Straits Settlements

The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories in Southeast Asia, first established in 1826 as part of the lands of the British East India Company, passing under the British Raj in 1858 and then under direct British rule as a Crown colony in 1867, until the colony was dissolved in 1946 after the Japanese occupation, in Britain's reorganisation of its dependencies. They originally comprised the four settlements of Penang, Singapore, Malacca and the Dindings: Penang had been taken first, in 1786, Malacca came over from the Dutch by the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 in exchange for Bencoolen and British rights in Sumatra, the Dindings were ceded by Perak under the Pangkor Treaty of 1874 and returned in 1935, and the island of Labuan off Borneo joined in 1907 and became a separate settlement in 1912. Christmas Island and the Cocos Islands were added in 1886 and much later passed to Australian control, their administrations joining in 1996 as the Australian Indian Ocean Territories. Most of the lands now belong to Malaysia, from which Singapore separated in 1965.