Malacca: Did you mean...?

The Portuguese colonised Malacca (modern Melaka) on the southwest coast of the Malay peninsula from 1511 and kept it until 1641 when the Dutch took over. The port controlled the Malay Straits which lead from the Indian Ocean (the Andaman...

Finding a maritime route to the East and gaining access to the lucrative spice trade stood at the root of the European Age of Exploration. However, when Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and reached the Indian Ocean in 1493, he...

A map showing the Strait of Malacca in Malaysia which links the Indian Ocean (the Andaman Sea) to the South China Sea. The strait was a particularly important maritime route for the Spice Trade from the 15th century and was controlled by...

A drawing showing Portuguese Malacca in Malaysia. The colony was Portuguese from 1511 until 1641. (From The Life of Ferdinand Magellan and the First Circumnavigation of the Globe : 1480-1521, by Guillemard, F. H. H. et al, published in 1891...

The Estado da India (1505-1961) was the name the Portuguese gave to that part of their empire which stretched from India to East Asia. However, in its widest sense, the name includes all Portuguese colonies east of the Cape of Good Hope and...

In the 13th century, astonishing quantities of spices and silk passed from the Far East to Europe. Exact amounts are not known, but spice popularity in both cuisine and medicine reached its historical peak during the Middle Ages in Europe...

Any itinerary for a visit to Bangkok, Thailand would include some of the city's must-see historical and cultural sights: - The 24-hour flower market (Pak Khlong Talat) filled to the brim with jasmine-scented garlands, fragrant carnations...

The Portuguese Empire was established from the 15th century and eventually stretched from the Americas to Japan. Very often a string of coastal trading centres with defensive fortifications, there were larger territorial colonies like Brazil...

Clove, nutmeg, and mace are native to only a handful of tiny islands in the middle of the vast Indonesian archipelago – cloves on five Maluku Islands (the Moluccas) about 1250 km (778 mi) west of New Guinea, and nutmeg on the ten Banda Islands...

Christianity arrived in Japan in 1549 when Jesuits first set foot in Kagoshima. Initial attempts to spread the religion were met with confusion; however, through employing various methods, they began to see success. However, by 1650, Christianity...