Trace and Tell your Family's Empire Stories
Country Histories
Malaysia is divided in two parts, geographically separated by the South China Sea. West Malaysia lies on the Malay Peninsula south of Thailand, while East Malaysia lies along the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Malaysia's coastlines border one of the oldest, wealthiest and busiest trading routes of the world and its development has been shaped by the Indian, Chinese, Arab and European civilisations that traded in the region over the centuries.
The end of British rule in the region was made inevitable by Japanese occupation during the Second World War. A successful war of counter-insurgency, known as the Malay Emergency, was fought against Malayan Chinese Communists between 1948 and 1960. Independence followed rapidly under a conservative constitution that protected western access to Malaysia's many valuable natural resources.
Browser by chapter
View over a section of the Suez Canal where numerous ships are moored in the busy waters. Egypt, circa 1890. Copyright Images of Empire.
Trading ports were one thing, but British investment in Malaya's rich mineral resources was hampered by chronic political instability. These problems increased as Chinese immigrants fleeing poverty at home arrived in larger numbers, establishing their own communities primarily based on mining and mineral extraction.
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 greatly increased Britain's capacity to rule its eastern Empire. A variety of means were employed to this end. A system of indirect rule of the peninsular sultanates was established, comparable to the pattern of the Raj in India. Cultural and religious traditions were protected, as were the symbolic powers of the sultans. These alliances enabled British influence to predominate with only a small number of Resident Ministers and administrators.
In British North Borneo the pattern was somewhat different. Sir James Brooke (1803-68) was appointed Raja of Sarawak by the Sultan of Brunei in 1841 as a reward for his assistance during an armed revolt. The Brooke family ruled Sarawak for the following century as an independent state under British protection. Sabah was run as a protectorate by the British North Borneo Company from 1841 and Brunei became a British government protectorate in 1888.
