The Collapse of the Riau Entrepôt in 1784 and the Rise of Singapore

Abstract

Abstract: The creation of a British trading station on the island of Singapore in 1819 and the ensuing 1824 Anglo-Dutch Treaty have traditionally been presented as causes of the division and decline of the Johor-Riau sultanate. This article proposes a less Eurocentric explanation, arguing that the collapse of the Riau entrepôt in 1784 set in motion a train of events that culminated a generation later with the emergence of an entrepôt on Singapore, which quickly became a major trading centre. This interpretation is based on the actions of the chief protagonists in 1784, when a rupture of Dutch-Bugis relations produced a divide between Riau’s Malay and Bugis factions, a conceptual parting of ways between sultanate and entrepôt, and an English fixation on Riau as the archetype of the straits entrepôt. Re-examining the collapse of Riau provides fresh perspectives on the origins of early colonial Singapore, while also drawing much needed attention to the continuities between the Singapore entrepôt and its antecedents in the Straits.