Battle of Sincouwaan 1522
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1522 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Hong Kong | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| Coordinates | 22.3699, 113.9760 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Sincouwaan (traditional Chinese: 茜草灣之戰; simplified Chinese: 茜草湾之战; pinyin: Qiàncǎo Wān zhī Zhàn), also known as Battle of Veniaga Island (Portuguese: Batalha da Ilha da Veniaga), was a naval battle between the Ming dynasty coast guard and a Portuguese fleet led by Martim Afonso de Mello that occurred in 1522.
The Ming court threatened to expel Portuguese traders from China after receiving news that the Malacca Sultanate, a Ming tributary, had been invaded by the Portuguese. In addition, the Portuguese had been conducting piracy, acquiring slaves on the Chinese coast to sell in Portuguese Malacca, and preventing other foreigners from trading in China. Portuguese traders were executed in China and a Portuguese embassy was arrested, with their freedom promised on the condition that the Portuguese returned Malacca to its sultan.
Martim Afonso de Mello arrived at the Pearl River but was blockaded by a Ming fleet despite his offers of amends. After two weeks without being able to gain a foothold in China they decided to run the blockade and managed to escape with the loss of two ships and several dozen men. The battle was fought off the northwestern coast of Lantau Island, Hong Kong at a location called Sai Tso Wan today.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Sincouwaan (revision 1373003891), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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