Episode Details
Back to EpisodesThe Penang Riots of 1867 - George Town at War
Description
George Town, 1867.
Beneath the British flag, another power ruled the streets.
Secret societies commanded thousands of men. Money flowed through opium, gambling and the revenue farms. Loyalties ran deeper than the law, and behind the respectable façade of colonial Penang was a world of violence, fear and sworn brotherhoods.
Then, one afternoon, a man looked over a fence. Someone accused him of being a thief. Someone threw a rambutan. And suddenly, the powder keg that had been building for years caught fire.
What followed was ten days of bloodshed in the streets of George Town, and a terrifying glimpse of just how little control the British actually had over their own colony.
A story of secret societies, guns, money, murder and power. And the strangest beginning to a riot you are ever likely to hear.
For books written and published by Keith Hocton