Malay archipelago was taken by european,when the arrival portugese in Malacca.

The dutch challenged

the portugeese,who have came to control most of the ports,they established a monopoly over trade
within the archipelago,

Sir Stamford Raffles was appointed Lieutenant Governor of the british colony in bencoolen He was
determined that Great Britain should replace the Netherlands as the dominant power in the
archipelago,The Dutch had been stifling British trade in the region by prohibiting the British from
operating in Dutch-controlled ports Raffles hoped to challenge the Dutch by establishing a new port
along the Straits of Malacca He needed a third port since the British only had the ports of Penang and
Bencoolen.He convinced Lord Hastings, the Governor-General of India and his superior at the British
East India Company, to fund an expedition to seek a new British base in the region.

When Raffles arived at singapore he recognized the island to be a natural choice for the new port.It lay
at the southern tip of the Malay peninsula,It was also located along the main trade route between India
and China.The island was nominally ruled by the Sultan of Johor, who was controlled by the Dutch and
the Bugis. However, the Sultanate was weakened by factional division and Tengku Abdu'r Rahman and
his officials were loyal to Tengku Rahman's elder brother Tengku Long who was living in exile in
Riau.Raffles managed to smuggle Tengku Long back into Singapore. He offered to recognize Tengku Long
as the rightful Sultan of Johor, given the title of Sultan Hussein and provide him with a yearly payment of
$5000 and $3000 to the Temenggong; in return, Sultan Hussein would grant the British the right to
establish a trading post on Singapore.A formal treaty was signed on 6 February 1819 and modern
Singapore was born