Capture of Malacca (1511)

During the passage to Southeast Asia, the armada lost a galley and an old carrack. At Sumatra, the fleet rescued nine Portuguese prisoners who had managed to escape to the Kingdom of Pedir; they informed Albuquerque that the city was internally divided, and that the Bendahara (treasurer) had been recently assassinated. There they also intercepted several trade ships of the Sultanate of Gujarat, an enemy of the Portuguese.

Passing by Pacem (Samudera Pasai Sultanate) the Portuguese came across two junks, one was from Coromandel, which was captured immediately, and the other was from Java which weighed about 600 tons. It is a very large junk, larger in fact than even their flagship, the Flor do Mar. The Portuguese ordered it to halt but it promptly opened fire on the fleet, after which the Portuguese quickly followed suit. They realized however that their bombards were mostly ineffective: Their cannonballs bounced off the hull of the junk. After two days of continuous bombardment though, the junk had its masts felled, its deck burned, 40 of its 300 crew killed, and both of its rudders destroyed, which compelled it to surrender. Once aboard, the Portuguese found Prince Geinal (or Zeinal), the son of the king of Pasai who was deposed by his relative. Albuquerque hoped he could be made a vassal for trading.[39][40][41]^{: 138–139}

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  A Malay soldier armed with a spear and a keris.
• 
  A Malay captain and his soldiers, 1640–1649.

At the time, the Malacca Sultanate covered the whole Malayan Peninsula and much of northern Sumatra.[42] All of the sultan's possessions seem to have obeyed, to their capacity, his summons for war. Palembang, Indragiri, Menangkabau, and Pahang are all recorded as having sent troops, and possibly other territories did as well; the only renegade state recorded was Kampar, which provided the Portuguese with a local base. The Sultan also recruited thousands of mercenaries from Java, who were paid in early August and given three months' wages in advance, and hired 3,000 Turkic and Iranian mercenaries. Finally, he assembled an armory of 8,000 gunpowder weapons, including cannons. The bulk of these were lantaka or cetbang guns firing 1/4 to 1/2 pound shots (they also included many heavy muskets imported from Java).[43][44]^: 96 In total the sultan's forces numbered, according to Chinese merchants who leaked information to the Portuguese, 20,000 fighting men. They had been gathered originally to campaign against Malacca's chief enemy in Sumatra, the Aru Kingdom.[45]

Despite having a lot of artillery and firearms, the weapons were mostly and mainly purchased from the Javanese and Gujarati, where the Javanese and Gujarati were the operators of the weapons. In the early 16th century, before the Portuguese arrival, the Malays lacked firearms. The Malay chronicle, Sejarah Melayu, mentioned that in 1509 they did not understand “why bullets killed”, indicating their unfamiliarity with using firearms in battle, if not in ceremony.[46] As recorded in Sejarah Melayu:

After (the Portuguese) coming to Malacca, then met (each other), they shot (the city) with cannon. So all the people of Malacca were surprised, shocked to hear the sound of the cannon. They said, "What is this sound, like thunder?". Then the cannon came about the people of Malacca, some lost their necks, some lost their arms, some lost their thighs. The people of Malacca were even more astonished to see the effect of the gun. They said: "What is this weapon called that is round, yet is sharp enough to kill?"[Note 3][48]

Asia Portuguesa by Manuel de Faria y Sousa recorded a similar story, although not as spectacular as described in Sejarah Melayu.[31] Rui de Araújo noted that Malacca lacked gunpowder and gunners. The captured Portuguese were pressured to make gunpowder for the Malays, but none of the captives knew how to make it.[3][49][50]

The inhabitants of the Malay peninsula did not use big ships. In naval warfare, the Malays used lancaran and banting, propelled by breast oars (paddles) and 2 masts, with 2 rudders (one on both sides of the hull). The Malays are not accustomed to navigating the ocean, they only make coasting voyages along the shores of the Malay peninsula.[51] Large shipbuilding industry does not exist in Malacca; they only produce small vessels, not large vessels. Malay records from centuries later mention the use of a class of ship called ghali, but this is actually an anachronism: The ghali ship appeared in the archipelago after the introduction of the Mediterranean galley by the Portuguese.[52] The first ghali used by the regional fleet only appeared in the late 1530s, and not until the 1560s that the ghali became more widespread, mostly used by Acehnese people, not Malays.[53]^: 164[54]^{: 210–212} According to Albuquerque, the Malays of Malacca used an unspecified number of lancaran (lanchara) and twenty penjajap (pangajaoa) against the Portuguese.[55][56] Rui de Araújo reported that the Malaccan Sultan had 150 perahu.[49][50]

