| << BACK TO PORTUGUESE TRAVELS AND THE MEETING OF CIVILIZATIONS | Tweet |
Insulindia
Malacca held an important strategic position relative to the control of the main mercantile routes between the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Years: 1509 — 1511
The Eastern Indian Ocean was first known to the Portuguese in 1509 after the expedition of Diogo Lopes Sequeira to Sumatra and Malacca. The contacts established then were not productive, so that in 1511, Afonso de Albuquerque commanded the conquest of Malacca. The latter held an important strategic position relative to the control of the main mercantile routes between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. In the course of that same year and the following one, the Portuguese made contact with most of the neighboring regions from the kingdoms of Pegu and Sian to the islands of Timor – rich in sandalwood – and Moluccas, highly valuable for their clove production.
Malacca, where a fortress was built, became a political and administrative center from which the Portuguese extended their economic and religious influence to the Far East.
Images (click on image to view full size)
| << BACK TO PORTUGUESE TRAVELS AND THE MEETING OF CIVILIZATIONS | Tweet |