and command overlap, corruption and inefficiency (happening now?). Competition from other ports such as Johor saw Asian traders bypass Malacca (will Malaysia get "bypass" once again?) and the city began to decline as a trading port. The Portuguese had fundamentally disrupted the organisation of the Asian trade network. Rather than a centralised port of exchange of Asian wealth exchange, or a Malay state to police the Straits of Malacca that made it safe for commercial traffic, trade was now scattered over a number of ports amongst bitter warfare in the Straits.
No comments:
Post a Comment