"Malaysia's Historical and most... " a Melaka Travel Page by Designerartgirl

Modern Melaka is very different to its history. A calm town, which is easy to navigate once in the town centre, and easily accessible on foot, bicycle or trishaw. All the different cultures fuse together to create a wonderful mix which comes out in everything, food, architecture and the fantastic array of cultures.

Melaka's history stems back hundreds of years and was started under the melaka sultanates, where it was used as a wealthy centre for trade with china, india, Thailand and indonesia. This is probably due to its perfect location on the straits of Melaka.

However, it does have its simple roots. It started as a simple fishing village in the 14th century until it gained the attention of an indonesian prince. Under him, Melaka soon became a favoured port for trading ships along the staits of melaka. Kings after him, changed the religion from Hindu to Islam and helped further Melaka into the trading world.

In 1405 a chinese admiral arrived in melaka bearing gifts from the emporer of china and a promise of protection from thai invaders. This early contact, ensured that settlers from china came to Melaka and became known as Baba and Nyonya's or straits chinese.

In 1509 the portuguese arrived and in 1511 took the city of melaka to be under portuguese rule, forcing the sultan to flee to Johor. Under the portuguese, they strived to promote cathlicism, and built many famous buildings in melaka, eg, a'famosa. However, despite being able to control the city, traders began to loose interest in melaka, and using other ports like indonesia instead.

In 1641, the Dutch mounted an attack on Melaka and after an eight month seige took control of the port. Like their portuguese, the dutch did not maintain control for long, only around 150 years. However, Melaka was never their main interest, but instead built buildings such as Christ Church.

In around 1795, the british took over and slowly started moving the interests to Penang rather than Melaka in order to promote better trade and to decrease the trade monopoly which the dutch had