Johor Sultanate

The Johor Sultanate, the Johor Empire at its height, was the Malay successor of Malacca, lasting from 1528 to 1946. When the Portuguese took Malacca in 1511, Sultan Mahmud's son Alauddin Riayat Shah founded a new throne at Johor and claimed the whole Malaccan inheritance: at its greatest the sultanate held Johor, Pahang, Terengganu, Singapore, the Riau and Lingga islands and Sumatran ports from Kampar to Siak. For a century the exiled dynasty fought Portugal, Aceh and Jambi by turns, moving its capital up rivers and across straits whenever enemies burned it. The Europeans returned as dividers, not conquerors: the mainland fell under Britain, the islands under Holland, and the old Johor Empire was cut in two along lines still visible on today's map. The mainland rump survived as British-protected Johor, accepted a British adviser in 1914, and in 1946 joined the Malayan Union, trading four centuries of sultans for a Malaysian state.