Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
188
grew in population and prosperity, attract-
ing Chinese, Indian, and Arab traders.
With Arabs and M uslim Indians came
Islam, and I skander Shah's son, who took
leadership of M elaka after his father 's
death, is cr edited as the first M alay to
convert to the ne w r eligion. The r ule of
Melaka was transformed into a sultanate,
and the wor d of I slam won conv erts not
only in M alaya, but thr oughout Borneo
and the Indonesian archipelago.
EUROPEAN INFLUENCES
(16TH-19TH CENTURIES)
Melaka's success was not without admirers,
and in 1511, the P ortuguese decided they
wanted a piece of the action. They con-
quered the city in 30 days, chased the
sultanate south to J ohor, built a for tress
that forestalled any trouble from the popu-
lace, and set up Christian missions. The
Portuguese stuck around until 1641, when
the D utch came to to wn, looking to
expand their trading po wer in the r egion.
After M elaka's fall to the P ortuguese, its
success plummeted and was nev
the British East India Company to British
colonial rule in London.
The Anglo-Dutch treaty never provided
for the island of Borneo . The Dutch sort
of took over Kalimantan, but the ar eas to
the nor thwest w ere generally held under
the rule of the Sultan of Brunei. Sabah was
ceded for an annual sum to the B ritish
North Borneo Company , r uled b y Lon-
don until the J apanese inv aded during
World War II. In 1839, Englishman James
Brooke arrived in S arawak. The Sultan of
Brunei had been having a har d time with
warring factions in this territor y and was
happy to hand contr ol over to Brooke. In
1841, after winning allies and subjugating
enemies, Brooke became the Raja of S ara-
wak, building his capital in Kuching.
Meanwhile, back on the peninsula,
Kuala Lumpur sprang to life in 1857 as a
settlement at the cr ook of the Klang and
Gombak riv ers, about 35km (22 miles)
inland fr om the w est coast. Tin miners
from I ndia, China, and other par ts of
Malaya came inland to prospect and set up
a trading post, which flourished. I n 1896,
it became the capital of the ritish Malayan
territory.
er
regained.
The British came sniffing around in the
late 1700s, when Francis Light of the Brit-
ish East I ndia Company landed on the
island of P enang and cut a deal with the
Sultan of K edah to cede it to the B ritish.
By 1805, P enang had become the seat of
British authority in S outheast Asia, but
the establishment ser ved less as a trading
cash cow and more as political lev erage in
the race to beat out the D utch for control
of the S outheast Asian trade r outes. I n
1824, the British and Dutch finally signed
a treaty dividing Southeast Asia. The Brit-
ish would hav e M alaya, and the D utch,
Indonesia. Dutch-ruled Melaka was traded
for British-ruled Bencoolen in Sumatra. In
1826, the B ritish East I ndia Company
formed the S traits S ettlements, uniting
Penang, Malacca (Melaka), and Singapore
under P enang's contr ol. I n 1867, po wer
over the S traits S ettlements shifted fr om
10
WORLD WAR II & MALAY-
SIAN INDEPENDENCE
In 1941, the J apanese conquer ed M alaya
en r oute to S ingapore. Life for M alayans
during the 4-y ear occupation was a con-
stant and almost unbearable str uggle to
survive hunger , disease, and separation
from the world. After the war , when the
British sought to r eclaim their colonial
sovereignty o ver M alaya, they found the
people thor oughly fed up with for eign
rule. The struggle for independence united
Malay and non-M alay residents through-
out the countr y. B y the time the B ritish
agreed to M alayan independence, the
states were already united. On August 31,
1957, M alaya was cut loose, and K uala
Lumpur became its official capital. F or a
brief moment in the early 1960s, the
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