The real number of Malaccan fighting men was not more than 4,000, the rest were slaves pressed into service. The weapons of the fighting men are lances. Bows and blowpipes are also used, they are made locally. Swords are found but they are brought by the Gores (Ryukyuan people). Very few of them wore armor, even the oval shields were very few, commonly only used by officials. The weapons of the slaves are knives and daggers. The majority of the artillery was like muskets (i.e. that of a small caliber).[49][3][50] Their cannon was inferior in range compared to Portuguese cannon, and less than 100 were effectively deployed during the fighting.[6] As was common in Southeast Asia, they did not have a professional army. What is called an army is actually common people gathered in times of war.[57]^: 2 The exception to this was the Majapahit empire, which had a standing army who were paid in gold.[58]^: 467

Malacca was a typical Malay riverine city: It had no permanent fortification nor a wall, they, however, had wooden or bamboo stockades which were erected for temporary defense for placing small and large cannons. Other cities of this type are Johor, Brunei, and Aceh.[3][24] Malacca had only 500 houses made of earth, and the majority of the 10,000 houses were made of straw or even worse.[50] Buildings are surrounded by coconut and fruit trees, leading to the perception that a Malay city is not actually a city, but an aggregate of villages. Only the royal compound was usually fortified, the city itself was not: It has the concept of an "open city", there is no wall that constrains the boundary of the city. Almost all buildings were built using organic materials such as wood, matting, and split bamboo, raised above the ground on poles 1–4 m high. The palace of Malacca was also built in this style, with as many as 90 wooden pillars supporting it. The only structures with solid materials (stone or brick) were the foundation and the walls of the Malaccan mosque, and the tombs of the rulers and saints. A foreign observer explained the Malay perception of a city:[59]

... they also have this opinion themselves, saying that their city not being surrounded with walls, like the Lacedaemonians their bodies would serve as wall and rampart.

— Pierre du Jarric, Histoire des choses plus memorable advenues tant ez Indes Orientales, que autres pais de la descouverte des Portugais, Volume I: p. 630[60]

Reconstruction of the port of Melaka, from Malacca Maritime Museum.

Reflecting decades later on how poorly the Malayans had fared against the Portuguese in Malacca and elsewhere, cartographer Manuel Godinho de Erédia enumerated many of the weaknesses of their ground troops. Among them were a lack of ordered military tactics and formations, the relative lightness of their artillery, lack of armor, reliance on bows and blowpipes, and ineffective fortifications.[61]

The armed forces of the Malayos do not follow the ordered military tactics of Europe: they only make use of attacks and sallies in mass formation: their sole plan is to construct an ambush in the narrow paths and woods and thickets, and then make an attack with a body of armed men: whenever they draw themselves up for battle, they acquit themselves badly and usually suffer heavy losses... The arms which they ordinarily use in warfare are the sword, shield, lance, bows and arrows, and blow-pipes with poisoned darts. At the present day, in consequence of intercourse with us, they use muskets and ordnance. The sword, a blade measuring 5 palmo (110 cm) in length, is called padan (pedang) among them: like the Turkish sword, it has a single edge. The dagger, called cris, is a blade measuring 2 palmo (44 cm) in length, and is made of fine steel; it bears a deadly poison; the sheath is of wood, the hilt is of animals' horn or of rare stone... Their bows are larger than the bows of Persia. The lance called azagaya is 10 palmo (2.2 m) in length: these lances are much used as missiles. There are other lances, as much as 25 palmo (5.5 m) long: besides a great number of soligues (seligi) made of nyboes and used as missiles... Their artillery, as a rule, is not heavy; formerly they used mortars and swivel-guns made of various metals[Note 4]... Regarding the employment of artillery amongst the Malayos, we know that on the conquest of Malacca in the year 1511, Afonso de Albuquerque captured much small artillery, esmerils, falconets, and medium-sized sakers... The fortresses and fortifications of the Malayos were usually structures composed of earth and placed between plank uprights. We do find some buildings made of shaped stones joined together without mortar or pitch... In this simple style were built the principal fortresses and royal palaces... Usually, however, the natives use fortifications and enclosures and palisades made of big timber, of which there is a large quantity along the River Panagim on the same coast... In addition to their fortifications, they dig deep pits in front of wooden fences; these pits contain traps and pointed sticks treated with poison; they also make use of holes covered with branches, and of traps set in ambush, with which they inflict much damage... So in olden times their fortresses, besides being made merely of earth, were built in a simple form, without the proper military points.

