Shaun Matthew Niyo-Ramdas A0097631Y A0097631@u.nus.edu / shaunmnramdas@gmail.com For NUS HY3256 Brides of the Sea Colonial Hotels as Microcosms of Empire Ports have always been at the heart of giant trading empires from time memorial. The 18 th century saw a huge expansion in the way ports function in the Asian trading world. No longer were they just locations from which sprawling European empires could use as transit points to transport their goods, but these ports soon became locations where new cultures coalesced to create entire societies unto themselves. Ports became places where social interactions occurred; a multitudes of peoples all engaging in a plethora of activities at the various hubs of activity in these littoral communities. One such hub of social activity in the port that I became fascinated with was the institution of colonial hotels in these port cities in the 18 th century. Hotels if measured by our present day yardsticks are institutions of luxury but back in their colonial heydays, these buildings often served as places for interaction between the orient and their very Caucasian masters. These very much colonial constructs became microcosms of the European imperial powers and their sprawling empires. Instead of traversing across the chasms of seas separating the different ports of calls in an empire, one need only check into one of these colonial hotels to understand the different social issues present throughout the empire. This paper seeks to explore the different social practices in these hotels spread throughout the colonial Asian ports. By exploring these issues, this paper hopes to provide a better understanding of the social issues present in Asian port cities and the colonial empires that they belonged to.