The siege of Aden occurred when the Portuguese Governor of India, Afonso de Albuquerque, launched an unsuccessful expedition to capture

Aden Aden () is a port city located in Yemen in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, on the north coast of the Gulf of Aden, positioned near the eastern approach to the Red Sea. It is situated approximately 170 km (110 mi) east of ...

on 26 March 1513.

Background

Aden was an independent city-state whose strategic location allowed it to control the entrance of the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

.Fritze, Ronald H. (2002). ''New Worlds: The Great Voyages of Discovery, 1400-1600''. Gloucestershire: Sutton. p. 191. .Newitt, Malyn (2005).
A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion, 1400–1668
'. London: Routledge. pp. 81–82. . It became a wealthy trading area due to its location at the crossroads of busy trade routes into the Red Sea. Albuquerque's plan to capture Aden would allow him to dominate the Red Sea and strike a military blow at Mamluk Egypt. Aden was one of four strategic places that Albuquerque wanted to capture: Aden – to control the straits of Mecca (Red Sea); Hormuz – to control the straits of Basra (the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

); and Diu and Goa – to ensure sovereignty of all the other districts of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Peters, F. E. (1994).
Mecca: A Literary History of the Muslim Holy Land
'. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 180–182. .

Siege

Albuquerque's fleet sailed from Goa,

, on 18 February 1513, and consisted of 20 ships manned by 1,700 Portuguese and 800 allied natives of Malabar.Vogel, Theodore (1877).
A Century of Discovery: Biographical Sketches of the Portuguese and Spanish Navigators from Prince Henry to Pizarro
'. London: Seeley, Jackson, & Halliday. p. 125. The fleet arrived at Socotra Island. The captains deliberated on how to approach Aden. Some of Albuquerque's chiefs suggested an attempt at negotiated surrender while others pressed for an immediate attack. Albuquerque chose the latter option, believing that negotiations would give the inhabitants time to strengthen their defences or obtain reinforcements from elsewhere. Before dawn on Easter Sunday (26 March), the Portuguese commandeered some landing barges in the harbour, ferried their men ashore, and began their siege on Aden. They captured an

outwork An outwork is a minor fortification built or established outside the principal fortification limits, detached or semidetached. Outworks such as ravelins, lunettes (demilunes), flèches and caponier A caponier is a type of defensive structur ...

, where many defenders were slain and 39 pieces of ordnance were captured. However, they were later repulsed and suffered high casualties. The overall attack failed, with the scaling ladders collapsing under the weight of the men trying to mount them. This left some of the Portuguese trapped in isolation atop the wall. According to Albuquerque's biographer son, the attack was abandoned after all their scaling ladders broke. By midday, Albuquerque and his men withdrew to their ships. After plundering and burning the vessels in the harbour, and cannonading the town, the fleet sailed towards the Red Sea.

Aftermath

Albuquerque stated: "I think that if I had reconnoitred Aden first, I would not have launched our attack where I did." The failure to capture Aden significantly undermined his strategy. Without a base of operations at the mouth of the Red Sea, it was impossible for the Portuguese to prevent spices being shipped to Egypt and the Mediterranean by the traditional route. The Crown's ability to enforce a trade monopoly in the Indian Ocean had been fatally damaged. Alarmed by the Portuguese threat, the Egyptian Mamluks occupied the Yemeni Tihamah and attempted to capture Aden but failed. The Portuguese launched a second attack but also failed. Aden finally fell in 1538 to Suleiman Pasha, the commander of a large Ottoman fleet. Under Ottoman control, Aden was valued primarily as a barrier to European penetration of the holy cities rather than as an

entrepôt An entrepôt ( ; ) or transshipment port is a port, city, or trading post where merchandise may be imported, stored, or traded, usually to be exported again. Such cities often sprang up and such ports and trading posts often developed into comm ...

for trade.Dumper, Michael R. T., ed; Stanley, Bruce E., ed. (2007).
Cities of the Middle East and North Africa: A Historical Encyclopedia
'. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 11. .

References

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Military history of Aden Invasions by Portugal