 British Colonial History and its impact on Penang
The British administered Penang for over a hundred and fifty years, but they got the island not out of their own effort, but due to the works of an adventurous country trader who took advantages of prevaling circumstances.
- 1496: King Henry VII of England sponsored the expedition of John Cabot to find Asia. He made landfall in Newfoundland (he also thought he reached Asia).
- 1511: Portuguest conquest of Malacca.
- 1562: The English Crown sanctioned John Hawkins and Francis Drake to engage in slave-raiding attacks on Spanish and Portuguese ships.
- 1592: Crown sanctioned expeditionn of James Lancaster reached Phuket and the Malay peninsula. First British mention of Pulo Reyma (Pulau Rimau) and Pulo Pinang (Penang).
- 1600: The East India Company founded, to pursue trade with the East Indies. Oldest of the European East India Companies.
- 1604: Treaty of London ended hostility with Spain. England now turned its attention to prey on other nation’s colonial infrastructure.
- 1604-28: Establishment of English settlements in North America and the smaller islands of the Caribbean, ie St Kitts (1624), Barbados (1627), Nevis (1628).
- 1612: Received trading rights with the Mughal Empire of India from Emperor Jahangir. Trading port established in Surat in Gujarat.
- 1640: Trading port established in Madras.
- 1668: Bombay given to England as dowry in marriage of Catherine of Braganza to Charles II.
- 1690: The English East India Company founded Calcutta.
- End 16th to 17th centuries: England and rival the Netherlands began to challenge Portugal supremacy in Asia. 1688- Dutch William of Orange ascended English throne, hostility ended with Netherlands. Division of trade: English – textile trade in India, Netherlands – spice trade in the East Indies archipelago. By 1720, British trade overtook Dutch trade.
- 1700: King Charles II of Spain died, willed Spain and its empire to Philippe of Anjou, grandson of the King of France.
- 1701-14: War of the Spanish Succession: ended with Philip holding on to the Spanish throne, giving up the throne to France, and relinquishing Spanish territories including Gibraltar to Britain.
- 1757: Battle of Plassey: British under Robert Clive defeated the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies. The British increased in strength in India.
- 1786: Francis Light established Penang.
- 1819: Stamford Raffles established Singapore.
- 1824: Anglo-Dutch Treaty: Malacca ceded to the British while Bencoolen to the Dutch.
- 1826: The British defeated Burma in the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-26). Burma ceded Assam, Manipur, Arakan and Tenessarim.
- 1839: First Opium War – the British seized Hong Kong.
- 1852: The British defeated Burma in the Second Anglo-Burmese War, and captured Ayeyarwady, Yangon and Bago.
- 1857: Mutiny of Sepoys led to direct control of India by British government, known as the period of the British Raj.
- 1867: East India Company dissolved.
- 1874: Straits Settlements became a Crown Colony.
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