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Malacca Sultanate port city

Type Object Region Southeast Asia Time 1400–1511

Malacca was the 15th-century capital and core trade port of the Malacca Sultanate on the Strait of Malacca's east coast, at its peak in the 1430s as …

Timeline

  1. 1400–1414Malacca River mouth · Malacca StateParameswara (Iskandar Shah) founded a city at the Malacca River mouth and converted to Islam, establishing the Malacca Sultanate, using the strait's strategic position to develop entrepôt trade; the city quickly attracted settlers from surrounding regions and foreign merchants.
  2. 1431Malacca port · Malacca portDuring this period Malacca's port gathered pepper, spices, tin, forest products, and eastern porcelain; the city had segregated quarters for Chinese, Indian, Arab, and Javanese merchant communities, and port tariffs and market management became increasingly institutionalized, making it one of 15th-century Southeast Asia's most prosperous commercial metropolises.
  3. 1405–1433Malacca port · Malacca StateThe Malacca Sultanate maintained tributary relations with Ming China; Zheng He's fleets docked at Malacca multiple times for resupply and investiture, deeply embedding the port in the early Ming South China Sea route network, with Chinese communities and Chinese shipbuilding and navigation techniques continuously spreading in the city.

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