Abstract

Based chiefly on primary documents and extant manuscript materials, this article examines the transition of Melaka from Portuguese colony to the possession of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1640–41. Defeated by famine, disease and the force of arms, the transition period saw the evacuation of most Portuguese citizens to India, uncontrolled plundering and the destruction of much of the city's material culture. The years immediately following the transition to Dutch rule also saw the implementation of cultural, religious and linguistic policies—originally designed as short-term solutions to specific problems on the ground—that came to characterize the Dutch colony well into the eighteenth century.

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