August 15, 1511

Capture of Malacca (1511)

Portuguese forces seize Malacca after a multiweek campaign

Chinese merchants offered help to the Portuguese invaders — the opposite of the massacre story attached to this date.

August 1511: the landing and the river mouth

Sultan Mahmud Shah had released the Portuguese prisoners taken after a failed mission in 1509, but refused Afonso de Albuquerque's demands for reparations and for permission to build a fortress. In August 1511 Albuquerque attacked to take by force the permanent base he had been denied.

In the campaign's concluding phase, Portuguese troops landed under naval covering fire, overcame Malaccan defences and secured the city along with its strategically important river entrance.

Mahmud and his remaining forces withdrew. What Albuquerque held was Malacca itself — not the whole former sultanate, and not every sea lane in the Strait.

Which day the city fell is not settled

The conquest unfolded through bombardment, repeated assaults, occupation and clearance operations, and different accounts fix on different points in that sequence.

Modern accounts variously give 10, 15 or 24 August. A specialist Portuguese campaign history places Albuquerque's final move to take complete control on 24 August, while Tomé Pires described the seizure only as occurring in mid-August.

A Hindu merchant put in charge of the city

Hindu, Chinese and Burmese merchants assisted the Portuguese, partly to improve their own position against rival merchant groups.

Albuquerque began converting military occupation into permanent government at once: he ordered a fortress, issued coins, and announced that commerce could resume.

For chief administrator he appointed Nina Chatu, the Hindu merchant who had helped the Portuguese prisoners.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 4 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at 1511-08.

What the sources leave uncertain

The exact terminal date is not secure enough to preserve 15 August without qualification. Modern accounts variously give 10, 15, or 24 August, while some distinguish the successful main assault from a later occupation or clearance of the remaining resistance.
A specialist Portuguese campaign history cited by later accounts places Albuquerque's final move to take complete control on 24 August. Other scholarship retains 15 August, and Tomé Pires described the seizure only as occurring in mid-August.
Because the conquest unfolded through bombardment, repeated assaults, occupation, and clearance operations, different dates may refer to different definitions of when Malacca “fell.”
The supplied equation of 21 Jumada I 917 AH with 15 August should therefore not be treated as resolving the conflicting campaign chronology.