— Declaraçam de Malaca e India Meridional com o Cathay by Manuel Godinho de Erédia, 1613.[63][64]

As the Malaccans had only been introduced to firearms recently after 1509, they had not adopted the practice of European and Indian cities of fortifying their port. As such, they relied upon the Gujaratis to help them build up such defenses. Gujaratis handled the work of building up the fortifications of Malacca entirely. A Gujarati captain who wanted to wage war to the Portuguese provided Malacca with Gujarati ships and promised the help of 600 fighting men and 20 bombards. Other foreign defenders of Malacca were Iranians, who were important traders in the Indian Ocean.[46]

Portuguese carrack. The Portuguese fleet provided fire support to the landing troops with its powerful artillery

Albuquerque divided his forces in two groups, a smaller one under the command of Dom João de Lima and a larger one which he commanded personally. The landing commenced at 2 am. While the Portuguese fleet bombarded enemy positions on shore, the infantry rowed their boats onto the beaches on either side of the city's bridge. They immediately came under artillery fire from the Malayan stockades, though it was largely ineffective.[70]

Albuquerque landed his forces west of the bridge, known as Upeh, whereas Dom João de Lima landed on the east side, Hilir, where the Sultan's palace and a mosque were located. Once ashore, the Portuguese threw the barges' protective pavises on the sand to walk over the caltrops and gunpowder mines scattered all around.

Protected by steel helmets and breastplates, and with the fidalgos clad in full plate armour in the lead, the Portuguese charged the Malayan defensive positions, shattering any resistance almost immediately. With the stockades overcome, the squadron of Albuquerque pushed the defenders back to the main street and proceeded towards the bridge, where they faced stiff resistance and an attack from the rear.

On the east side, the squadron of Dom João faced a counter-attack by the royal corps of war elephants, commanded by the Sultan himself, his son Alauddin, and his son-in-law, the Sultan of Pahang. Briefly shaken, the Portuguese fidalgos raised their pikes and attacked the royal elephant, causing it to turn away in panic, scattering the other elephants and throwing the troops that followed into disarray. The Sultan fell from his elephant and was wounded, but managed to escape amidst the confusion.[71] By the middle of the day the two Portuguese groups had met at the bridge, surrounding the last defenders who jumped to the river where they were intercepted by Portuguese landing barge crews. With the bridge secure, the Portuguese raised canvas sheets to protect the exhausted infantry from the intense sun. The assault was called off however when Albuquerque came to realize how short on provisions they were, and ordered the troops to embark again, setting the royal palace and the mosque on fire along the way.

To prevent the Malays from retaking positions on the bridge, the following day the Portuguese seized a junk, armed it with artillery, which included fast firing breech-loading guns and very long pikes to prevent it from being rammed by incendiary rafts, and towed it towards the bridge. At the rivermouth, it ran aground and immediately came under heavy fire; its captain, António de Abreu, was shot in the face but was unrelenting of his post, declaring he would command the ship from his sickbed if necessary.[72]

Portuguese map of the city of Malacca (with the new set of walls built in 1564)

On 8 August, the Governor held a council with his captains in which he invoked the necessity to secure the city in order to sever the flow of spices towards Cairo and Mecca through Calicut and to prevent Islam from taking hold. For this assault, Albuquerque landed the entirety of his force, divided into three groups, on the western side of Malacca — Upeh — supported by a small caravel, a galley, and landing barges armed as gunboats. As the junk was dislodged by the rising morning tide, drawing the defenders' fire as it sailed towards the bridge, the landing began, while the armada bombarded the city. Once ashore, the Portuguese again quickly overcame Malayan defenses and recaptured the bridge, by then devoid of defenders. On either side the Portuguese set up barricades with barrels full of dirt, where they placed artillery. From the east side a squadron proceeded to assault the mosque, which again shattered the defenders after a drawn out struggle.[73]

