Acheh's strategic location at the northern tip of Sumatra and at
the head of the Melaka Straits has for centuries brought the
Achinese into contact with the world. Marco Polo visited Acheh
in 1232, while awaiting passage back to Europe, reported an
independent Sultanate, wealthy from the vast stands of pepper in
the hinterlands and tolls on trading ships entering the Melaka
Straits. However, the fall of Melaka in 1511 heralded a meteoric
rise in the power of Acheh. The Portuguese capture of Melaka and
their persecution of Muslims forced wealthy Arab and Gujerati
merchants to move from Melaka to Acheh. This new wealth enabled
Acheh to embark upon wars of aggression and conquest to obtain
control of the pepper districts of Sumatra. Militarily and
economically stronger than any of her neighbours in Sumatra and
the Malay peninsula, she quickly took over the mantle of the
vanquished Melaka Sultanate as the leading kingdom in the
Straits. She overran the pepper ports of Pasai and Pedir and
secured control of the pa