Capture of Malacca ( 1511 ) The Capture of Malacca in 1511 occurred when the Portuguese admiral Afonso de Albuquerque subdued 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 . The capture of Malacca was the result of a plan by the King of Portugal Manuel I , who in 1505 had resolved to thwart Muslim trade in the Indian Ocean by capturing Aden , in order to block trade through Alexandria , capturing Ormuz , in order to block trade through Beirut , and Malacca to control trade with China . Portuguese invasion . Conquest of the city . In 1509 , Diogo Lopes de Sequeira was sent to Malacca by the king of Portugal with four ships in order to establish contact with the Sultanate of Malacca . Initially , Sequeira was well received by the Sultan Mahmud Syah ( 1488 – 1528 ) . Soon however , the Tamil Muslim community convinced Mahmud Syah that the Portuguese should be eliminated , based on the Portuguese treatment of Muslims in Goa . Several men were captured and killed , but the ships escaped . Albuquerque first departed from India for Malacca in April 1511 , with 1 , 200 men and 17 to 18 ships . Albuquerque ' s objective was to sever Islamic trade and Venetian trade on the same occasion : A first attack by the Portuguese failed on 25 July 1511 . Albuquerque ' s captains spoke against another attempt , but he struck again , succeeding in capturing Malacca in August , despite strong resistance and the presence of artillery on the Malaccan side . In celebration , Tristão da Cunha was sent to Pope Leo X in Rome with rich presents including the elephant that the pope named Hanno . Albuquerque then built a fort to strengthen the Portuguese position , the Fort A Famosa , remains of which are still visible to this day . He also dispatched some ships to the " Spice Islands " . Albuquerque returned to Cochin in January 1512 . The Portuguese engaged in a massacre of the Muslim inhabitants and also of the Arab community in Malacca . The invasion was specifically intended to break the Arab trade monopoly in spices . The Portuguese encountered private Chinese merchants trading in Malacca , these merchants were not controlled by the Chinese government , which neither encouraged nor supported them in their trading activities , only collecting taxes from them . Trading was technically illegal under Chinese law , the only trade that was legal was that of tribute missions . Five of these Chinese merchants who had a dispute with the Malaccan Sultan , who had earlier seized their junks and crew to use against the King of Daru in a war , so these merchants gave the junks to the Portuguese who used them to smuggle in soldiers during the attack . After the Portuguese captured and looted the city , they spared the property of the five merchants . When the Malaccan Sultan sent a message to the Emperor of China to ask for help against the Portuguese , the Chinese ordered their tributary Siam ( then known as the Ayutthaya Kingdom or Thailand ) and other neighbors of Malacca to come to Malacca ' s aid and fight the Portuguese , and the Chinese demanded that the Portuguese leave Malacca . The Thai refused to comply with the Chinese order , leaving Malacca with no help , the Chinese then blamed the Thai and other neighbors for Malacca ' s fall . The Portuguese feared a Chinese invasion after their capture the city and they did not send any diplomatic missions to China immediately after the capture , waiting until 1516 . The exiled Malaccan Sultan sent more messages to China when the Portuguese mission arrived in China , and this time , the Chinese took action against the Portuguese . Chinese retaliation against Portugal . The Malay Malacca Sultanate was a tributary state and ally to Ming Dynasty China . When Portugal conquered Malacca in 1511 , the Chinese responded with violence against the Portuguese when Portugal sent the diplomatic ambassador , Tomé Pires in 1516 . After Pires reached Beijing in 1520 the Chinese decided to arrest the embassy . The deposed Malaccan Sultan Mahmud Shah sent another message to China , and this time , China responded by executing the Portuguese diplomatic embassy . The Chinese Imperial Government imprisoned and executed multiple Portuguese diplomatic envoys after torturing them in Guangzhou . The Malaccan envoys had informed the Chinese of the Portuguese seizure of Malacca , to which the Chinese responded with hostility toward the Portuguese . The Malaccans told the Chinese of the deception the Portuguese used , disguising plans for conquering territory as mere trading activities , and told of all the deprivations they had passed at the hands of the Portuguese . Due to the Malaccan Sultan lodging a complaint against the Portuguese invasion to the Chinese Emperor , the Portuguese were greeted with hostility from the Chinese when they arrived in China . The Malaccan Sultan , based in Bintan after fleeing Malacca , sent a message to the Chinese , which combined with Portuguese banditry and violent activity in China , led the Chinese authorities to execute 23 Portuguese and torture the rest of them in jails . After the Portuguese set up posts for trading in China and committed piratical