Malacca Sultanate · 1400-1511

Malacca: the port of the monsoon winds

Around 1400 a prince from Sumatra founded Malacca on the narrow strait between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. Within a century it was one of the greatest ports in the world, until a Portuguese fleet took it in 1511.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 1492 to AD 1511
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Around 1400 a prince from Sumatra founded Malacca on the narrow strait between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. Within a century it was one of the greatest ports in the world, until a Portuguese fleet took it in 1511.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate Malacca and explain how the monsoon winds made it a great port.
  • Explain how Malacca's rulers used Ming protection and Islam to build their state.
  • Describe the Portuguese conquest of 1511 and its effects.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1492

Gate between two oceans

Open the map in 1492 and find Malacca on the strait between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. Why did ships from India and from China both have to pass here?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1492

Waiting for the wind

Turn on Trade Routes and follow the sea route west from the strait to India and Arabia. The monsoon winds change direction twice a year. Why did traders stay in Malacca for months?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1511

The Portuguese arrive

Find the Cape Route to the Indies on the Trade Routes layer. In 1511 a Portuguese fleet came this way from Europe and took Malacca. Why did the Portuguese want it?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Why did ships from India, Arabia and China all meet at Malacca?
  2. Malacca won the protection of the Ming. Why would a small port want a powerful friend far away?
  3. How did trade help Islam spread across Southeast Asia?
  4. A Portuguese writer said that whoever was lord of Malacca had his hand on the throat of Venice. What did he mean?
  5. After 1511 many traders moved to other ports. Can a conqueror take a city but lose its trade?
4

Game round

9 min

Rule History has no Malay ruler, so play Suleiman the Magnificent, whose Ottoman fleets fought the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean a few decades later. Let students take turns ruling. Then discuss: why did faraway states want to control a port in Southeast Asia?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.