Provincializing Singapore. Trade and Migration in the Straits Settlements: Unveiling Penang’s Interregional Perspective 1867-1914.

Provincializing Singapore. Trade and Migration in the Straits Settlements: Unveiling Penang’s Interregional Perspective (1867–1914) offers a reinterpretation of the history of the Straits Settlements by challenging the traditional centrality of Singapore in historiography and restoring analytical attention to the case of Penang. The aim of the thesis is to “provincialize” Singapore, that is, to deconstruct its position as the normative centre of historical analysis in the region, highlighting how such centrality is the product of a specific historiographical construction. Situated within the framework of revisionist Imperial History, particularly influenced by John Darwin, and within the broader global turn applied to the history of the Indian Ocean, the thesis brings into focus the differentiated agency of local contexts, showing how they were not only shaped by global processes but also actively contributed to shaping them. Through the analysis of trade, migration dynamics, particularly concerning indians and chinese workers, and the reconfiguration of colonial spaces between British Malaya and Dutch-controlled Sumatra, the thesis examines the period between 1867 and 1914 from the vantage point of Penang. In doing so, it demonstrates that the island should not be understood as a diminished or “backward” version of Singapore, but rather as following a distinct trajectory of development, shaped by its specific position within the commercial and migratory networks of the northwestern Straits of Malacca. The result is a polycentric framework in which the Straits Settlements do not appear as a uniform system, but rather as a constellation of interconnected nodes characterized by differentiated forms of imperial integration. In this sense, the thesis contributes to rethinking colonial dynamics in Southeast Asia, offering an interpretation that emphasizes the role of peripheral regions and the plurality of developmental trajectories within the British Empire.