this defeat opened the floodgates for western imperialism in southeast asia but how exactly did the most powerful kingdom in southeast asia fall to the portuguese let's find out [Music] welcome back to my channel it's mikabirov your friendly pinot historian and if you are new to my channel in this channel i make videos about our people's history our people's culture and everything in between so if you like any of those things don't forget to like share this video comment down below and please please subscribe and so in today's video we'll be talking about the portuguese conquest of malacca in 1511 and learned how the sultanate of malacca which was once the most powerful kingdom in southeast asia was conquered by the outnumbered portuguese what exactly happened so first a little background the dawning of the european age of exploration and colonialism in the 15th century was brought about by a quest to find alternative routes to the moluccas or the spice islands in asia in the late middle ages european kingdoms were reliant on the muslim empires of the middle east to bring commodities like pepper nutmeg and cinnamon into europe from the east indies or what is now southeast asia yet the prices of these commodities were extremely expensive in europe so it was a desire to find alternative routes into the east indies by sailing around africa or across the atlantic ocean that drove european voyages of discovery and colonialism in the 15th and the early 16th centuries as a result portuguese explorers such as bartolomeo diaz tiptoed down the coast of africa between the 1410s and the 1480s until at last vasco da gama led the first european expedition all the way to india in 1497 but it was not until the 1500s that the east indies were reached and when the portuguese arrived in southeast asia they faced a number of powerful kingdoms which occupied the gateway to the east indies around the malay peninsula and on the island of sumatra the most prominent of these kingdoms was the sultanate of malacca this is the story of how southeast asia's most powerful sultanate was conquered by the portuguese in the early 1500s the sultanate of malacca had been founded around the year 1400. when a ruler from the city of phalembang on the island of sumatra by the name of parameswara or by his islamic name is kandarsha established a new settlement at malacca on the western coast of the malay peninsula roughly midway between the present-day cities of singapore and kuala lumpur with this idea location in the middle of the straits of malacca the town soon grew into a bustling capital city of a maritime empire lying right in the middle of one of the world's most important trading routes for a time it was a major trading center with ming china while it also benefited from the fact that many of the muslim and hindu states which ring around the indian ocean were enjoying a period of prosperity in the 1400s one in which benefit in trading cities like the sultanate of malacca based on its profitable trade and wealth the sultanate soon expanded eventually dominating the southern end of the malay peninsula and much of the neighboring island of sumatra thus by the end of the 1400s the sultanate was the foremost power in the region and it acted as a gateway to the mulukas moreover the city blossomed culturally with bahasa melayu becoming the most widely spoken language across much of the east indies the city of malacca itself emerged as a major center of islamic learning and culture in southeast asia by that time there were as many as 50 000 people living in the city from all across asia but sadly this golden age would not last long for the sultanate danger was on the horizon and they spoke portuguese the iberians had arrived in india in the 1500s and soon had information which confirmed that malacca the gateway to the long-sought after spice islands was only a few days voyage further east moreover it was confirmed that at malacca commodities like cloves nutmeg pepper porcelain and silk could all be purchased at a fraction of the price they sold for in europe and thus king manuel the first of portugal upon learning this was determined to reach the spice islands before the spaniards because a ship load of these commodities which could be obtained cheaply in malacca would fetch an enormous fortune if brought back to europe the portuguese first made direct contact with the sultanate of malacca in 1509 when a smaller mother of four ships under the command of diogo lopez de sakera arrived at the city having traveled via india where the portuguese had established trading stations along the coastline at first the portuguese were received quite amiably by sultan mahmud shah who has ruled malacca since 1488. the sultan agreed to allow the sakera to establish a freightoria a factory or a trading post which foreigners like the portuguese were allowed to establish in the port but the sultan was soon convinced otherwise with a number of other foreign trade representatives from india and the middle east petitioning sultan mahmud shah to expel the new comers their economies would be negatively impacted if the europeans were able to establish routes to trade directly with malacca and this would also end their lucrative position as the middle man in the european spice trade sultan mahmud shah was won over by their arguments and within weeks of arriving in malacca de saketa was sent packing he was violently expelled from the city so much so that 20 of his men were left behind as prisoners of the sultan the portuguese reaction to being rebuffed by the sultan would be swift and brutal at roughly the same time that the sequela was making his way to malacca in 1509 alfonso the albuquerque was named as the portuguese viceroy in india albuquerque was a brilliant naval commander who had conquered the island of sokotra located in the arabian sea and the indian ocean in 1507 and he soon brought the indian city of goa under the portuguese rule in 1510 and now in early 1511 albuquerque was determined to travel eastwards with a fleet and try to capture the city of melaka in april he gathered together an army of several hundred portuguese and hundreds of mercenaries from the malabar coast of india aboard a fleet of 18 ships