Sarawak State Library -

Images of Asia Old Malacca

Call no.: : 959.5118 HOY
Author: : Sarnia Hayes Hoyt
Contributor: : Florence Anak Jalin
Summary: Begining as a fishing settlement long before Parameswara, a renegade prince from Palembang in Sumantra, arrived in about the year 1400, Malacca was to become one of the world's greatest trading centres 'crammed so full of all kinds of goods that they almost flowed into itself' and a strategic port. Its location attracted merchants from China, the East Indies, India and the Persian Gulf and gave Malacca of which it became the centre in its golden age of the fifteenth century. Brought under European control by the Portuguese in 1511, it was captured by the Dutch in 1641 and remained under the Netherlands East Indies Company until 1795 when it was acquired by the British. Finally, Malacca fell into decline as it was overshadowed by newly established ports of Penang and Singapore.