In 1786 the sultan of Kedah granted the island of Penang to the British East India Company in exchange for military protection from the Siamese and Burmese armies; until 1867 it was known to the British as Prince of Wales Island.
Captain Francis Light, British naval officer, landed in Penang Island on 11 August 1786 to establish the rule of the East India Company. Deciding on building a fort at that very spot, Light declared that, when ready, the bastion would serve as the main defence post for the island.
By that time, it was inhabited by a few Malays. According to Joseph Kennedy in A History of Malaya, published by MacMillan, "By 1788 the population of Penang was about 1,000, and it increased to 12,000 in 1804, by which time Province Wellesley had been included.
Light's interest in Penang began in 1771, when he proposed the idea of turning the island into a British settlement. The suggestion, which fell on deaf ears at that time, only came under serious consideration twelve years later when Britain struggled with France for naval superiority.
Light landed in Penang Island was the first British beach-head in Malaya, and it presaged the end of Dutch influence on the peninsula.
In 1790, when Sultan Abdullah of Kedah heard that the British would not give protection, he formed an army to get rid of the Dutch and the English. He assembled his men at Prai to retake the island of Penang but was defeated.
British landed in Penang Island
