第一次 永乐三年六月十五日 1405年7月11日 ,明成祖朱棣下旨,令郑和组织船队下西洋。他与王景弘率领船队,从南京龙江港起航,经江苏太仓刘家河编队集结出海,驶向福建长乐县太平港驻泊,等候东北季风到来。冬天,郑和率船队从福建闽江口五虎门出洋远航,经南中国海域,首先到达占城今越南归仁 ,然后到爪哇 今印度尼西亚爪哇岛 、满刺加 - 今马来西亚马六甲 、旧港、阿鲁、苏门答刺、南巫里 以上四地均在今印尼苏门答腊岛上 。从南巫里进入印度洋到达锡兰山今斯里兰卡 然后到达小葛兰 今印度奎隆 、柯枝 今印度科钦 、古里 今印度卡利卡特 。郑和在古里立碑纪念,碑文说 “其国去中国十万余里,民物咸若,熙皓同风,刻石于兹,永昭万世。”这是郑和在国外建立最早的一块碑。郑和船队于永乐五年九月初二 1407年10月2日 回国。
第二次 永乐五年九月十三日 1407年10月13日 。郑和回国后,立即进行第二次远航准备,主要是送外国使节回国。这次出访所到国家有占城、渤尼 今文莱 、暹罗 今泰国真腊 今柬埔寨 、爪哇、满刺加、锡兰、柯枝、古里等。到锡兰时郑和船队向有关佛寺布施了金、银、丝绢、香油等。永乐七年二月初一 1409年2月15日 ,郑和、王景弘立《布施锡兰山佛寺碑》,记述了所施之物。此碑现存科伦坡博物馆。郑和船队于永乐七年夏 1409年 回国。
第三次 永乐七年九月 1409年10月 船队从太仓刘家港启航,11月到福建长乐太平港驻泊伺风,同年12月从福建五虎门出洋,顺风经过十昼夜到达占城,后派出一支船队从占城直接驶向暹罗。郑和船队离开占城又到真腊,然后顺风到了爪哇、淡马锡今新加波 、满刺加。郑和在满刺加建造仓库,下西洋所需的钱粮货物,都存放在这些仓库里,以备使用。郑和船队去各国的船只,返航时都在这里聚集,装点货物,等候南风开航回国。郑和船队从满刺加开航,经阿鲁、苏门答刺、南巫里到锡兰。在锡兰,郑和又另派出一支船队到加异勒今印度半岛南端东岸 、阿拔巴丹和甘巴里。郑和亲率船队去小葛兰、柯枝,最后抵古里,于永乐九年六月十六日 1411年7月6日 回国。
第四次 永乐十年十一月十五日 1412年12月18日 朝廷令郑和进行规模更大的一次远航。永乐十一年 1413年 冬开航。首先到达占城,后率大船队驶往爪哇、旧港、满刺加、阿鲁、苏门答刺。从这里郑和又派分船队到溜山今马尔代夫群岛 。而大船队从苏门答刺驶向锡兰。在锡兰郑和再次派分船队到加异勒,而大船队驶向古里,再由古里直航忽鲁谟斯 今伊朗波斯湾口阿巴斯港格什姆岛 。这里是东西方之间进行商业往来的重要都会。郑和船队由此启航回国,途经溜山国。后来郑和船队把溜山国作为横渡印度洋前往东非的中途停靠点。郑和船队于永乐十三年七月八日 1415年8月12日 回国。这次航行郑和船队跨越印度洋到达了波斯湾。
第五次 永乐十四年十二月十日 1416年12月28日 朝廷命郑和送“十九国”使臣回国。郑和船队于永乐十五年五月 1417年 冬远航,首先到达占城,然后到爪哇、彭亨、旧港、满刺加、苏门答刺、南巫里、锡兰、沙里湾尼今印度半岛南端东海岸 、柯枝、古里。船队到达锡兰时郑和派一支船队驶向溜山,然后由溜山西行到达非洲东海岸的木骨都束 今索马里摩加迪沙 、不刺哇 今索马里境内 、麻林今肯尼亚马林迪 。大船队到古里后又分成两支,一支船队驶向阿拉伯半岛的祖法儿、阿丹和刺撒 今也门民主共和国境内 ,一支船队直达忽鲁谟斯。永乐十七年七月十七日 1419年8月8日 郑和船队回国。
第六次 永乐十九年正月三十日 1421年3月3日 ,明成祖命令郑和送十六国使臣回国。为赶东北季风,郑和率船队很快出发,到达国家及地区有占城、暹罗、忽鲁谟斯、阿丹、祖法儿、刺撒、不刺哇、木骨都束、竹步今索马里朱巴河 、麻林、古里、柯枝、加异勒、锡兰山、溜山、南巫里、苏门答刺、阿鲁、满刺加、甘巴里、幔八萨 今肯尼亚的蒙巴萨 。永乐二十年八月十八日 1422年9月3日郑和船队回国,随船来访的有暹罗、苏门答刺和阿丹等国使节。
第七次 宣德五年六月九日 1430年6月29日 ,明宣宗朱瞻基命郑和再次出使西洋。同年闰十二月初六,船队从龙湾 今南京下关 启航,2月3日集结于刘家港。在刘家港,郑和等立《娄东刘家港天妃宫石刻通番事绩碑》。船队到达福建长乐太平港,在南山三峰塔寺立《天妃灵应之记》石碑。两碑都记下了他们六次出航的历程。宣德六年十二月九日船队从五虎门出洋。这次远航经占城、爪哇的苏鲁马益、苏门答刺、古里、竹步,再向南到达非洲南端接近莫桑比克海峡,然后返航。当船队航行到古里附近时,郑和因劳累过度一病不起,于宣德八年 1433年 四月初在印度西海岸古里逝世。郑和船队由正使太监王景弘率领返航,经苏门答刺、满刺加等地,回到太仓刘家港。宣德八年七月初六（1433年7月22日）郑和船队到达南京。
History of Malacca
"He who is lord of Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice.'' Barbarosa, Portuguese writer.