With the bridge fortified and secured with enough provisions, Albuquerque ordered a few squadrons and several fidalgos to run through the streets and neutralize Malayan gun emplacements on the rooftops, cutting down any who resisted them, with the loss of many civilians.[72]

On 24 August, as the Sultan's resistance waned, Albuquerque decided to take full control of the city, commanding 400 men in ranks of 6 men wide through the streets, at the sound of drums and trumpets, eliminating any remaining pockets of resistance. According to Correia, the Malayans were greatly frightened by the Portuguese heavy pikes "which they had never seen before".[74]

The cleanup operation took 8 days. Unable to oppose the Portuguese any further, the Sultan gathered his royal treasure and what remained of his forces and finally retreated into the jungle.[75]

A cannon from East Indies (precisely Java), ca. 1522.

With the city secured, Albuquerque ordered the sack of Malacca, in the most orderly manner possible. For three days, from morning to nightfall, groups were given a limited time to run in turns to the city and return to the beach with whatever they could carry back. They were strictly forbidden from sacking the property of Chinese, Hindus, and Peguans, who had supported the Portuguese and were given flags to mark their households. The general population of Malacca was unharmed.[76] The plunder was immense: Over 200,000 cruzados reverted to the Crown along with 3,000 bronze and iron bombards and several slaves.[77] The cannons found were of various types: esmeril (1/4 to 1/2-pounder swivel gun,[78] probably refers to cetbang or lantaka), falconet (cast bronze swivel gun larger than the esmeril, 1 to 2-pounder,[78] probably refers to lela), and medium saker (long cannon or culverin between a six and a ten pounder, probably refers to meriam),[79] and bombard (short, fat, and heavy cannon).[80]^: 46 The Malays also had 1 beautiful large cannon sent by the king of Calicut.[80]^: 47[81]^: 22 Albuquerque compared Malaccan gunfounders favourably with those of Germany, who were then the acknowledged leaders in the manufacture of firearms, and the Malaccan gun carriages were described as unrivaled by any other land, including Portugal.[79][43][82] However, he did not state what ethnicity the Malaccan gun founder was.[83] Duarte Barbosa stated that the arquebus-maker of Malacca was Javanese.[21]^: 69 The Javanese also manufactured their own cannon in Malacca.[84] Anthony Reid argued that the Javanese handled much of the productive work in Malacca before 1511 and in 17th-century Pattani.[21]^: 69 The Portuguese also captured 3000 of the 5000 muskets which had been furnished from Java.[44]^: 96

According to Correia, regular soldiers received over 4,000 cruzados each, Captains received up to 30,000;[77] At the time, 1,000 cruzados was roughly the equivalent of the annual income of a Count in Portugal.[85] Albuquerque recovered from the expedition a stool encrusted with jewels, four golden lions and even a golden bracelet which was said to have the magical property of preventing the wearer from bleeding.[86] He estimated that two-thirds of the wealth of the city remained.

Floorplan of the original fortress built in 1511

"A Famosa" proper, the name of the fortress' unusually tall keep

Contrary to Sultan Mahmud Shah's hopes, Albuquerque did not wish to just sack the city, but to hold it permanently. To that effect he ordered the construction of a fortress close to the shoreline, which became known as A Famosa, due to its unusually tall keep, over 59 feet (18 m) high. Stone was brought in by ships as there wasn't enough in the city for its completion. It had a garrison of 500 men, 200 of which were dedicated to the service aboard the 10 ships left behind as the fortress' service fleet.[87] After the conquest, the Portuguese found a sepulcher (rock-cut tomb) below the ground, which stones were used to build the fortress. Additional stones were sourced from the walls and foundation of the Malaccan mosque.[88][89]

Portuguese bastardo (left) and soldo (right) from Malacca, reign of King Manuel I (1495–1521).

