The ancestors of the Mardijkers had been mostly made up of slaves of the Portuguese in India, Africa, and the Malay Peninsula, with a minority being European (usually Portuguese) prisoners of war that were brought to Indonesia by the
Dutch East India Company (VOC), especially after the 1641 Dutch
conquest of Malacca, whereby Portuguese speakers in the city were taken as captive. Some were also Christian slaves captured by
Moro raiders from the
Philippines and sold in slave markets in
Batavia during the height of the
Spanish–Moro conflict and the
Sulu Sea piracy. In the
Spanish Philippines, they were called "Mardica", as recorded in the
Murillo Velarde Map. The term Mardijker is a Dutch corruption of the Malay word Merdeka, which originates from the
Sanskrit Maharddhika meaning "rich, prosperous, and powerful". In the Malay archipelago, this term had acquired the meaning of a freed slave, and now means "independent". The Mardijkers mostly held on to their Catholic faith and continued to attend Batavia's Portuguese church, although many were eventually baptised by the
Dutch Reformed Church. They were legally recognized by the VOC as a separate ethnic group and kept themselves apart from the native
Javanese. During the VOC era, there was already considerable intermarriage with the
Indos in pre-colonial history, who were often also of
Portuguese descent. During the colonial era, the Mardijkers eventually assimilated completely into the Eurasian
Indo community and were no longer registered as a separate ethnic group. == Transition ==