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Penang today bears the mark of an early history of successive foreign
influences - from the early Indian Civilization that took root in northern
Malaya to that of the Portuguese, Dutch and later the British who came to this
part of the world in search of spices and stayed to participate in the
lucrative trade.
 The history of modern Penang can be traced
back to 1786 when Francis Light managed to persuade the Sultan of Kedah to
cede "Pulau Pinang" (Betel Nut Island) to the British East India
Company. Light landed at the site of the present Esplanade and according to
local legend, fired gold coins into the surrounding jungle to induce his men
to clear the area. The island was originally named Prince of Wales Island and
the settlement that soon grew up was named Georgetown after King George III.
In 1800, the Sultan of Kedah further ceded a strip of land on the mainland
across the channel which Light named Province Wellesley after the then
Governor of India. In 1832, Penang formed part of the Straits Settlement with
Melaka and Singapore. It flourished and grew to be a major trading post for a
lucrative trade in tea, spices, china and cloth. For more than a hundred
years, it remained under British Colonial rule until 1957 when it gained
independence and became one of the states of the newly formed Federation of
Malaya and later Malaysia in 1963.
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