Stamford Raffles signs a treaty establishing a British East India Company trading post at Singapore, beginning the modern port city.
Gia Long, founder of the Nguyễn dynasty, dies and is succeeded by his son Minh Mạng, who centralises the state.
Poet Nguyễn Du dies in Huế.
The most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurs on Sumbawa, causing the global "Year Without a Summer" of 1816.
British and Prussian forces defeat Napoleon Bonaparte, ending the Hundred Days and the Napoleonic Wars.
The European powers meet in Vienna to reorder the continent after the Napoleonic Wars, redrawing the map of Europe and establishing a balance of power.
Britain and the Netherlands divide their spheres in the Malay world, roughly creating today's Malaysia–Indonesia divide.