Langkawi Archipelago

The Langkawi islands lay off Kedah's northwestern coast, within the waters connecting the Malay Peninsula and the Andaman Sea. Sixteenth-century maps recorded the islands under several names, including Langa, Langka and Langapura. Their position gave ships access to an island country producing pepper and other agricultural supplies for maritime exchange.

In 1621 the French voyager Augustin de Beaulieu stopped at Langkawi during his dealings with Kedah, exchanging cannon for pepper. Early-nineteenth-century accounts likewise describe agricultural exports to Kedah and Penang. These commercial relationships were disrupted when Siam invaded Kedah in 1821–1822. The islands suffered flight, capture and depopulation as the conflict spread through the sultanate. In 1826 the British and Siamese governments concluded the Burney Treaty, with Britain accepting Siam's continued position in Kedah. Langkawi's surrounding waters thus connected island cultivation and shipping with a larger struggle over authority on the peninsula's northern coast.