Dutch conquest of Portuguese Malacca In the early 17th century, the
Dutch East India Company () 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. 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.
Decline in trade After the conquest of Malacca, the town yielded great profits in the 17th century, mostly due to the tin trade coming from Perak. 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. 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.
Transfer of control to the British 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. ==Administration of Malacca==