evidence: The Singapore Strait is a waterway south of Singapore which links the Strait of Melaka to the South China Sea. Before the age of European colonialism, it was an important shipping route used by traders and travellers plying between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. The founding of Singapore in 1819 and the developments that followed saw a dramatic increase of shipping traffic to these waters, thus increasing the Singapore Strait’s importance as the main shipping channel between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.1 The Singapore Strait is currently one of the busiest commercial routes in the world.2 The Singapore Strait is situated south of Singapore, between the south-eastern tip of the Malay Peninsula and north of Indonesia’s Riau Islands. Running east and west, it connects the southern end of the Melaka Strait at its western end to the South China Sea at its eastern end.3 [...] The Singapore Strait is located between two major trading zones – the trading zone of greater Bay of Bengal in the west and the mainland and trading ports of the South China Sea in the east.6 Before the advent of Europeans into the Indian Ocean Basin in the 15th century, the strait was an important shipping route used by traders and travellers plying between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.7