Malaya is a peninsula in southeastern Asia, until recently of slight importance in the affairs of the world at large. During the present century, however, it has come to be of increasing significance for its output of rubber and tin, and its population has doubled since 1900. Economic and political affairs are in the main controlled by the British, but under different legal arrangements for different sections. The Straits Settlements form a British colony, comprising several islands, including Singapore and Penang, and two small mainland areas, at Malacca and Wellesley, with a total area of 1,508 square miles and a population of over a million. Rather more than half of the region is included in a federation of four Malay States, established in 1895, under a British protectorate. These have a total area of 27,500 square miles, with a population of about one and a half millions. There are also five other petty states, with a total area of 23,486 square miles and a population of 1,250,000, under special treaty arrangements with Great Britain. The total area of Malaya is 52,000 square miles, and the total population about four millions.