Riau’s position at the southern entrance to the Strait of Malacca, the gateway for trade between India and China, was strategically significant.
There were small trading settlements on the Riau and Lingga archipelagos from at least the time of the empire of Srivijaya, which was established in southern Sumatra from the seventh century. It was said that the sea nomads of Riau made up opart of 20,000 strong military force of the Srivijaya ruler around 683 AD.
By about 1000 the island of Bintan was emerging as dominant, and it was to this island that Sultan Mahmud I of Malacca fled when the Portuguese captures his capital in 1511.
From the 16th century, the Riau Islands were ruled by a variety of Malay Kingdoms, which had to fight off constant attacks by pirates and the opportunistic Portuguese, Dutch and English.
Riau’s Golden Age, when it was at the height of its cultural and religious influence, was from around the middle of the 16th century to the end of the 18th century. At that time Bintan became an international center for the exchange of opium, tin, peeper, cloth, gambier and spices.
The Dutch then won controlled over the Strait of Malacca and mainland Riau became their colony when the Sultan of Johor surrendered in 1745.
In 1824 the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London completed and Riau Islands became part of the Dutch colony of what became known as the Netherlands East Indies.
The last Sultan of Riau was finally forced to abdicate by the Dutch colonial authorities in 1911.
Brief history of Riau Islands
