Zheng He and the Rise of Malacca
So the State of Malacca became the head of the opposition to Madjapahit. Its strength grew and gradually it seized the colonies of Java. In 1478 the city of Madjapahit itself was captured.* Islam then became the religion of the Court and of the cities. But in the countryside, as in India, the old faith and myths and customs continued.
The Malaccan Empire might have become as great and as long-lived as Sri Vijaya and Madjapahit, but it did not have the chance.* The Portuguese intervened, and within a few years — in 1511 — Malacca fell to them. So the fourth of these empires gave place to a fifth, which itself was not to have a long life.* And for the first time in history Europe became aggressive and dominant in these eastern waters.
From Glimpses of World History Volume 1 (1934) by Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964). It is subtitled ‘Being Further Letters to His Daughter, Written in Prison, and Containing a Rambling Account of History for Young People.’
* The Majapahit Empire was ended in 1527 by the Islamic state of Demak in Java, after a series of conflicts that began in 1478.
* The Empire of Majapahit was founded in 1292, and lasted until 1527. Sir Vijaya began in about 671 and was seriously undermined by an invasion led by Emperor Rajendra I of Chola in 1015. Within about ten years it had begun to break up.
* Malacca remained under the Portuguese until 1641, when the city-state passed to the control of the Dutch. The Dutch agreed by the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 to cede it to the British in 1825, who had held it from 1795 to 1818 during the Napoleonic Wars. The British did not appreciate what a prize they had until Stamford Raffles explained it: see Raffles and the Reprieve of Malacca. The Japanese held the city in 1941-45, during the Second World War. The British at last granted Malacca independence in 1957, but it lasted only six years: Malacca became part of Malaysia in 1963.
