In the 1400's and 1500's traders from Southeast Asia brought Islam.
In 1511 the Portuguese arrived, led by Alfonso de Albuquerque, and it became a Portuguese colony
The Straits and port of Malacca was strategically important giving access to the spice trade.
Captured by the Dutch in 1641.
The Dutch government agreed to let England temporarily oversee the port and this was handed back in 1808.
The Dutch passed control back to the British in a trade for Bencoleen, Sumatra.
In 1819 Britain sent Sir William Raffles to establish a trading post in Singapore and the three British colonies of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore came to be known as the Straits Settlements.
1914 - 1918 WW1
Britain ruled over, what was then called Malaya, until the Japanese invaded in 1942.
August 1945 The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
W.W.II ended in 1945 and Britain resumed control again
Independence was achieved for the Malayan peninsula in 1957 under the name of the Federation of Malaya
In 1961 the term "Malaysia" came into effect when Singapore, Sabah, and Sarawak joined Malaya in a federal union
In 1965 Singapore opted out of the union.