History of Macau - Portuguese Settlement

Portuguese Settlement

During the age of discovery Portuguese sailors explored the coasts of Africa and Asia. The sailors later established posts at Goa in 1510, and conquered Malacca in 1511, driving the Sultan to the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula from where he kept making raids on the Portuguese. The Portuguese under Jorge Álvares landed at Lintin Island in the Pearl River Delta of China in 1513 with a hired junk sailing from Portuguese Malacca. They erected a stone marker at Lintin Island claiming it for the King of Portugal, Manuel I. In the same year, the Indian Viceroy Afonso de Albuquerque commissioned Rafael Perestrello — a cousin of Christopher Columbus to sail to China in order to open up trade relations. Rafael traded with the Chinese merchants in Canton in that year and in 1516, but was not allowed to move further.

Portugal’s king Manuel I in 1517 commissioned a diplomatic and trade mission to Canton headed by Tomé Pires and Fernão Pires de Andrade.

The embassy lasted until the death of the emperor Zhengde in Nanjing. The embassy was further rejected by the Chinese Ming court, which now became less interested in new foreign contacts. The Ming Court was also influenced by reports of misbehaviour of Portuguese elsewhere in China, and by the deposed Sultan of Malacca seeking Chinese assistance to drive the Portuguese out of Malacca.

In 1521 and 1522 several more Portuguese ships reached the trading island Tuen Mun off the coast near Canton, but were driven away by the now hostile Ming authorities.

The Malay Malacca Sultanate was a tributary state and an ally of Ming Dynasty China. When Portugal conquered Malacca in 1511 and committed atrocities against the Malay Sultanate, the Chinese responded with violent force against Portugal.

The Chinese Imperial Government imprisoned and executed multiple Portuguese envoys after torturing them in Guangzhou. The Malaccans had informed the Chinese of the Portuguese seizure of Malacca, to which the Chinese responded with hostility toward the Portuguese. The Malaccans told the Chinese of the deception the Portuguese used, disguising plans for conquering territory as mere trading activities, and told of all the atrocities committed by the Portuguese.

Due to the Malaccan Sultan lodging a complaint with the Chinese Emperor against the Portuguese invasion, the Portuguese were greeted with hostility by the Chinese when they arrived in China. The Malaccan Sultan, based in Bintan after fleeing Malacca, sent a message to the Chinese, which combined with Portuguese banditry and violent activity in China, led the Chinese authorities to execute 23 Portuguese and torture the rest of them in jails. After the Portuguese set up posts for trading in China and committed piratical activities and raids in China, the Chinese responded with the complete extermination of the Portuguese in Ningbo and Quanzhou Pires, a Portuguese trade envoy, was among those who died in the Chinese dungeons.

Good relations between the Portuguese and Chinese Ming Dynasty resumed in the 1540s, when Portuguese aided China in eliminating coastal pirates. The two later began annual trade missions to Shangchuan Island in 1549. Diplomatic relations were salvaged by the Leonel de Sousa agreement with Cantonese authorities in 1554. In 1557, the Ming court finally gave consent for a permanent and official Portuguese trade base at Macau. In 1558, Leonel de Sousa became the second Portuguese Governor of Macau.

Following a ship wreck in 1535, Portuguese traders were allowed to anchor ships in Macau's harbours, and the right to carry out trading activities, though not the right to stay onshore.

Macao was first settled by Portuguese survivors of the massacres of the Portuguese at Ningbo and at Quanzhou by Chinese government soldiers. After the Portuguese raided and pillaged villages around the trading posts in those two cities, the Emperor ruled that all Portuguese encountered everywhere should be killed on the spot. The casualties in total, with the 800 dead Portuguese, totalled 12,000 dead Christians. The massacres resulted in the Portuguese survivors fleeing to Macao, where they were allowed by China to start a colony to build sheds for drying goods in 1557. From the Mings' standpoint, the Portuguese were ultimately responsible for the massacre, since it was they who provoked the Chinese through "rapaciousness". The Portuguese considered it permissible to attack and pillage "Eastern peoples", and not treat them according to the law. The historian Kenneth Scott Latourette said that "the Portuguese had chiefly themselves to thank" for the massacres the Chinese committed against them. The Portuguese commander Albuquerque once stated "a Chinese junk man knew more about courtesy and humanity than a European knight". The Chinese had massacred them after the Portuguese engaged in pillaging and murder in Chinese villages. "A Lesson" was delivered to the Portuguese in this manner from the Chinese. The section of Macao they settled on was San Chuan island. They had to pay rent to China. They later built some rudimentary stone-houses around the area now called Nam Van. But not until 1557 did the Portuguese establish a permanent settlement in Macau, at an annual rent of 500 taels ( 20 kilograms/44 pounds ) of silver. Later that year, the Portuguese established a walled village there. Ground rent payments began in 1573. China retained sovereignty and Chinese residents were subject to Chinese law, but the territory was under Portuguese administration. In 1582 a land lease was signed, and annual rent was paid to Xiangshan County.

The Portuguese continued to pay an annual tribute up to 1863 in order to stay in Macau.

In 1564, Portugal commanded the trade of India, Japan, and China, though their pride was deeply shocked at the supreme indifference with which the Chinese treated them. Their atrocities at Ningpo and Macao, and their subsequent servility, had opened the eyes of the Chinese to their true character, and unfortunately for other European adventurers, they had come to the conclusion that all western nations were alike. The senate of Macao complained to the viceroy of Goa, of the contempt with which the Chinese authorities treated them, confessing however that, “it was owing more to the Portuguese themselves than to the Chinese.” The Chinese were obliged to restrict the commerce of Portugal to the port of Macao, in 1631.

On 24 June 1622, the Dutch attacked Macau in the Battle of Macau with 800 men under Captain Kornelis Reyerszoon, expecting to turn it into a Dutch possession after its conquest. African slaves who fought for the Portuguese repulsed the Dutch attack, and the Dutch never tried to conquer Macau again. The majority of the defenders were Africans slaves, with only a few Portuguese soldiers and Priests.

The Portuguese, often married Tanka women since Han Chinese women would not have relations with them. Some of the Tanka's descendants became Macanese people. Some Tanka children were enslaved by Portuguese raiders. The Chinese poet Wu Li wrote a poem, which included a line about the Portuguese in Macau being supplied with fish by the Tanka.