Throughout the 16th century, the Portuguese built what they called the 'Estado da India'. This name was given by the Portuguese for their colonial empire stretching from India to East Asia.
The Estado da India can be said to be a maritime network of Portuguese colonies, consisting of a network of forts, towns and trading posts, scattered along the coast of Asia – interconnected by clear maritime routes – which were routinely passed by ships. Portuguese ship.
Goa in India is the "Capital" of Estado da India. Controlled by a political, military and administrative apparatus, led by a viceroy or governor, generally of Portuguese high aristocratic origin and usually serving a term of three years.
The success of the Portuguese in building a network of colonies "Estado da India" in the eastern world was made possible by their highly advanced military and naval technology at that time.
In addition to mastery of technology, the tactics of using Oriental collaborators that they use for systematic information gathering about the surrounding reality, forming alliances and agreements with Asian regional rulers, cooperating with local commercial partners, are also important factors for their success.
Apart from Goa in the Indian subcontinent, the Port of Malacca, which was occupied by Afonso de Albuquerque in 1511, was also one of the nodes in the gigantic network founded by the Estado da Índia.
The Suma Oriental book was used as a starting point for observing Malacca. This is the first book of Asian geographic information produced after the arrival of the Portuguese to the East, written in Malacca, by the Portuguese pharmacist Tomé Pires, between 1512 and 1515, when he was working there as a supervisor.
Suma Orienal's book had disappeared for centuries. In 1944, Armando Z. Cortesao published a translation of the Suma Oriental into English, based on a copied version found in the Chambre des Deputes Library in Paris.
The book Suma Oriental contains the last pictures of the port city of Malacca before the Portuguese conquest in 1511.
Tomé Pires spoke of Malacca as a huge metropolis, with over 100,000 inhabitants, where traders from more than eighty different geographical destinations intersected.
The immense importance of Malacca was summed up by Tome Pires in his famous saying: “Whoever goes to Malacca, his hand is on the neck of Venice” ( Armando Cortesão (ed.), A Suma Oriental…, p. 441 ).
It is believed that the characteristics of Malacca presented by Tomé Pires – reflect Malacca as a gigantic port city, with tens of thousands of inhabitants, and the incessant movement of ships from the four corners of Asia.
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| Illustration of the figure of Tome Pires |
What Tomé Pires described about the Port City of Malacca, seems in line with the testimony of Gaspar Correia, a Portuguese chronicler who lived in India from 1512 until his death, around 1563.
During this period, Correia wrote his Lendas da Índia, a monumental chronicle of the maritime and military achievements of the Portuguese in the East, handwritten at the time, and illustrated with a series of harbor views. The figure of Malacca in this illustration, which expresses the first Portuguese view of Asian urban realities.
Malacca, drawn by Gaspar Correia. Estimated to be made around the decade 1520-1530
All Portuguese sources from the 16th century confirm that Malacca was a very important port in the maritime context of Asia, because it was located in a strategic geographical location, from a seafaring point of view.
Ships regularly dock there. On the one hand, coming from ports in the western Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal, and on the other hand, coming from ports in the South China Sea and Insulindia (Insulindia is a geographical term usually used to refer to Maritime Southeast Asia, the same as the terms Australasia and Indochina , and covers the area in between. The term is common in Portuguese and Spanish).
Malacca, according to Tomé Pires, is located at the end of one monsoon and the beginning of another, that is, right at the point of connection of two large geographical areas, which exchange their respective production there.
For the Portuguese, the port of Malacca was very strategic, because, it also allowed access to the Maluku Islands, the famous Spice Islands, where there had been a Portuguese fort since 1522, to China, where the Portuguese managed to open warehouses in 1555, and also to the islands island of Japan, with which relations have existed since 1542.
Among the documentation about Malacca, a book about Portuguese cities and forts whose author is unknown (anonymous), refers to Malacca as "The largest and richest scale in the world, where all kinds of goods are tendered and handled."
The anonymous book also mentions the characteristics of the fort built by the Portuguese in Malacca, where there were various functions of officials in it.
There is also information on the most important goods transacted at the Luso-Malay square, and especially the many trips organized from there (Malacca) to various destinations (Bengala, Siam, Maluco, China, Japan, etc.).
In short, the anonymous book presents real geographical-political-trade info from the vast area where Malacca is the center.
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| A book about Portuguese cities and forts whose author is unknown (anonymous), but some researchers are quite sure that it was made by Manuel Godinho de Erédia, Mathematician and Cartographer of Bugis-Portuguese blood. (I specifically discuss Erédia's profile in this article: Manuel Godinho de Erédia: Bugis-Portuguese Mathematician and Cartographer ) |
The unification of Iberia (Union Iberia), namely the unification of the Portuguese and Spanish kingdoms in one monarchy (1580-1640), is considered by historians to be the period in which Malacca was managed with good administration and therefore became relatively more prosperous.
It is recorded that around 1600, more than 300 Portuguese who had left official military service married and settled permanently in Malacca.
At that time, the King of Spain was also known to have launched a campaign of military intervention and urban planning throughout the Estado da India area. For this campaign, the King of Spain sent the Italian architect Giovanni Battista Cairato, whose mission it was to carry out the necessary repairs and upgrades to the main Portuguese fortifications.
Although little is known about Cairato's concrete performance in Malacca, it is known that the mathematician and cartographer Manuel Godinho de Erédia traveled with him from India, who in the last decades of the 16th century produced various materials in the city of Luso-Malaysia and the surrounding region.
Erédia's drawings, maps and plans have been called the most extensive and documented description of Malacca since the time of Tomé Pires, from which one can compile a wealth of news about the economic and social life of the square and all the surrounding areas.
Read related article: Manuel Godinho de Erédia: Bugis-Portuguese Mathematician and Cartographer