In the final stages of the Continental War, the British Government seized the opportunity while the Holy Roman Empire was too preoccupied to look east and took French Indochina in one sweep.
Cam Ranh Bay, the main base of the French Far East Fleet, changed hands along with it and became the main base of the British Royal Navy.
With Asia's foremost naval port in hand, the Royal Navy naturally had little regard for Singapore, the other major military stronghold.
Of course, that was only what they said. The real reason was that the British Government had reacted one step too slowly back then: Sumatra had been occupied by the Netherlands, while the Malay Peninsula had fallen under the control of the German Confederation, which Hanover dominated.
At the time, Britain was locked in a fierce struggle with France and Austria, while Hanover and the Netherlands were both their die-hard lackeys, so the British Government tacitly accepted the situation.
No one had expected the international situation to change so quickly. With a Continental War, France fell from the heavens, while the Holy Roman Empire rose from the ashes and completed its reunification once more.
Without question, the Malay Peninsula, as a colony of the German Confederation, naturally joined the Holy Roman Empire's great family as well.
A hegemon of continental Europe had emerged, and under the influence of geopolitics, the Netherlands Government, knowing which way the wind blew, naturally threw its lot in with the Holy Roman Empire.
In the blink of an eye, Singapore, once Britain's crucial Far Eastern naval port, no longer seemed so appealing.
Although the Strait of Malacca remained under the Royal Navy's control, both shores had become enemy spheres of influence.
With no lackeys to lean on, Singapore alone clearly could not sustain Britain's hegemony