activities and raids in China , the Chinese responded with the complete extermination of the Portuguese in Ningbo and Quanzhou Pires , a Portuguese trade envoy , was among those who died in the Chinese dungeons . While Pires was imprisoned by the Chinese , he wrote that his cause was that of the Catholic religion ' s Crusade against Islam and it was worth dying at the hands of the Chinese for his cause . Chinese traders boycotted Portuguese Malacca after it fell to the Portuguese in the Capture of Malacca , some Chinese in Java assisted in Muslim attempts to reconquer the city from Portugal using ships . The Java Chinese participation in retaking Malacca was recorded in " The Malay Annals of Semarang and Cerbon " The Chinese did business with Malays and Javanese instead of the Portuguese . Captured Artillery . The Portuguese captured a large amount of artillery from Malacca after its fall . But besides the arms thus enumerated , the Portuguese and Spaniards , when ‘ they first arrived , found the most advanced of the Malayan nations in possession of firearms . This is De Barros ’ account of the artillery captured by Alboquerque in Malacca . " And of artillery , ” says he , “ we found no more than 3000 out of 8000 pieces , which Ruy de ' Arajo ( a prisoner of SequieraVs fleet ) had stated to be in the city . Among those taken were many of great size ( muy grossas ) , and one very beautiful piece which the King of Calicut had lately sent . ” — Book vi . c . 2 . De Barros incidentally mentions the existence of match - locks in the defence of Malacca . The Portuguese had manned a captured junk with cannon , and sent her forward to batter the defences of a bridge , and this is his account of the action which took place : “ As soon as the junk had passed the sand - bank and had come to an anchor , ‘ a short way from the bridge , the Moorish artillery opened a fire on her . Some guns discharged leaden balls at intervals , which passed through both sides of the vessel , doing much execution among the crew . In the heat of the action Antonio d ' Abreu , the commander , was struck in the cheek from a fusil ( espingardao ) , carrying ofl ‘ the greater number of his teeth . " The son of Alboquerque , in his Commentaries , is still fuller on the subject of the captured artillery and the weapons of defence used by the Malays . “ There were captured , ” says he , “ 3000 pieces , of which 2000 were of brass , and the rest of iron . Among them there was one large piece sent by the King of Calicut to the King of Malacca . All the artillery with its appurtenances was of such workmanship that it could not be excelled , even in Portugal . There were found also match - locks ( espingardao ) , blowpipes for shooting poisoned arrows , bows and arrows , lances of Java , and divers other arms , all which created surprise in those that captured them . ” — Commentarios do grande Afonso d ' Alboquerque ; Lisboa , 1576 . The greater number most likely consisted of the small pieces called by the natives rantaka or hand - guns . Castanheda also mentions match - locks ( espingardao ) , and while he reduces the captured cannon to 2000 , he says that they threw balls , some of stone , and some of iron covered with lead . The cannon ( bombardia ) were some of them of brass and some of iron . By his account the bridge , the chief scene of combat in the storm of Malacca , was defended by seventy - two pieces of ordnance . In Borneo , the companions of Magellan found cannon , and Pigafetta thus alludes to them : “ In front of the king ’ s residence there is a rampart built of large brick , having barbicans in the manner of a fortress , and on it were planted sixty - two pieces of cannon ( bombarde ) , fifty - six of brass , and six of iron . During the two days we passed in the city they were often discharged . ” — Primo viaggio intorno al mondo . Cannon had reached even as far as the Philippine . Magellan , indeed , did not find them in Qebu ; on the contrary , the natives were astonished and terrified at the sound of those discharged from the admiral ’ s ship in compliment to them . When , however , Legaspi discovered the main island of Luson , he not only found cannon , but a foundry of them at Manilla and Tondo in that island , the knowledge of fire - arms having been introduced by the Mahommedan Malayan nations of the west , along with their religion . A descriptive dictionary of the Indian islands & adjacent countries , published in 1856 Several thousand artillery pieces , around 3000 out of 8000 of large size were captured by the Portuguese in Malacca . Firearms such as Matchlocks and artillery were both used by the Malays to defend Malacca before it fell . Effects on Trade . Portuguese attempts to control spice trade didn ' t come to fruition however . The trade center still had to procure spices like nutmeg and cloves from Mollucas , pepper from Sumatra and required rice from Java to feed its inhabitants . Consequently many more Portuguese expeditions were launched throughout the archipelago . Subsequently several states came to replace Malaccas dominance in spice trade , especially Johor , Aceh and Banten .