Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In the late 15th century, Europeans began to
seek a direct role in the rich Asian trade. Chris-
topher Columbus famously failed to reach In-
dia by sailing west, but Portugal's Vasco da
Gama found the way around Africa in 1498. In
1511 Portugal conquered Melaka in its bid to
control the lucrative spice trade. As a result,
Muslim merchants moved much of their custom to Borneo's sultanates, and Brunei suc-
ceeded Melaka as the regional Islamic trading centre.
The British and Dutch began sparring over Borneo in the 17th century, extending a re-
gional rivalry that began in Java and spread to the Malay Peninsula. The Anglo-Dutch
Treaty of 1824 carved the region into spheres of commercial, political and linguistic influ-
ence that would turn into national boundaries in the 20th century. The Dutch got what be-
came Indonesia, while Britain got the Malay Peninsula and Singapore. At the time, neither
seemed much interested in Borneo.
The Venetian explorer Antonio Pigafetta, who
sailed with Ferdinand Magellan on his last voyage,
visited Brunei in 1521 and dubbed Kampung Ayer
water village the 'Venice of the East'.
Brunei: Empire in Decline
Under Sultan Bolkiah in the 16th century,
Brunei was Borneo's most powerful kingdom,
its influence extending from Kuching all the
way to the island of Luzon, now in the Philip-
pines. In subsequent centuries, however, facing
internal strife, rebellions and piracy, Brunei's
rulers repeatedly turned to foreigners, includ-
ing the Spanish, for help. In exchange for as-
sistance in suppressing an uprising in 1701, Brunei ceded Sabah to the Sultan of Sulu (an
archipelago between Borneo and Mindanao). That cession is the basis for ongoing Philip-
pine claims to Sabah.
Brunei's decline in the late 18th century led Sarawak to assert its independence, em-
boldened by a flourishing trade in antimony (
sarawak
in old Malay). In 1839 Brunei's
sultan dispatched his uncle Rajah Muda Hashim, but he failed to quell the separatists. See-
ing a chance to be rid of Bruneian rule, the rebels looked south for Dutch aid.
While maritime kingdoms and seafaring Europeans
were vying for control of coastal Borneo, indigen-
ous groups were developing their own societies
deep in the rainforest. We know little about their
history due to the lack of written records.
Sarawak's White Rajahs
In a case of impeccable timing, James Brooke, the independently wealthy, India-born (and
possibly gay) son of a British magistrate, moored his armed schooner at Kuching. Rajah
