His son Alauddin al-Kahar (d. 1571) extended the domains farther south into Sumatra, but was less successful in his attempts to gain a foothold across the strait, though he made several attacks on both Johor and Malacca,[2] with the support along with men and firearms from Suleiman the Magnificent's Ottoman Empire.

[4] On 21 June 1599 a Dutch captain, Cornelius de Houtman, arrived at "Acheen" aboard the Lioness as the first of three planned voyages to the East Indies.

British crew member John Davis claims the party was subsequently attacked by the local warlord with the loss of 68 dead and captured.

After they arrived, they were permitted by the sultan to purchase pepper, during the same year as representatives of the English East India Company under the command of James Lancaster.

[9] By the 1680s, a Persian visitor could describe a northern Sumatra where "every corner shelters a separate king or governor and all the local rulers maintain themselves independently and do not pay tribute to any higher authority.

"[10] As a result of these internal conflicts and the resurgence of Johor, Aceh transitioned from being the head of the Malay world to focusing inward, adopting a more prominent Acehnese identity.

[11] In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Koh Lay Huan – the first Kapitan Cina of Penang, had good contacts with the English-and-French-speaking sultan of Aceh, Jauhar al-Alam.

[15] In early 1874 the sultan abandoned the capital after the palace was captured on 31 January, withdrawing to the hills, while the Dutch announced the annexation of Aceh.

The local rulers of Acehnese ports nominally submitted to Dutch authority to avoid a blockade, but they used their income to support the resistance.

However, an adviser of the sultan, Abd al-Rahman al-Zahir, soon returned to take command of the independence movement, fell out with the revolutionary leaders, and promptly agreed to surrender himself to the Dutch in exchange for a lifetime pension in Mecca.

The Dutch, now hounded by locals and cholera alike, fortified their coastal positions and began a slow siege of the entire country, conducted by General van Pel.

[22] Aceh tended somehow to be fragile economically, however, because of the difficulty in providing enough surplus food to support the military and commercial adventures of the state.

[23] As Aceh lost political cohesion in the 17th century, it saw its trading importance yielded to the Dutch East India Company, who became the dominant military and economic power in the region following the successful siege of Malacca in 1641.