Malacca
Malacca, officially the Historic State of Malacca, is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca. The state is bordered by Negeri Sembilan to the north and west and Johor to the south. The exclave of Tanjung Tuan also borders Negeri Sembilan to the north. Its capital is Malacca City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 7 July 2008.
Malacca has diverse tropical rainforests and experiences an equatorial climate. Situated immediately south of the Titiwangsa Mountains, the state is mostly level and dotted with inselbergs, with Bukit Gapis as the highest point.
Although it was the location of one of the earliest Malay sultanates, namely the Malacca Sultanate, the local monarchy was abolished when the Portuguese conquered it in 1511. The head of state is the Yang di-Pertua Negeri or Governor, rather than a sultan. Malacca is noted for its unique history and it is one of the major tourist destinations in Malaysia. With a highly strategic state position for international trade routes, Malacca was once a well-known international trade centre in the East. Many traders anchored in Malacca, especially traders from Arabia, China and India, traded at the port of Malacca and from there were born many of the descendants and tribes that exist in Malacca to this day.
A great diversity of races and ethnicities have long existed among the local community reflecting its history. Malays, Chinese, Indians, Baba Nyonya, Kristang, Chitty, Temuan and Eurasians are significant ethnic groups living in the State of Malacca in the present day.
Etymology
The state's name dates to a popular legend surrounding the founding of the Malacca Sultanate by Parameswara, who sought a new location to establish a kingdom after fleeing a Majapahit invasion of Singapura. As the story goes, Parameswara was resting under a Malacca tree near a river during a hunt, when one of his dogs cornered a mouse deer. In self-defence, the mouse deer pushed the dog into the river. Impressed by the courage of the deer, and taking it as a good omen of the weak overcoming the powerful, Parameswara decided then to found an empire at that spot. He named this empire after the tree where he had just taken shelter. This story shows remarkable similarities with and was probably adapted from folk-tales from Kandy, Sri Lanka, and Pasai, Sumatra.The "Malacca tree" was taken as a basis for the species Phyllanthus emblica named by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 through Latinising its original Sanskrit name आमलक, to which the species have since been planted as ornamentals in various state attractions. However, some researchers like those of the Forestry Research Institute of Malaysia speculate that the legendary name-giving tree may have been the species Phyllanthus pectinatus more endemic to Malay Archipelago forests which superficially resemble P. emblica. There is no geographical overlap between the species.
Another account on the origin of the naming of Malacca claims that during the reign of Muhammad Shah, Arab merchants called the kingdom 'Malakat' because it was home to many trading communities. One theory suggests, as mentioned in the Suma Oriental by Tomé Pires, that it is derived from the Javanese terms melayu or mlayu, to describe the strong current of a river in Sumatra that today bears the name Sungai Melayu which was later possibly adopted to be Melaka as denoting a place for the fleeing prince.
History
Sultanate of Malacca
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, 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.
File:Mao Kun map - Malacca.png|thumb|Mao Kun map, from Wubei Zhi, which comes from the early 15th century maps of Zheng He's navigators and cartographers, showing Malacca 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 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.
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
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. The Malaccan 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.
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 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 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.