History of Penang in brief
Fort Cornwallis is a remnant of British rule
The history if Pulau Penang is one of trade, colony and immigration. The UNESCO World Heritage Site has long been fought over by European settlers due to its strategic significance and rich natural resources. And Penang continued to thrive as a cosmopolitan British colony into the 20th century with many international celebrities dropping by on their obligatory tours of the Orient.
Penang history – first settlers
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to take an interest in Penang, when Goa-based traders stopped there to replenish supplies during sojourns in search of spices and the riches of the East. By the 16th century a settlement have become established and within 100 years Pulo Pinaom, as it was then called, provided a harbour shelter for Indian, Chinese, European and Arabian ships for the fierce monsoon months when the Straits of Malacca were particularly treacherous. But this, of course, invited the unwanted attention of Southeast Asia’s bloodthirsty pirates.
Penang came under British control from 1786 when the East India Company gained the territory in exchange for protecting the Sultan of Kedah from the advancing Burmese and Siamese armies. Captain Francis Light, who became known as Penang’s founder, hoisted the Union Jack in Georgetown on August 11 and renamed it Prince of Wales Island. This marked the first foray into Southeast Asia for the British.
In order to bring trade to Penang and away from the Dutch East Indies (later Indonesia), Light declared Penang a free port. Many immigrant traders immediately flocked to the island in huge numbers in search of their fortune with settlers permitted to claim all the land they were able to clear. By 1799, Penang was home to 10,000 residents with first Chinese settlers from Kedah very prominent.
Light eventually succumb to malaria in 1794 but his son, William, went on to found the Australian city of Adelaide. In the early 1800s Penang became a staging post for opium export from China to India with the East India Company licensing brothels and gambling dens, giving the island a ‘wild west’ flavour.
Chinese immigrants helped Penang to flourish
Penang history – Straits Settlements
After the Suez Canal opened in 1869 British trade with the Far East expanded exponentially and Penang flourished as a consequence. Exports of rubber and tin and rubber fed the Industrial Revolution in Britain with many contrasting cultures arriving to get in on the act. This melting pot of cultures included Malays, Arabs, Armenians, Acehnese, British, Burmese, Jews, Germans, Chinese, Bengalis, Japanese, Gujeratis, Punjabis, Sindhis, Thais, Tamils, Malayalees, Javanese, Mandailings, Rawas, Portuguese and Eurasians to name but a few.
Second World War and independence
Penang suffered terribly with the outbreak of the Second World War. As news of an imminent Japanese filtered down, the European population fled and left the rest of the island’s population to suffer brutally under occupation. This caused a great deal of resentment against the British and disillusionment with their self-proclaimed façade of invincibility. Almost four years of rule of terror then followed during which much of the local populace escaped to plantations and the interior to escape atrocities.
Japanese forces based in Penang finally handed over control to Allied troops on September 6, 1945. The mood in Penang after the war took the end of British imperialism as inevitable, such was the shock of their apparent desertion.
The Straits Settlements were officially dissolved in 1946 with Sir Shenton Thomas acting as the region’s last governor. Penang became a key player in the initial Malayan Union before becoming a state of Malaya Federation in 1948. Penang then became one of Malaysia’s 13 states in 1963.
Penang history – into the modern era
The revoking of Penang’s free port status in 1969 dealt a massive blow to the island’s trading status and unemployment of around one sixth of the population followed. But by the late 1990s one of the biggest Asian electronics manufacturing bases was established and Penang’s fortunes were somewhat restored.
This began Penang’s monumental growth to today being an economic powerhouse of Malaysia.
This newfound prosperity maintained political harmony on the surface although racial conflict was always bubbling under the surface. Successive Malay governments promoted the Bhumiputra cause to counter the extensive Chinese economic influence over the nation.
Positive discrimination in favour of Malays for tax incentives and places in higher education caused widespread resentment and periodic outbreaks of racially-motivated violence. Penang suffered slight damage during the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami with aquaculture andf fisheries the worst-hit sectors economically.
