colony · Maritime Southeast Asia
Bencoolen
Origins
Expelled from Banten in 1682, the English East India Company sought a new source of pepper and in 1685 founded a post at Bencoolen (Bengkulu) by agreement with local chiefs. It became the Company base in the Malay archipelago, and between 1714 and 1719 the garrison built Fort Marlborough, one of the largest British forts in Asia.
Rule and society
The settlement was run by a Company resident and council, later a lieutenant-governor, who forced local farmers to grow pepper for fixed prices. It was unhealthy and lost money for most of its history, and convicts and slaves from India and Africa were used as labour. Thomas Stamford Raffles governed from 1818 to 1824, abolishing slavery and promoting new crops.
Decline and legacy
Under the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 Britain exchanged Bencoolen for Dutch Malacca, and the Dutch took over in 1824 and 1825, folding it into the Dutch East Indies. Fort Marlborough still stands in Bengkulu.
Lineage
On the connections map
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- Bencoolen was a colony of British Empire1685 CE – 1824 CE
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Bencoolen. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/bencoolen
- MLA
- “Bencoolen.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/bencoolen. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Bencoolen.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/bencoolen.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Bencoolen’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/bencoolen (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