The Malay–Portuguese conflicts were military engagements between the forces of the Portuguese Empire and the various Malay states and dynasties, fought intermittently from 1509 to 1641 in the Malay Peninsula and Strait of Malacca.
Background In 1498, after decades of exploratory efforts, the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama reached India, landing at Calicut. He returned to Lisbon in 1499, ushering a new age of European presence in the East.
King Manuel wished to become involved in the Indian Ocean trade network, expecting to derive great profits from importing spices to Europe via the Cape Route, bypassing the numerous middle-men that traded in valuable merchandise through the Red Sea, Egypt and the Middle East, where they were acquired by Venetian merchants and sold in Europe.
The existence of the wealthy trade hub of Malacca was known to King Manuel of Portugal since at least 1505, from second-hand information collected by captains in India. The port city of Malacca controlled the narrow, strategic Strait of Malacca, through which all seagoing trade between China and India was concentrated. He dispatched a trade mission under the command of Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, tasked with making contact with the city and establish friendly trade relations.
War against Sultan Mahmud 1509–1526 Battle of Malacca 1509 Diogo Lopes de Sequeira successfully reached the city and was warmly welcomed by the local sultan Mahmud Shah, who granted the Portuguese commander authorization to establish a feitoria or trade post. Wary of their interests, the influential Muslim merchant community of the city conspired with the Sultan and convinced him to turn on the Portuguese.João Paulo de Oliveira e Costa, Vítor Luís Gaspar Rodrigues (2012) Campanhas de Afonso de Albuquerque: Conquista de Malaca, 1511 pp. 25–26.
The Portuguese ships lying in the harbour were unexpectedly attacked by the Malaccan fleet, and Sequeira returned to India, leaving behind a number of Portuguese who were captured, imprisoned, and tortured.João de Barros, 1553, Décadas da Ásia decade 2, book 4, ch. 4
Portuguese Conquest of Malacca 1511
The Portuguese, left behind by Sequeira at Malacca were headed by the factor Rui de Araújo, who slipped letters to the governor of Portuguese India Afonso de Albuquerque from prison with the aid of Nina Chatu, a dissatisfied Hindu merchant.
Albuquerque subsequently led an expedition of 16 ships, 700 Portuguese soldiers and 300 Malabarese auxiliaries that succeeded in wresting the city from the unpopular Sultan Mahmud, with the support of part of its population, after a military operation that lasted two months from July 1 to September 1. Albuquerque subsequently built a fort, established various institutions in the city, and confirmed religious freedom to its inhabitants. Malacca became a stepping stone for future Portuguese endeavours in the region and beyond, whether exploratory, diplomatical or commercial. At dawn of 25 July 1511 the Portuguese attacked the town concentrating the assault on the Upeh bridge of the river dividing the town. After a fierce battle the bridge was conquered by the Portuguese, but at nightfall they retreated. After some days of preparations the Portuguese renewed the attack on 10 August 1511.
The capture of Malacca was the result of King Manuel plan to beat the Castilians to the Far East, and Albuquerque's own plan of establishing firm foundations for Portuguese India, alongside Hormuz, Goa and Aden, to ultimately control trade and thwart Muslim shipping in the Indian Ocean.João Paulo de Oliveira e Costa, Vítor Luís Gaspar Rodrigues (2012) Campanhas de Afonso de Albuquerque: Conquista de Malaca, 1511 p. 13. The Portuguese conquest of Malacca was a watershed event that led to the reshaping of the Southeast Asia.Anthony Reid: Verandah of Violence: The Background to the Aceh Problem, 2006, Singapore University Press, p. 39.
Sumatra campaigns 1515 Around June 1515, Jorge Botelho with 11 oarships, 100 Portuguese soldiers and 500 Malay auxiliaries routed a fleet of the sultan of Lingga –a vassal of Sultan Mahmud– in the Kampar River, who had been besieging Kampar, which was an ally of the Portuguese. The entire fleet of Lingga numbering 80 lancharas was captured and then gifted to the Sultan of Kampar.Monteiro, 2013, pp. 324-328.
Having gotten information that Sultan Mahmud was about to dispatch a fleet to attack Portuguese vessels trading at Minangkabau, the captain of Malacca Jorge de Albuquerque dispatched Francisco de Melo with 9 oarvessels and 100 Portuguese soldiers to protect them. At Siak River they routed 24 lancharas of Sultan Mahmud just as it split to go around a riverine island.Saturnino Monteiro: Batalhas e Combates da Marinha Portuguesa, volume I, 2013, pp. 328-331.
Battle of Pago 1520
Following the capture of Malacca, Sultan Mahmud built a fortified camp at Pago, from where he harassed Malacca, expecting to retake the city at a later date.Saturnino Monteiro: Batalhas e Combates da Marinha Portuguesa 1139-1975 volume I, 2013 edition, pp.364-368.
With reinforcements sent from Goa, the captain of Malacca Garcia de Sá was able to force all of Mahmuds men in the vicinity of Malacca.Monteiro, 2013, volume I, pp. 378-383. António Corria then successfully assaulted Sultan Mahmuds camp at Pago with 150 Portuguese and 300 Malay auxiliaries on a small flotilla of 2 carracks, 1 caravel, 2-4 galliots and a number of native Malay lancharas, forcing him to withdraw to Pahang, and from there to the Bintan, an island-kingdom which he usurped.Malay Annals, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1821, pp.357-358.
Battle of Bintan 1521
In 1521 the captain of Malacca Jorge de Albuquerque attacked Bintan with 18 ships and 600 men.Danvers, Frederick Charles, The Portuguese In India Vol. 1, p. 349 Due to a lack of familiarity of the geography of the region, particularly its shallow waters, the Portuguese withdrew after losing 20 men and one light oarship. Afterwards, Sultan Mahmud's raids on Malaccan shipping increased.