he set off to conquer malacca that spring unknown to many ferdinand magellan was also among the portuguese conquistadors who joined albuquerque in this invasion of malacca a decade later magellan would sail around the world and attempt to conquer what is now the philippines for the king of spain but his arrogance would lead to his death at the hands of the visayan warriors led by datto lapulapu in the battle of maktan in 1521 so if you want to learn more about this epic battle check out my video about it in the links up here or down below but for now let's rewind back to 1511 albuquerque arrived in malacca in the middle of summer in 1511. in malacca his army was massively outnumbered the sultan had hired thousands of mercenaries from all over asia to defend the city however the portuguese had distinct advantages they also had their own allies and much bigger ships armed with heavy artillery guns and more armor despite being well defended malacca was also reliant on outside sources for their food supply and the portuguese naval blockade meant that sooner or later the city of malacca would run out of food and the people would starve fearing these factors sultan mahmud shah agreed to release the 20 portuguese soldiers in prison left by desakera in 1509 but this did not satisfy albuquerque's thirst for blood and the siege of malacca soon followed but how exactly did melaka fall how did the most powerful sultanate in southeast asia easily defeated and fall to the portuguese i mean malacca was well defended and it's it has its own impressive firepower and thousands of warriors from all across asia what exactly led to its demise as mentioned in my older videos unknown to many asian powers like the javanese tamil luzoneth and the chinese also played a pivotal role in the conquest of the sultanate of malacca but before we accuse the other asians of being traitors for siding with the portuguese it is important for us to understand that the geopolitics of the 1500s was far different from our modern day understanding and concepts of nation states it was not black and white nor was it asians versus europeans during this time sultan mahmud of malacca was very controversial he was notorious for his opium addiction and for exploiting women especially those who were already married to his own followers and court officers corruption was also rampant under his rule and the sultan himself was at the center of the conspiracies and internal disunities and these included the brutal murder of malacca's own bendahara or prime minister and his entire clan in 1511 so that the sultan can marry the prime minister's daughter tunfatima tunfatima was the daughter of bentahara srimaharaja tunmutahir and she was already married to tonali but during their wedding sultan mahmud shah laid eyes upon tunfatima and ask her to divorce her husband following tunde fatima's refusal and fueled by tunmutahir's own rivals the sultan had tunfatima's father her husband and all the males in their family executed citing a false attempted coup d'etat through this massacre the sultan got his wish of marrying the beautiful tudfatima in 1510. interestingly it was tunfatima who became well known for being fearsome in the battlefield and leading an army to defend the sultanate against the portuguese in 1511. in fact it was recorded that the portuguese were more afraid of tunt fatima that they were afraid of the sultan she was also responsible for the dynasty survival after the fall of malacca the massacre of turmuta here and his entire clan shattered the stability of the sultanate for one tunmutaher was an effective politician who was also blood related to the leaders of the prominent tamil merchant community his family was also among the greatest and most respected noble houses of the sultanate and so this brutal massacre alienated the sultan and his government from the powerful merchant communities the portuguese wasted no time and took advantage of these divisions given the limitations of their forces in asia it was important for portugal to seek alliances with other powers in the region it was crucial for them to take advantage of the sultan of malacca's unpopularity and thus alfonso albuquerque began secret communications with the japanese the luzones tamil and chinese leaders although reluctant and skeptical at first they were soon won over by the portuguese with the promises of restoring fair trade and respecting their rights and privileges that were taken away after tunmotahir's murder the conflict eventually culminated in a direct engagement between albuquerque and the sultan's warriors on a bridge at the port and in the course of this battle the sultan's army suffered heavily the sultan then fled the city of malacca following which many of the merchant communities mentioned earlier helped in facilitating the city being turned over to the portuguese with the guarantees that the portuguese will respect the rights and privileges of the people and thus it was in the early autumn of 1511 that the city of malacca fails in the portuguese and became the capital of their colonial possessions in the east indies the sultanate of malacca was officially at an end and in the years that followed sultan mahmud shah made efforts to revive his power by retaking malacca but despite numerous attempts to capture the port from the portuguese in the late 15th dance it remained a portuguese colony and unknown to many especially for my filipino viewers it was also in malacca in 1511 or perhaps even earlier in 1509 that the europeans first learned about the existence of the islands we now call the philippines and not during the so-called discovery of the philippines by magellan in 1521. in fact immediately after the fall of malacca in 1511 a decade before magellan reached the visayas the portuguese empire appointed reggie modi raja from the kingdom of luzon as the temen gong of malacca he was a native of what is now the philippines who by then was already a very wealthy merchant and a popular leader in the local community of malacca in the early 1500s a tim and gong is both a military rank and a political position often translated in english as sea lord or as minister of war in that statement gong rajya modi raja was in