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Portugal/ Malaysia: Diego Lopez de Sequeira, commander of the first Portuguese fleet to Malacca in 1509.

Portugal/ Malaysia: Diego Lopez de Sequeira, commander of the first Portuguese fleet to Malacca in 1509.

Diego Lopes de Sequeira was a Portuguese ‘conquistador’ sent to analyze the trade potential in Madagascar and Malacca. He arrived in Malacca in Malaysia in September, 1509, but left the next year when he discovered that Sultan Mahmud Shah, the local leader, was devising his assassination. This gave Afonso de Albuquerque the opportunity to embark upon his expeditions of conquests. Sequeira was subsequently made governor of Portuguese India (1518–22), and in 1520 led a military campaign into the Red Sea which hastened the first legitimate Portuguese embassy to Ethiopia.

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