Dutch Malacca

=== Dutch conquest of Portuguese Malacca ===

File:AMH-6156-NA Map of the city of Malakka.jpg

In the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company ({{langx|nl|Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, VOC}}) began a campaign to usurp Portuguese power in the East. At that time, the Portuguese had transformed Malacca into an impregnable fortress (the Fortaleza de Malaca), controlling access to the sea lanes of the Strait of Malacca and the spice trade there. The Dutch started by launching small incursions and skirmishes against the Portuguese. The first serious attempt was the siege of Malacca in 1606 by the third VOC fleet from the Dutch Republic with eleven ships, under Admiral Cornelis Matelief de Jonge that led to the naval battle of Cape Rachado. Although the Dutch were routed, the Portuguese fleet of Martim Afonso de Castro, the Viceroy of Goa, suffered heavier casualties and the battle rallied the forces of the Sultanate of Johor in an alliance with the Dutch and later on with the Acehnese.

The Dutch along with their local Javanese allies numbered around 700 men, assaulted and wrested Malacca from the Portuguese in January 1641. Assistance was also provided to the Dutch from the Johor Sultanate who provided around 500–600 additional men. The Dutch also received supplies and rations from nearby and their recently-captured base of Batavia.{{cite journal |last1=Leupe |first1=P.A. |last2=Hacobian |first2=Mac |date=1936 |title=The Siege and Capture of Malacca from the Portuguese in 1640-1641 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41559848 |journal=Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society |volume=14 |issue=1 (124) |pages=i–iii, 1–178 |jstor=41559848 |issn=2304-7550 |access-date=7 November 2022}} The campaign effectively destroyed the last bastion of Portuguese power, removing their influence in the Malay Archipelago. As per the agreement with Johor in 1606, the Dutch took control of Malacca and agreed not to seek territories or wage war with the Malay kingdoms.

After the conquest of Malacca, the town yielded great profits in the 17th century, mostly due to the tin trade coming from Perak.{{Cite book |last=Andaya |first=Barbara Watson |title=Perak, the Abode of Grace: A Study of an Eighteenth-century Malay state |publication-date=1981 |language=en}}{{Rp|pages=|page=104}} But by 1700, the Dutch struggled to revive trade in Malacca. In that year, the town was rarely able to meet its tin quotas sent to Batavia. There were several attempts to revive trade by the governor, but VOC officials in Batavia was unwilling to improve tin trading prospects there and instead made policies to divert trade to Batavia. An Englishman described the town in 1711 "a healthful place, but of no great trade". The start of Bugis rule under the Johor Sultanate encouraged trade to Riau and served to reduce trade activity in Malacca.{{Rp|pages=102-105}}

Roger de Laver, the governor of Malacca in 1743, commented that despite his efforts to encourage the tin trade, it still did not see any improvement and attributed it from intense competition as Indian traders mainly traded in Aceh, Kedah and Perak.{{Rp|pages=|page=107}}

In January 1795, Dutch stadtholder William V, Prince of Orange, seeking refuge in Great Britain, issued the Kew Letters, directing Dutch governors in the colonies to temporarily transfer authority to the United Kingdom and to cooperate with the British in the war against the French, so long as the "mother country" was under threat of invasion. Malacca was thus surrendered to British control, and would be under British occupation until the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Malacca remained under nominal Dutch sovereignty throughout the nearly two decades of British governance.

Under British administration, the Portuguese-era fortress of Malacca was demolished in stages beginning in 1807, as the British feared that the Dutch would use it against them in any future regional conflict. Only the Porta de Santiago (A Famosa) was spared destruction after the belated intervention of Sir Stamford Raffles.

The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 restored Malacca to Dutch rule; however, the Dutch did not regain full control until 1818. Sovereignty over Malacca was permanently ceded to the British under the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824.

{{History of Malaysia}}

File:Bastion Middleburg.JPG was carried out in 1660. It is strategically located at the mouth of Malacca River.]]

File:Malacca Dutch Christ Church.jpeg (left, built in 1753) and the Stadthuys (right)]]

Malacca was controlled as a colony of the VOC. All the chief administrators of Malacca were Dutch governors except for the brief period that the city was under British Residents during the Napoleonic Wars. However, focus on the administration of Malacca eventually waned by the Dutch as they preferred to focus on Batavia.{{cite thesis |last1=Lowey-Ball |first1=ShawnaKim Blake |title=Liquid Market, Solid State: The rise and demise of the great global emporium at Malacca, 1400-1641 - ProQuest |date=2015 |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/4c8a3f7a11f474301ed25ae0c0ebbb65/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750 |access-date=7 November 2022 |language=en}}

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The Dutch improved and expanded the Portuguese fortress as well as renovating the fortress' gate in 1670, they further built walls to protect the harbour and expanded city.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}} During the mid-17th century the city hall or Stadthuys was constructed and served as the administrative center of the Dutch colony, which still stands today.{{Cite journal |last=HUSSIN |first=NORDIN |title=A Tale of Two Colonial Port-Towns in the Straits of Melaka: Dutch Melaka and English Penang |date=2002 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41493474 |journal=Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society |volume=75 |issue=2 (283) |pages=85 |jstor=41493474 |issn=0126-7353}}

File:Stad en Kasteel Malacca.JPG|The town and fortress of Malacca in 1780

File:Melaka-St-Paul-Dutch-graves-2184.jpg|Dutch graves in the ruined St Paul's Church

File:Dutch Graveyard.JPG|Dutch Graveyard

• Dutch Graveyard

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=De Witt |first=Dennis |title=History of the Dutch in Malaysia |location=Malaysia |publisher=Nutmeg Publishing |year=2007 |isbn=978-983-43519-0-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T92ajjSBi_wC }}

{{Malaysia topics}}

{{Dutch colonies|East India|Kingdom1}}

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.Dutch Malacca

Category:Subdivisions of the Dutch East Indies

Category:Dutch East Indies

Malacca, Dutch

Category:Former countries in Malaysian history

Malacca, Dutch

Category:Former trading posts of the Dutch East India Company

Category:Former settlements and colonies of the Dutch East India Company

Category:Malaysia–Netherlands relations

Category:States and territories established in 1641

Category:States and territories disestablished in 1825

Category:1641 establishments in the Dutch Empire

Category:1820s disestablishments in the Dutch Empire

Category:1825 disestablishments

Category:1641 establishments in Asia

Category:1825 disestablishments in Asia