First Battle of Pahang 1522 Following the marriage alliance established in the same year between Sultan Mahmud and the deposed Sultan of Malacca, Mahmud Shah of Bintan. Ignorant of this development, Albuquerque sent three ships to the port of Pahang for provisions, where two of his captains and 30 men were killed. The third escaped, but was destroyed with all his men at Java. Simon Abreu and his crew were slain on another occasion. Google Books scan of page
Second Battle of Pahang 1522 In 1522 a Portuguese fleet under the command of Antonio de Pina and his assistant Bernaldo Drago, who had landed at Pahang port,Buyong Adil, Sejarah Pahang ('History of Pahang'), Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, p. 53 in ignorance that the Sultan there was a son-in-law of Sultan Mahmud of Bintan, were ambushed and killed. The captured survivors were sent to Bintan and forced to embrace Islam, while those who refused were executed via gunfire.Linehan, William (1973), History of Pahang, Malaysian Branch Of The Royal Asiatic Society, Kuala Lumpur, p. 20
Battle of Muar River 1523
In early 1523, the Sultan of Malacca and the Sultan of the Pahang Sultanate established a base within Muar River, from which they raided the naval supply lines of the Portuguese at Malacca.R. S. Whiteway, Rise of Portuguese Power in India, p. 329.
The captain of Malacca Jorge de Albuquerque detached a flotilla to face the Malays within the river and disperse them in April, however a heavy storm scattered the ships of the Portuguese, and three were ambushed with 65 soldiers being killed upon entering into Muar. The Malays then withdrew.Danvers, Frederick Charles, p. 358.
Siege of Malacca 1524 Sultan Mahmud besieged Malacca in May with a fleet of 80 oarships and 16,000 men led by a Portuguese renegade. The Portuguese garrison numbered 200 soldiers supported by the corps of native Malay auxiliaries and after a month the attackers withdrew to Bintan, shortly before the arrival of Portuguese reinforcements.Saturnino Monteiro: Batalhas e Combates da Marinha Portuguesa 1139-1975, volume II, Livraria Sá da Costa Editora, 1991, p. 35.
Third Battle of Pahang 1524
After having arrived at Malacca with reinforcements, Martim Afonso de Sousa relieved the city, and pursued the admiral of Malacca into Bintan, which he blockaded for three months. Thence he proceeded to Pahang, destroyed all the vessels in the river and slew over six hundred people in retaliation for the assistance given to the Sultan of Malacca. Numbers were carried into slavery.
Battle of Patani 1524 In June 1524, Martim Afonso de Sousa destroyed 36 junks at anchor at Patani, which had allied with Pahang and Bintan, and torched the city, including the surrounding dusun cropfields, orchards and palm groves.Jorge Santos Alves, « A. Patani and the Luso-Asian Networks (1516-1642) », Archipel [En ligne], Hors-Série n°2 - Patani Through Foreign Eyes: Sixteenth And Seventeenth Centuries (Edited By Daniel Perret & Jorge Santos Alves) | 2022, mis en ligne le 28 février 2022, consulté le 25 septembre 2023. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/archipel/2799; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/archipel.2799 During the next two weeks he captured or destroyed another 70 junks arriving from Siam or Java. The following year, a peace between Patani and Portugal was achieved by the new captain of Malacca, Pedro de Mascarenhas (1525–1526), who had dispatched a mission to Pahang led by Martim Afonso de Melo Jusarte.
Battle of Lingga 1525
In 1525, two Portuguese carracks and 80 soldiers under the command of Álvaro de Brito and António Raposo came to the aid of an allied ruler, the Sultan of Lingga and repulsed a larger joint fleet of Sultan Mahmud and the Sultan of Indragiri, numbering 160 lancharas and 2,000 men, close to the Ligga archipelago.Saturnino Monteiro: Batalhas e Combates da Marinha Portuguesa 1139-1975, volume II, Livraria Sá da Costa Editora, 1991, p.75.
Siege of Bintan 1526
Taking advantage of the unusually large numbers of soldiers available in Malacca, captain Dom Pedro Mascarenhas decided to undertake a vigorous campaign on Bintan and neutralize Sultan Mahmud once and for all.Saturnino Monteiro: Batalhas e Combates da Marinha Portuguesa 1139-1975 volume II, Livraria Sá da Costa Editora, 1991, p.103.
With 15 ships, 600 Portuguese soldiers, 300 Malay auxiliaries and an unrecorded number of sailors and combat-slaves, Dom Pedro blockaded the island-kingdom of Bintan and laid siege to its capital city. Despite the difficult terrain which favoured defense and Sultan Mahmud having aid from the Sultan of Pahang, the outnumbered Portuguese overcame every ordeal and assaulted the city by surprise one night, driving away all defenders.Monteiro: 1991, pp. 105-110. Bintan was razed and the territory was returned to its previous ruler.
Sultan Mahmud survived the destruction of Bintan, and escaped to Sumatra, where he later died. The defeat of the former Sultan of Malacca at Bintan impressed many rulers around the strait, who sent embassies seeking treaties with the Portuguese, which afforded Malacca great prosperity for many years thereafter.Gaspar Correia, Lendas da Índia 1862 edition, tome III, Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa, p. 92.
First Luso-Johor War 1533–1536 After the destruction of Bintan and the death of Sultan Mahmud, his son Alauddin Riayat Shah II of Johor founded the sultanate of Johor on the Malay Peninsula, who was hostile towards the Portuguese in Malacca. In 1533 the Sultan of Johor had a Portuguese ambassador publicly tortured to death with boiling water, which amounted to a declaration of war. Transgressions on the lives of ambassadors and messengers were highly contrary to Portuguese (and European) procedure, but common in Asia.