Kuala Lumpur, the future capital of Malaysia, is founded as a tin mining settlement in 1857.

It is unknown who founded or named the settlement.

Chinese miners were involved in tin mining up the Selangor River in the 1840s about ten miles north of present-day Kuala Lumpur, and Mandailing Sumatrans led by Raja Asal and Sutan Puasa were also involved in tin mining and trade in the Ulu Klang region before 1860, and Sumatrans may have settled in the upper reaches of Klang River in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, possibly earlier.

Kuala Lumpur was originally a small hamlet of just a few houses and shops at the confluence of Sungai Gombak and Sungai Klang (Klang River) before it grew into a town.

It is generally accepted that Kuala Lumpur become established as a town circa 1857, when the Malay Chief of Klang, Raja Abdullah bin Raja Jaafar, aided by his brother Raja Juma'at of Lukut, raised funds from Malaccan Chinese businessmen to hire some Chinese miners from Lukut to open new tin mines here.

The miners landed at Kuala Lumpur and continued their journey on foot to Ampang where the first mine was opened.

Kuala Lumpur is the furthest point up the Klang River to which supplies can conveniently be brought by boat; it therefore becomes a collection and dispersal point serving the tin mines