Malacca/Melaka
Initially a fishing village at the mouth of a sluggish river, its strategic position on the narrowest section of the Strait of Malacca made Malacca (Malay: Melaka) the major entrepot east of India and south of China through the 15th and 16th centuries, attracting traders from Arabia, China, India and across the Southeast Asian archipelago,
While there are several versions of the circumstances that led to the city's emergence, the general consensus is that Paramesvara (a.k.a. Iskandar Shah), the fugitive ruler of Tumasik (Singapore), found refuge at the fishing village at the river's mouth after forces of the Javanese kingdom of Majapahit expelled him from his kingdom around 1400. In the most common version, Parameswara saw a cornered mouse deer push one of his hunting dogs into the nearby river. The fugitive took this as a good omen, chose the spot for his new base and named the new port after the Malacca tree (pokok melaka) he was resting under at the time.
Alternative versions have the city taking its name from Arab merchants who called the kingdom Malakat ('congregation of merchants') or, according to Tomé Pires' Suma Oriental, from the Javanese melayu (to accelerate steadily or run), to denote the fleeing Parameswara's refugee status.
With support from China, Parameswara's new domain expanded its influence throughout the Malay Peninsula, keeping rival centres in Siam and Java at a distance. Embracing Islam (the port city was one of the earliest Malay sultanates) encouraged Muslim merchants to prefer Iskandar Shah's entrepot over its Siamese and Javanese competitors. Malay rule ended when Alfonso d’Albuquerque conquered Malacca in 1511, and through the rest of the 16th century, the Portuguese realised enormous profits from the port's lucrative trade.
The port's slow decline began when the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie — the Dutch East India Company — ousted the Portuguese in 1641. Malacca subsequently became a feeder port for the VOC's hub in Batavia and was ceded to the British East India Company under the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 in exchange for Bencoolen on Sumatra. Malacca then became one of the three British Straits Settlements (with Penang and Singapore) in 1826.
