The Crown Colony of Penang was a British crown colony from 1946 to 1957. It came under

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

sovereignty after being ceded by the Sultanate of Kedah in 1786, and had been part of the Straits Settlements from 1826 to 1946. Together with

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

, it became a crown colony under the direct control of the British

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until it was incorporated into the Malayan Union. The British East India Company gained Penang in 1786 and established a trading post. It was ceded by the Sultan of Kedah to ensure the former's protection against the threat posed by its Siamese and Burmese neighbors. It was transformed into a Crown Colony, substituting state for company control through the Straits Settlement 1867. During

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, it was occupied by the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

from 1942 to 1945. After the post-war dissolution of the Straits Settlements Penang and Malacca become crown colonies in the Federation of Malaya, while

became a standalone crown colony, separate from Malaya. In 1955,

Tunku Abdul Rahman Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah ( ms, ‏تونكو عبد الرحمن ڤوترا الحاج ابن سلطان عبد الحميد حليم شاه, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset; 8 Febru ...

held a meeting with the British to discuss the end of British rule in Penang with a merger with Malayan Union (which was then replaced by Federation of Malaya). On 31 August 1957, when Malaya achieved its independence from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, Penang was integrated as a state of the federation, which later known as

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

when it merged with another territories in British Borneo.

References

History of Penang British Malaya Former countries in Malaysian history Straits Settlements States and territories established in 1946 States and territories disestablished in 1957 {{Malaysia-hist-stub