Singapore, a city-state on an island at the tip of the Malaysian peninsula, was historically a part of many different empires. The first European discovery of Singapore was by the East India Trading Company in 1818, and the British began colonizing in 1824. Singapore eventually gained its independence from Britain in 1963 by joining with Malaysia, and split with Malaysia in 1965 to form an independent country. The island of Singapore is very urbanized, though some rainforest reservations still remain, which contrasts with the Singapore City of earlier times that only occupied part of the island.