Thus began the wondrous journey of Malacca into historical fame and prominence. Its fortunes and misfortunes depending on how you look at it were destined by geography or, more precisely, by water. The city's modern history began sometime in the 1390s with the founding of the Malacca Sultanate by Parameswara, a fugitive Sumatran prince. He could not have chosen a better place to set up his kingdom. Malacca sat on the pulse of the divine waters flowing between two important oceans'the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.
Not one to squander the obvious golden goose, the first sultan of the Malay Peninsula shrewdly crafted a lucrative enterprise on the needs of the passing traders and traffickers, and secured the patronage and protection of the Ming dynasty. And he was raking it in, becoming a source of considerable pride and nostalgia in modern Malay minds, a notion succinctly captured in the Malacca's Sultanate Palace and the Museum of History. Malacca soon established itself as an important trading port for China and traders began to flock here.
In 1405, Admiral Cheng Ho sailed into the Malaccan harbour in great style and grandeur with a crew of 37,000 in 317 ships. Malacca was Admiral Cheng's logistical headquarters for a total of seven expeditions between 1405 and 1433 when he navigated his navy to such distant and exotic places as Ceylon, Maldives, Mecca and Zanzibar. For sure, the man would have loved to visit again, but his luck ran out with the resurgence of isolationist Confucius thinking in the Chinese ruling bureaucracy. All that remains of the wonder sailor are the commemorative Sam Poh Kong Temple and the Hang Li Po's Well.
Parameswara's successors continued to prosper as a Ming Protectorate and from the tested formula of greasing the wheels of maritime trading. Islam had arrived earlier with the Arabic and Gujarati traders in the 1200s and become entrenched with the conversion of the rulers to the faith. At the height of its glory, the Sultanate of Malacca owned a tributary empire embracing the whole of the Malay Peninsula and much of eastern Sumatra, and won a battle or two against the forces of the famed Siamese kingdom of Ayutthaya. Then in 1511, under the naval craftsmanship of Alfonso de Albuquerque, the second Portuguese governor of India, the Sultanate succumbed to Portuguese guns and powders.