As hostilities ceased, Albuquerque immediately realized that the maintenance of such a distant city would depend greatly on the support the Portuguese could gather from the local population and the neighbouring polities. He assured the inhabitants that they would be able to proceed with their affairs as normally. Nina Chatu was nominated the new Bendahara of Malacca and representative of the Hindu community. The Javanese, Luzonian, and Malay communities also got their own magistrates (although the Javanese representative, Utimuta Raja, would be executed and replaced shortly after for conspiring with the exiled Sultan).[90] The trial of Utimuta Raja was the first act of justice the Portuguese carried out in Malacca according to Roman Law, with which "the people of Malacca was much relieved from that tyrant, and considered us folk of much justice"[91]

New currency was minted with the support of Nina Chatu and a parade was organized through the city streets, in which the new coins were thrown from silver bowls to the populace from atop eleven elephants. Two heralds proclaimed the new laws, one in Portuguese and another in Malay, followed by the Portuguese troops marching behind, playing trumpets and drums, "to great astonishment of the locals",[92] as Correia puts it.

Diplomatic missions were dispatched to Pegu and Siam to secure allies, as well as new suppliers of vital foodstuffs such as rice, to replace the Javanese, who were hostile to the Portuguese. Albuquerque had already sent an envoy, Duarte Fernandes, to Siam in July, while the assault on the city was still ongoing, and an exchange of diplomats secured the firm support of the King of Siam, who despised Mahmud Shah. The Kingdom of Pegu also confirmed its support for the Portuguese and in 1513 junks arrived from the Pegu to trade in Malacca.[93]

While he remained in the city, Albuquerque received envoys and ambassadors from many Malayan and Indonesian Kingdoms (which included even Sultan Mahmud's son-in-law, the Sultan of Pahang), with gifts dedicated to the King of Portugal.

The Portuguese recovered a large chart from a Javanese maritime pilot, which according to Albuquerque displayed:

...the Cape of Good Hope, Portugal and the land of Brazil, the Red Sea and the Sea of Persia, the Clove Islands, the navigation of the Chinese and the Gores, with their rhumbs and direct routes followed by the ships, and the hinterland, and how the kingdoms border on each other. It seems to me. Sir, that this was the best thing I have ever seen, and Your Highness will be very pleased to see it; it had the names in Javanese writing, but I had with me a Javanese who could read and write. I send this piece to Your Highness, which Francisco Rodrigues traced from the other, in which Your Highness can truly see where the Chinese and Gores come from, and the course your ships must take to the Clove Islands, and where the gold mines lie, and the islands of Java and Banda, of nutmeg and mace, and the land of the King of Siam, and also the end of the land of the navigation of the Chinese, the direction it takes, and how they do not navigate farther.

— Letter of Albuquerque to King Manuel I of Portugal, 1 April 1512.[94][95]

Some of the information suggests adaptations had already been made based on Portuguese maps plundered from the feitoria in 1509. With such knowledge, the Portuguese learned the path to the fabled "Spice Islands", and in November, Albuquerque organized an expedition of three naus and 120 men to reach them, under the command of António de Abreu, who had previously been in the command of the junk. He was the first European to sail into the Pacific Ocean.[96]

When Albuquerque left Malacca in January 1512, the inhabitants mourned his departure.[97] Around the northwesternmost tip of Sumatra, the fleet faced a storm that wrecked Albuquerque's flagship, the Flor do Mar, with the loss of paperwork, an official letter from the King of Siam and the spoils and gifts intended for King Manuel, with the exception of a large rubi, a decorated sword and a golden goblet sent by the King of Siam which the crew managed to salvage.

In 1513, Jorge Álvares would set sail from Malacca and arrive in Canton, finally making contact with China.

Portuguese drawing of Malacca circa 1550–1563.

Shortly after Albuquerque's departure, the city suffered a harassment by the forces of Mahmud Shah, but by then the Portuguese could count on over 500 men provided by the inhabitants of the city to assist them in repelling the attack.[98] In May, the Portuguese, along with over 2000 local allies under the command of Gaspar de Paiva, forced the Sultan out of his encampment by the Muar River.[99] Mahmud Shah then retreated to the Pahang Sultanate, where he narrowly avoided an assassination attempt.[100] Afterwards, he moved to Bintan, an island-kingdom south-east of Singapore that he usurped to wage war on the Portuguese in Malacca, harassing the city, its trade and sabotaging their diplomatic relations with China, until the Portuguese eventually devastated Bintan in 1526, returning it to its rightful ruler and vassalizing the kingdom.[101] Mahmud Shah then retreated to Kampar, Sumatra and led a government-in-exile there until his death in 1527.[102] His son, Alauddin, would go on to found the Sultanate of Johor, and develop more or less pragmatical relations with the Portuguese.