Malacca

Malacca was a Malay sultanate based at the port of Malacca on the Malay Peninsula.

Around 1400 Parameswara, the last ruler of Singapura, fled his island kingdom and founded a settlement at Malacca. He employed the Orang Laut to patrol nearby waters and guide traders to the port. In the fifteenth century the sultanate controlled much of the peninsula and parts of Sumatra. The Portuguese captured Malacca in 1511, forcing Sultan Mahmud Shah south; his descendants founded the dynasties of Johor and Perak.