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 chapterBritish policy from 1949 was to achieve a stable independent Malayan government that would continue to serve Britain's economic and strategic interests in the region. Negotiations were opened with moderate and conservative nationalist political leaders from the different ethnic communities.
United in their determination to achieve independence and defeat the Communists, an alliance of parties representing different ethnic groups emerged in the early 1950s.
The United Malays National Organisation, led from 1951 by Abdul Rahman (1903-1990), dominated this alliance. He began to unite Malaya's disparate communities, working in partnership with Tan Cheng Lock (1883-1960), leader of the Malayan Chinese Association founded in 1949, and the Malayan Indian Congress. The alliance won all but one seat in the 1955 Legislative Council Elections.
On 31 August 1957 Rahman became the first Prime Minister of the independent Federation of Malaya. In 1963 the colonies of Sabah (previously British North Borneo), Sarawak and Singapore were incorporated to establish the Federation of Malaysia. Singapore seceded in 1965. Brunei opted to remain separate as an independent British protectorate, finally becoming independent in 1984.
