History

No historian has been able up to now to pin-point the year Malacca was founded.Going by the State government's celebration of the 600th anniversary of the founding in August 1990, it could be deduced that Malacca was founded in 1390. However, some historians had placed the founding at between 1376 and 1400. The Sumatran prince was the first Malay prince to become a Muslim and inevitably, Islam became the religion of Malays in the Peninsular (now West Malaysia).

The prince known as Iskandar Shah died in 1424. During his rule, Malacca progressed into a booming international trading post, luring over Javanese, Indian, Arab and Chinese sea-merchants. Under Sultan Mansur Shah (1456 - 1477), Malacca's fame and wealth not long after caught the attention of the expansionist Europeans with the Portuguese becoming the first to arrive and eventually going on to conquer the land. They were led by Alfonso d'Albuquerque. The Portuguese occupiers stayed on far 130 years and their King benefited immensely from this. After the Dutch captured Melaka from the Portuguese in 1641, they continued to use Batavia, now Jakarta, as their head quarters.