Capture of Malacca (1511)

Capture of Malacca
Part of Malay–Portuguese conflicts

"The Conquest of Malacca, 1511" by Ernesto Condeixa (1858–1933).
Date21 Jumādā I 917, or 15 August 1511[1][2]
Location
Malacca (present-day part of Malaysia)
2°12′20″N 102°15′22″E / 2.20556°N 102.25611°E / 2.20556; 102.25611
Result
  • Portuguese victory
Territorial
changes
Establishment of Portuguese Malacca
Belligerents
Portuguese Empire Portuguese Empire Malacca Sultanate
Commanders and leaders
Portuguese Empire Afonso de Albuquerque Mahmud Shah
Strength

1,500 Portuguese soldiers
800 Chinese and Indian auxiliaries
Up to 400 guns[3]

11 carracks
3 caravels
2 galleys[4]

20,000 men[5]
8,000 firearms and cannons[Note 1]
20 elephants

About 150 perahu:
Unknown number of lancaran
20 penjajap
Casualties and losses
28 dead[7] Unknown
The surviving gate of the Fortress of Malacca, Porta do Santiago

The Capture of Malacca in 1511 occurred when the governor of Portuguese India Afonso de Albuquerque conquered the city of Malacca in 1511.

The port city of Malacca controlled the narrow, strategic Strait of Malacca, through which all seagoing trade between China and India was concentrated.[8] The capture of Malacca was the result of a plan by King Manuel I of Portugal, who since 1505 had intended to beat the Castilians to the Far-East, and Albuquerque's own project of establishing firm foundations for Portuguese India, alongside Hormuz, Goa and Aden, to ultimately control trade and thwart Muslim shipping in the Indian Ocean.[9]

Having started sailing from Cochin in April 1511, the expedition would not have been able to turn around due to contrary monsoon winds. Had the enterprise failed, the Portuguese could not hope for reinforcements and would have been unable to return to their bases in India. At the time it was the farthest territorial conquest in history.[10]

  1. ^ Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (2007). Historic cities of the Islamic world. BRILL. p. 317. ISBN 978-90-04-15388-2. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  2. ^ van Gent, Robert Harry. "Islamic–Western Calendar Converter". Universiteit Utrecht. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  3. ^ Subrahmanyam & Parker 2008, p. 24.
  4. ^ [1] Archived 27 December 2022 at the Wayback Machine Cartas de Afonso de Albuquerque, Volume 1 p. 65
  5. ^ Diffie & Winius 1977, p. 256.
  6. ^ Gibson-Hill 1953, p. 146-147.
  7. ^ Diffie & Winius 1977, p. 258.
  8. ^ The Cambridge History of the British Empire Arthur Percival Newton p. 11 [2] Archived 27 December 2022 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ João Paulo de Oliveira e Costa, Vítor Luís Gaspar Rodrigues (2012) Campanhas de Afonso de Albuquerque: Conquista de Malaca, 1511 p. 13 Archived 27 December 2022 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ João Paulo de Oliveira e Costa, Vítor Luís Gaspar Rodrigues (2012) Campanhas de Afonso de Albuquerque: Conquista de Malaca, 1511 p. 7 Archived 27 December 2022 at the Wayback Machine


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