decentralised. It was made of four main fiefs and the Sultan's territory. The fiefs are Muar and its territories under the Raja Temenggong of Muar; Pahang under the stewardship of the Bendehara; Riau under the control of YAM Tuan Muda and mainland Johor and Singapore under the Temenggong. The rest of the Empire were directly controlled by the Sultan. The Sultan resided in Lingga. All the Orang Kayas except Raja Temenggong Muar reported directly to the Sultan; Raja Temenggong Muar was a suzerain recognised by the Sultan. Extent of the Empire As the Sultanate replaced the Malacca Sultanate, it followed that the extent of its territorial area covered the southern Malay peninsula, parts of south-eastern Sumatra and the Riau Islands and its dependencies. This territory included the vassal states of Pahang, Muar, Johor mainland and Riau Islands. The administrative centre of the empire was at various times at Sayong Pinang, Kota Kara, Seluyut, Johor Lama, Batu Sawar and Kota Tinggi; all on mainland Johor and later at Riau and Lingga. It then shifted with the birth of Modern Johore Sultanate to Tanjung Puteri, known today as Johor Bahru. The fall of Johor Singapore and the British In 1818, Sir Stamford Raffles was appointed as the governor of Bencoolen on western Sumatra. However, he was convinced that the British needed to establish a new base in Southeast Asia to compete with the Dutch. Though many in the British East India Company opposed such an idea, Raffles managed to convince Lord Hastings of the company, then governor general of British India, to side with him. With the governor general's consent, he and his expedition set out to search for a new base. When Raffles' expedition arrived in Singapore on 29 January 1819 he discovered a small Malay settlement at the mouth of the Singapore River headed by a Temenggong Abdul Rahman. Though the island was nominally ruled by the sultanate, the political situation there was extremely murky. The reigning sultan, Tengku Abdul Rahman, was under the influence of the Dutch and the Bugis. Hence, he would never agree to a British base in Singapore. However, Tengku Abdul Rahman was ruler only because his older brother, Tengku Hussein or Tengku Long, had been away in Pahang getting married when their father died in 1812. He was appointed by the Yam Tuan Muda of Riau, Raja Jaafar because according to him, in a Malay