Portugesen werden von den Holländern bey Malacca in die Flucht geschlagen.

Title

Portugesen werden von den Holländern bey Malacca in die Flucht geschlagen.

Description

View of the city Malakka. The Dutch stroke into the escape the Portugiese.

ca. 1600

Artist

Bry, de (1528-1598)

Theodorus de Bry (1528-1598) Frankfurt a.M. Around 1570, Theodorus de Bry, a Protestant, fled religious persecution south to Strasbourg, along the west bank of the Rhine. In 1577, he moved to Antwerp in the Duchy of Brabant, which was part of the Spanish Netherlands or Southern Netherlands and Low Countries of that time (16th Century), where he further developed and used his skills as a copper engraver. Between 1585 and 1588 he lived in London, where he met the geographer Richard Hakluyt and began to collect stories and illustrations of various European explorations, most notably from Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues. Depiction of Spanish atrocities in the New World, as recounted by Bartolome de las Casas in Narratio Regionum indicarum per Hispanos Quosdam devastatarum verissima. In 1588, Theodorus and his family moved permanently to Frankfurt-am-Main, where he became citizen and began to plan his first publications. The most famous one is known as Les Grands Voyages, i.e., The Great Travels, or The Discovery of America. He also published the largely identical India Orientalis-series, as well as many other illustrated works on a wide range of subjects. His books were published in Latin, and were also translated into German, English and French to reach a wider reading public. The two collections of travelogues published by Theodor de Bry in Frankfurt are among the most important of the early modern period and established his reputation for posterity: He created The Arrival of Columbus in the New World in 1594. The West Indian Voyages (ed. 1590-1618) chronicled the discovery and conquest of the Americas by Europeans, while the East Indian Voyages followed the rise of Holland as a trading power in Asia around 1600. Both series appeared in German and Latin, were intended for a European audience, and were richly illustrated with copper engravings. Theodor de Bry was only able to publish six parts of his complete works. After his death, his sons Johann Theodor and Johann Israel and then Johann Theodor's son-in-law Matthäus Merian continued the work until 1634. In the end, it contained 25 parts and over 1500 copper engravings. The brothers were succeeded as engravers and publishers by Sebastian Furck.

Historical Description

The peninsula is already described by the ancient geographer Claudius Ptolemy in the second century AD under the name Chryse Chersonesos (Golden Peninsula). Originally, Malacca was founded by the Chinese as a collection and transshipment point for spices (especially pepper from the Moluccas) and sandalwood from Timor. However, due to its favorable location, it quickly developed into a thriving trading port where Arabs, Indians and Chinese exchanged goods. Until the 15th century, the city remained virtually a Chinese colony and thus a kind of bridgehead of the Chinese to the Indian Ocean. In the 15th century, Malacca was the seat of a Malay sultan. Between the 13th and 17th centuries, Malacca was considered the most important eastern hub in the international spice trade around the Indian Ocean. The city, at critical point to control the shipping routes between Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. The trade routes of cloves and nutmegs, which were also highly sought after in Europe, began on the islands of Halmahera, Tidore and Ternate south of Papua; Javanese ships brought the spices to Malacca and partly further to India's east and west coasts in a monsoon-related, year-and-a-half-long journey. Largely Arab traders brought the goods as far as Cairo and Alexandria, from where, before 1510, mostly Genoese and Venetian traders brought the goods to Europe. In 1509, Portuguese ships reached Malacca for the first time under Diogo Lopes de Sequeira. In the 16th century, trade routes were highly dependent on the season. Portuguese caravels left Goa in September with the southward blowing monsoon. From Malacca, Indian goods were then exchanged for Chinese copper coins on Java. In exchange, rice and simple cottons were received further east on Sumbawa, which in turn were exchanged for spices on the Banda Islands and Ternate. In 641, the Dutch conquered Malacca and ruled the city until 1824. Until independence in 1957, the city, like the entire Malay Peninsula, belonged to the British colonial empire as British Malaya and part of the Straits Settlements.