Straits Settlement Queen Victoria 50 cent 1893

Straits Settlements under Victoria: Queen: 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901

Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she had the additional title of Empress of India.

 

The Straits Settlements (Malay: Negeri-negeri Selat, نݢري٢ سلت; Chinese: 叻嶼呷 / 海峽殖民地) were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under direct British control as a Crown colony on 1 April 1867. The colony was dissolved in 1946 as part of the British reorganisation of its Southeast Asian dependencies following the end of the Second World War.

The Straits Settlements originally consisted of the four individual settlements of Penang, Singapore, Malacca, and Dinding. Christmas Island and the Cocos Islands were added in 1886. The island of Labuan, off the coast of Borneo, was also incorporated into the colony with effect from 1 January 1907, becoming a separate settlement within it in 1912. Most of the territories now form part of Malaysia, from which Singapore separated in 1965. The Cocos (or Keeling) Islands were transferred to Australian control in 1955. Christmas Island was transferred in 1958. Their administration was combined in 1996 to form the Australian Indian Ocean Territories.

 

The Settlements

Penang and Province Wellesley

The first settlement was the Penang territory, in 1786. This originally comprised Penang Island, then known as the ‘Prince of Wales Island‘. This was later extended to encompass an area of the mainland, which became known as Province Wellesley (now Seberang Perai). The first grant was in 1800, followed by another in 1831. Further adjustments to Province Wellesley’s border were made in 1859, and with the Treaty of Pangkor in 1874. Province Wellesley, on the mainland opposite the island of Penang, was ceded to Great Britain in 1800 by the Sultan of Kedah, on its northern and eastern border; Perak lies to the south. The boundary with Kedah was rectified by treaty with Siam (now Thailand) in 1867. It was administered by a district officer, with some assistants, answering to the resident councillor of Penang. Province Wellesley consisted, for the most part, of fertile plain, thickly populated by Malays, and occupied in some parts by sugar-planters and others engaged in similar agricultural industries and employing Chinese and Tamil labour. About a tenth of the whole area was covered by low hills with thick jungle. Large quantities of rice were grown by the Malay inhabitants, and between October and February, there was snipe-shooting in the paddy fields. A railway from Butterworth, opposite Penang, runs into Perak, and thence via Selangor and Negri Sembilan to Malacca, with an extension via Muar under the rule of the Sultan of Johor, and through the last-named state to Johor Bharu, opposite the island of Singapore.

 

Singapore

Singapore became the site of a British trading post in 1819 after its founder, Stamford Raffles, successfully involved the East India Company in a dynastic struggle for the throne of Johore. Thereafter the British came to control the entire island of Singapore, which was developed into a thriving colony and port. In 1824 the Dutch conceded any rights they had to the island in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, and by 1836 Singapore was the seat of government of the Straits Settlements.

Malacca

The Dutch colony of Malacca was ceded to the British in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 in exchange for the British trading post of Bencoolen and for British rights in Sumatra. Malacca’s importance was in establishing an exclusive British zone of influence in the region, and it was overshadowed as a trading post by Penang, and later, Singapore.