charge of security by overseeing the police the local army and the local navy while at the same time he was also responsible for managing malacca's international maritime trade so it's similar to the governor generals that we are familiar with today but with the added bonus of being an international business tycoon in charge of the world's busiest shipping lanes and under the sultanate the temen gong of malacca was the third highest official in the land right below the sultan himself and the bendahara or prime minister another famous and remarkable luzones in malacca during this time was surya de raja who was also a very wealthy spice trader and a diplomat who soon became instrumental in bringing the portuguese to china and the portuguese did not only hitch a ride aboard his massive fleet but as merchant politician he was also an important bridge in the early diplomacy between portugal and china the word diraja in bahasa melayu means royal it is used across southeast asia to refer to people with royal blood or what we call the mafiangsugi in kapampangan the luzonis clan in malacca bearing the name deraja were therefore most likely related by blood to either the royal families of malacca or the royal families of luzon or perhaps even more likely given their status and influence across the region from the kingdom of luzon to the sultanate of malacca they were related to both it is also worth noting that apart from siding with the portuguese in 1511 the warriors of luzon would soon be part of japan's southeast asian alliances that made numerous attempts to retake malacca from the europeans between 1511 to 1641 and we can talk more about this in future videos in fact all the topics we're talking about today are also part of my book series know our roots so if you want to learn more about these topics check out the links below and get a copy of any of my books and stay tuned for more videos about the history the colorful history and the rich cultures of southeast asia but for now let's go back to malacca in 1511. the collapse of the sultanate of malacca fundamentally altered the geopolitics of the region and while the city of malacca would remain in portuguese hands the power vacuum created by the collapse of the sultanate allowed for the emergence of other muslim powers in the region and along the straits of malacca these were the sultanate of aceh on the northern end of sumatra and the sultanate of johor on the southern end of the malay peninsula these two sufinets guarded both ends of the straits of malacca one of the major and busiest trade routes in history in fact to this day the strait of malacca remains one of the world's most important shipping lanes it is also worth noting that the sultanate of johor was founded by sultan alawdin riyad shah ii the son of tund fatima from her marriage to sultan mahmud shah of malacca and thus the sultanate of johor was considered to be the rightful successor to the sultanate of malacca and sailing eastwards towards the center of southeast asia on the island of borneo the sultanate of brunei would emerge as the dominant power in the region by conquering neighboring kingdoms and by engaging in marital alliances with the sultanate of sulu and the kingdom of luzon brunei under my ancestor sultan bulkia would expand across the archipelago exerting hegemony in what are now the countries of indonesia malaysia and the philippines and to the south of borneo on the island of java the japan kingdom aka kalinda mad sultanate would also become an important powerhouse led by their fierce queen ratu kalindamat just like the fatima rato kaliniamat was another warrior queen that the portuguese feared and respected under her leadership in the late 1500s the kalinaman sultanate would send numerous attacks against the portuguese from malacca to the mulukas with the end goal of liberating the region from europeans these kingdoms and sultanates from aceh to johor from luzon to brunei from sulu to japan would become considerable powers in their own right succeeding the sultanate of malacca's preeminence in the geopolitics of asia in the decades that followed in contrast the portuguese eventually lost ground to the dutch republic in capturing the trade of the spice islands and thus while the conquest of malacca temporarily gave the portuguese control of the spice trade this dominance would ultimately prove to be short-lived for many southeast asians since 1511 to this very day the fall of malacca was a sad tragedy it was the first kingdom to fall under european colonialism and it opened the floodgates for western imperialism in the region ushering in centuries of exploitation injustices and genocide across southeast asia in fact many of the present day issues and problems plaguing the diverse people and societies of southeast asia can trace their roots all the way back to this age of colonialism and imperialism but it wasn't all bad for the history of southeast asia and our diverse people so stay tuned for more videos in the coming weeks and that is it for me today so let me know what you think about today's topic in the comments below what lessons can we learn from the fall of malacca let us know what you think in the comments below and if you like this video or learn a thing or two don't forget to like share this video comment down below and please please subscribe help me grow my channel so more people can learn more about our people's history culture and everything in between but of course before we go today's shout out goes to zafira from melaka in malaysia arun from india asma khan from pakistan joao martim from portugal lawana from thailand and shout out to datu sandigan ali who signed diwan from bukidnon in mindanao philippines and of course special thanks and special shout out to my patron juval resellis you know this video will not be possible without the love and the support of all my patrons through the years kayatoman maraming salamat so for those who want to help me make more videos like this show your support and please please be my patron or join my youtube channel or you can also show your support by buying any of my books or coloring books or any of the merch linked down below maraving salamat yamanak daghang foreign you