Malacca and the Strait Trade Cities of Asia

Malacca (Melaka) was founded on the western coast of the Malay Peninsula around 1400 CE by Parameswara, a prince from Palembang, in Sumatra, who according to the Malay Annals (Sejarah Melayu) had fled his homeland after a political conflict. The site sat directly on the Strait of Malacca, the narrow, sheltered channel through which almost all seaborne trade between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea and East Asia had to pass, since the alternative routes through the Sunda and Lombok straits, further south, were considerably longer and less favorably positioned relative to the prevailing monsoon wind patterns that governed the timing of Asian maritime trade.