"To serve God and his Majesty, to give light to those who sat in darkness and to grow rich as all men desire to do" was a popular and convenient motto for successive generations of fired-up opportunists and oppressors alike. The God was initially a Roman Catholic, and the earliest man of God to descend in conquered Malacca was also one of the first seven Jesuits. He was no other than Saint Francis Xavier, who was enshrined in St Paul's Church and had the St Francis Xavier's Church named after him.
The Portuguese built A'Famosa, which helped keep out other colonialist vultures until 1641, when the Dutch, victorious after an eight-month siege and some heavy-duty fighting, became the new master of a Malacca in complete ruins. The town was rebuilt but its status in the Dutch scheme of things was relegated to a military outpost because the new boss had Batavia for a mercantile headquarter. Nonetheless, the Dutch's impact on the architectural landscape of Malacca was lasting and permanent, and their influence can be readily discerned from a number of surviving buildings, including the Stadthuys, the Dutch Square and the Christ Church.
By the dawn of the 19th century the Brits' fortunes were rising after several decisive victories in the past century in the theatres of war on European continent and in the colonial world. After India, Malacca came under the possession of the British East India Company by the 1824 Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London and became a member of the Straits Settlements. She remained in this state of affairs, until eventually the British played casualty to the Nazis and the Japanese. The might of Empire was no protection against Japanese brutality and Malacca made it through the darkest nights on the strength of her own people and faith.
The day arrived when history came round, scores were settled or ignored, lands returned, and this Sultanate slotted effortlessly into the independence chapters of Malaysia. The Proclamation of Independence Memorial and the Independence Obelisk near the Padang Pahlawan exist as much as tourist sights as irrefutable testimonies to the outcome of the independence struggle.
Expeditions
Between 1405 and 1433, the Ming government sponsored a series of seven naval expeditions. Emperor Yongle designed them to establish a Chinese presence, impose imperial control over trade, and impress foreign peoples in the Indian Ocean basin. He also might have wanted to extend the tributary system.
Zheng He was placed as the admiral in control of the huge fleet and armed forces that undertook these expeditions. Zheng He's first voyage consisted of a fleet of around 300 ships[7][8] (other sources say 200)[9] holding almost 28,000 crewmen. These were probably mainly large six-masted ships - it is now thought that the large and flat nine-masted "treasure ships" were probably river ships used by the Emperor.[9]
Zheng He's fleets visited Arabia, East Africa, India, Indonesia and Thailand (at the time called Siam), dispensing and receiving goods along the way.[8] Zheng He presented gifts of gold, silver, porcelain and silk;in return, China received such novelties as ostriches, zebras, camels, ivory and giraffes.[8][10][11]
Zheng He generally sought to attain his goals through diplomacy, and his large army awed most would-be enemies into submission. But a contemporary reported that Zheng He "walked like a tiger" and did not shrink from violence when he considered it necessary to impress foreign peoples with China's military might. He ruthlessly suppressed pirates who had long plagued Chinese and southeast Asian waters. He also intervened in a civil disturbance in order to establish his authority in Ceylon, and he made displays of military force when local officials threatened his fleet in Arabia and East Africa. From his fourth voyage, he brought envoys from thirty states who traveled to China and paid their respects at the Ming court.
In 1424, the Yongle Emperor died. His successor, the Hongxi Emperor (reigned 1424–1425), decided to curb the influence at court. Zheng He made one more voyage under the Xuande Emperor (reigned 1426–1435), but after that Chinese treasure ship fleets ended. Zheng He died during the treasure fleet's last voyage. Although he has a tomb in China, it is empty: he was, like many great admirals, buried at sea.[12]
Zheng He, on his seven voyages, successfully relocated large numbers of Chinese Muslims to Malacca, Palembang, Surabaya and other places and Malacca became the center of Islamic learning and also a large international Islamic trade center of the southern seas.[citation needed]
His missions showed impressive demonstrations of organizational capability and technological might, but did not lead to significant trade, since Zheng He was an admiral and an official, not a merchant. Chinese merchants continued to trade in Japan and southeast Asia, but Imperial officials gave up any plans to maintain a Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean and even destroyed most of the nautical charts that Zheng He had carefully prepared.[C] The decommissioned treasure ships sat in harbors until they rotted away, and Chinese craftsmen forgot the technology of building such large vessels.[C]
