1511

Events of 1511

August 24 - Alfonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers Malacca, the capital of the Sultanate of Malacca. The Sultanate then establishes rule from Johor, starting decades of skirmishes against the Portuguese to regain the fallen city. While taking the city, the Portuguese slaughter a large community of Chinese merchants living there (mentioned by Zhang Xie writing a century later). Malacca is the first city in Southeast Asia to be taken by a Western nation, only gaining home rule in 1957 when it becomes part of Malaysia.
November - The Treaty of Westminster creates an alliance between Henry VIII of England and Ferdinand II of Aragon against France.

Diego Velázquez and Hernán Cortés conquer Cuba; Velázquez is appointed Governor.
St John's College, Cambridge is founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort.
Juan de Agramonte, a sailor from Spain, is thought to have possibly travelled to Newfoundland.
A Taíno indigenous uprising occurs in southwestern Puerto Rico near Guánica.
The Spanish conquest of Yucatán begins.
The first black slaves arrive in Colombia.
Ferdinand of Spain observes that "one black can do the work of four Indians".
Duarte Barbosa arrives in India second time. He works as chief scribe in the factory of Cananor and as the liason with the Indian rajah.

January 1 - Henry, Duke of Cornwall, eldest son of Henry VIII of England
June 18 - Bartolomeo Ammanati, Florentine architect and sculptor (d. 1592)
July 3 - Giorgio Vasari, Italian painter and architect (d. 1574)
July 9 - Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg, consort of Christian III from 1525 and Queen of Denmark and Norway (d. 1571)
September 29 - Michael Servetus, Spanish theologian (d. 1553)
October 22 - Erasmus Reinhold, German astronomer and mathematician (d. 1553)
November 15 - Johannes Secundus, Dutch poet (d. 1536)
date unknown

La Beata de Piedrahita, Spanish mystic
Demetrius Chalcondyles, Greek classical scholar (b. 1424)
Philippe de Commines, French-speaking Fleming in the courts of Burgundy and France (b. 1447)
Diego de Nicuesa, Spanish conquistador and explorer
Matthias Ringmann, German cartographer and humanist poet (b. 1482)
Johannes Tinctoris, Flemish composer and music theorist (b. c. 1435)