Editing Bengal (section)

====Malay Archipelago====
[[File:Bengal Presidency (1849-1853) with modern borders.png|thumb|Extent of the Bengal Presidency between 1858 and 1867, including the Straits Settlements]]
Through trade, settlements and the exchange of ideas; parts of [[Maritime Southeast Asia]] became linked with Bengal.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ghosh |first=Suchandra |year=2013 |title=Locating South Eastern Bengal in the Buddhist Network of Bay of Bengal (C. 7th Century CE-13th Century CE) |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=74 |pages=148–153 |jstor=44158810}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/19480881.2019.1640577|title=Crossings and contacts across the Bay of Bengal: a connected history of ports in early South and Southeast Asia|first=Suchandra|last=Ghosh|date=2 September 2019|journal=Journal of the Indian Ocean Region|volume=15|issue=3|pages=281–296|via=Taylor and Francis+NEJM|doi=10.1080/19480881.2019.1640577|s2cid=202332142 }}</ref> Language, literature, art, governing systems, religions and philosophies in ancient [[Sumatra]] and [[Java]] were influenced by Bengal. [[Indianized kingdom|Hindu-Buddhist kingdom]]s in Southeast Asia depended on the Bay of Bengal for trade and ideas. [[Islam in Southeast Asia]] also spread through the Bay of Bengal, which was a bridge between the Malay Archipelago and Indo-Islamic states of the Indian subcontinent.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sunil S. Amrith|title=Crossing the Bay of Bengal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8eWwAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA37|date=7 October 2013|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-72846-2|page=37}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Formichi|first=Chiara|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t-fWDwAAQBAJ|title=Islam and Asia: A History|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2020|isbn=978-1-107-10612-3|pages=75–79}}</ref> A large number of wealthy merchants from Bengal were based in Malacca.<ref name="autogenerated185"/> Bengali ships were the largest ships in the waters of the Malay Archipelago during the 15th century.<ref>Tapan Raychaudhuri; Irfan Habib, eds. (1982). The Cambridge Economic History of India. Vol. I. Cambridge University Press. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-521-22692-9.</ref>

Between 1830 and 1867, the ports of Singapore and [[Malacca]], the island of [[Penang]], and a portion of the [[Malay Peninsula]] were ruled under the jurisdiction of the [[Bengal Presidency]] of the [[British Empire]].<ref>Jarman, J. L. (Ed). (1998). Annual reports of the Straits Settlements 1855–1941 (Vol 1: 1855–1867, pp. 3–4). Slough, UK: Archive Editions. Call no.: RSING English 959.51 STR.</ref> These areas were known as the [[Straits Settlements]], which was separated from the Bengal Presidency and converted into a [[Crown colony]] in 1867.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|wstitle=Straits Settlements|last=Clifford|first=Hugh Charles|author-link=Hugh Clifford (colonial administrator)|volume=25|pages=980–981|inline=1}}</ref>{{RP|980}}