Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The island came under the control of the sultan of Kedah, but in 1771 the sultan signed
the first agreement with the British East India Company, handing them trading rights in
exchange for military assistance against Siam.
Fifteen years later Captain Francis Light, on behalf of the East India Company, took
possession of Penang, which was formally signed over in 1791. Light renamed it Prince of
Wales Island, as the acquisition date fell on the prince's birthday. Light permitted new ar-
rivals to claim as much land as they could clear and this, together with a duty-free port
and an atmosphere of liberal tolerance, quickly attracted settlers from all over Asia. By
the turn of the 18th century, Penang was home to more than 10,000 people.
Penang briefly became the capital of the Straits Settlements (which included Melaka
and Singapore) in 1826, until it was superseded by the more thriving Singapore. By the
middle of the 19th century, Penang had become a major player in the Chinese opium
trade, which provided more than half of the colony's revenue. It was a dangerous, rough-
edged place, notorious for its brothels and gambling dens, all run by Chinese secret societ-
ies.
There was little action in Penang during WWI but WWII was a different story. When it
became evident that the Japanese would attack, Penang's Europeans were immediately
evacuated, leaving behind a largely defenceless population. Japan took over the island on
19 December 1941, only 12 days after the attack on Pearl Harbour in the US. The follow-
ing three and a half years were the darkest of Penang's history.
Things were not the same after the war. The local impression of the invincibility of the
British had been irrevocably tainted and the end of British imperialism seemed imminent.
The Straits Settlements were dissolved in 1946; Penang became a state of the Federation
of Malaya in 1948 and one of independent Malaysia's 13 states in 1963.
With its free-port status withdrawn in 1969, Penang went through several years of de-
cline and high unemployment. Over the next 20 years, the island was able to build itself
up as one of the largest electronics manufacturing centres of Asia and is now sometimes
dubbed the 'Silicon Valley of the East'. Today, Penang is the only state in Malaysia that
has elected an ethnic Chinese chief minister since independence.
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