evidence: For centuries, ports along the coasts have been more than transshipment sites for goods; they are also places of interaction between people from foreign cultures. The chequered history of the Strait of Malacca and the city-state of Singapore illustrate how maritime transportation has influenced the development of a coastal region in the course of history. The Strait of Malacca is the shortest shipping route between the Far East and the Indian Ocean. Ships have passed through it for centuries, and trading posts grew up from an early stage, which simultaneously became centres of education, science and art. People with different religious backgrounds – Hindu monks, Christian priests, Muslim scholars – from many regions of the world met here. There was lively exchange about navigation techniques and the art of shipbuilding. [...] Great Britain developed into the dominant power on the Strait of Malacca, with Malacca, Penang (George Town) and Singapore as its most important trading posts. Unlike Malacca, Singapore – an island at the southern tip of the Strait of Malacca – was still rather insignificant in economic terms at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It was predominantly inhabited by Malayan fishing families. In 1819, just a few years before the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, the British East India Company had founded its first trading outpost there. Its massive expansion into a major trading port finally began in 1867, when Singapore was declared a British Crown colony.