Portuguese Conquest of Malacca
In July–August 1511 Albuquerque's fleet captured Malacca, then the greatest trading emporium in Southeast Asia and the hub of the spice trade between the Moluccas and the wider world. The conquest gave Portugal control of the strategic strait connecting the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and access to direct trade with the Spice Islands. Albuquerque wrote to Manuel I that with Malacca seized, 'Cairo and Mecca are ruined and Venice will receive no spices.' The conquest inaugurated Portuguese control of the Southeast Asian spice trade for the better part of a century.
- Year: 1511 CE
- Category: Military
