Why Did the Malacca Sultanate Fall So Easily #history #malaysia

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Why Was the Malacca Sultanate a Perfect Target for the Portuguese?

Date: October 22, 2025
History

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48 thoughts on “Why Did the Malacca Sultanate Fall So Easily #history #malaysia”

  1. When I was a kid I heard people saying that local martial arts like silat were superior to Western invaders' flintlocks.
    By my teenage years I started to wonder why the supposedly superior silat and my own people's jungle warfare specialty have never been able to drive the invaders out for centuries.

  7. i read the entire wiki article on the conquest which was extremely entertaining whover made it cooked

    1 the sultanate wasnt corrupt or at least i found nothing of note

    2 the malayans did not have guns, the 4000 soldiers mustered had mainly swords, daggers, lances and bows but they did have small artillery which wasnt very effective because the portuguese cannons heavily outranged them.

    3 malacca was built different to a modern country. the city was the real power, the rest of the territories were ruled as tributaries. the city did not have farmland, soil was of very bad quality and sustained itself through crazy amounts of trade.

    4 malacca had many merchant guilds that represented different merchants. there was a java guild, a hindu guild and chinese guild and most importantly a muslim guild composed mainly of gujaratis

    5 the portuguese were enemies of the muslim gujarati trading community and they were helped by both the hindu guild and the chinese guild which lead to good releations with a large percentage of the city even before the portuguese take it. the javanese guild didnt oppose the portuguese as much as the muslim one, or rather the malaccans couldnt use the help. apparently the javanese were incredible gun and cannon makers to the point that the portuguese general points out that the javanese cannons are on par with german ones, better than even his own. the gujarati guild could also muster 8k persian and turkic mercenaries

    6 ultimately the attack was too sudden and the portuguese didnt let messengers get out. there werent enough javanese engineers and the muslims couldnt send any mercenaries fast enough. after that the king fled in order to go back once the portuguese looted and fled but the portuguese admiral intended to stay. he ordered a fort and ships and fortified the city. he sent envoys to siam and pegu to send rice shipments to replace the javanese. the hindus and chinese already loved him, the city just got back and running very quickly. by the time the ex king tried attacking, there were already malaccans fighting on the portuguese side

    lastly i will leave you with a quote from the peak wikipedia article, this part is straight out of a movie

    "To prevent the Malaccans from retaking positions on the bridge, the following day the Portuguese seized a junk, armed it with artillery, including 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 came under heavy fire; its captain, António de Abreu, was shot in the face but remained at his post, declaring he would command the ship from his sickbed if necessary."

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