Sent by Portuguese King Manuel I, Admiral Diogo Lopes de Sequeira arrived in Malacca in 1509 with the intention of making a trade compact with the Sultanate. It didn’t go so well; European colonization in India had created tension between the Muslim and Christian worlds, and powerful Muslim traders in the Sultan’s court convinced Malacca’s ruler that the Portuguese were a threat; Sequeira’s men were captured and killed and the Admiral himself only just escaped.

But the Portuguese were determined to exert their influence in the archipelago, and next sent Afonso de Albuquerque with an army of 1200 men to “negotiate”—which resulted in open conflict and the ultimate Portuguese takeover of Malacca. Trade would never be the same, as trading partners like the Chinese boycotted the newly minted Portuguese port, and the paranoid (but with good reason) Portuguese turned Malacca into one giant fortress. In 1641 the Portuguese would lose Malacca to the Dutch and today all that remains of the Fortaleza de Malaca is a remnant called A Famosa. More lasting was the community of Portuguese-Malaysians called the Kristang, many of whom still live in Malacca today.