In September 2019, the National Museum of Singapore launched An Old New World: From the East Indies to the Founding of Singapore, 1600s-1819, a special exhibition held in commemoration of Singapore's Bicentennial, as well as organised an international conference entitled Encounters & Connected Histories: Prelude to 1819. The conference brought international academics and museum practitioners together to explore Singapore's founding as an East India Company entrepot in 1819, within the overall theme of the sea as a historical passageway, and the interactions between the overseas trading companies and local communities in the two centuries before 1819. This book is inspired by An Old New World and the papers presented at the conference, and the many discussions they generated.