History of Malaysia

The current Malaysia results from the entry into 1963 of the British territories of Borneo become independent, Sabah and Sarawak, in the Federation of Malaysia, itself become independent in 1957.

Until the 15th century

One found in the valley of Bujang of the Hindu-Buddhist vestiges which one dated from Ve century after J. - C.

The Nagarakertagama , a poem epic writes in 1365 in the kingdom java are born from Majapahit, mentions, among some hundred " regions tributaires" kingdom, names of Kalanten (Kelantan), Keda (Kedah), Kelang (Klang in the State de Selangor), Lengkasuka (Langkasuka), Pahang and Tringgano (Terengganu). Actually, the territory controlled by Majapahit did not extend that on part of the east and center of Java. " regions tributaires" were in fact of the counters forming a sales network whose Majapahit was the center. Majapahit sent to it dignitaries of which the role was to make sure that these counters were not devoted to a private trade which would escape the kingdom.

According to the tradition, Parameswara, a prince of Palembang in the south of Sumatra, refusing the suzerainty of Majapahit, takes refuge on the island of Temasek (current the Singapore) then is finally established on the west coast of the Malayan Péninsule towards 1400 and founds Malacca. A Chinese mission goes to Malacca in 1403.

Located in a point of required passage for the maritime exchanges between the India and the China which control the Moslem merchants, Malacca becomes the most important port of Southeast Asia. The Moslem Chinese Lord High Admiral Zheng He, which will carry out seven forwardings towards India, the Middle East and the East Africa between 1405 and 1433, makes several times stopover in Malacca. The sovereigns of Malacca convert with Islam.

An inscription with Pengkalan Kempas in the Negeri Sembilan testifies to the transition taking place in the country. Written in Malayan, it consists of two parts. One is in a writing of Indian origin similar to that of two found tomb stones with Minye Tujuh in Aceh, in the north of Sumatra. This part carries the date of 1385 of the Hindu era Saka, that is to say 1463 after J. - C. the other is written in Arabic alphabet.

The arrival of Europeans (16th century and 17th century)

At the 16th century, the Européens attracted by the trade of spices arrived after having sought the road of the Eastern Indies to supplant the Arab monopoly of the trade. The Portuguese, the Dutch and the Britanniques successively disputed the control of the strait.

In 1511, a Portuguese fleet started from Goa to India under the command of the viceroy Afonso de Albuquerque, seizes Malacca. The Mahmud sultan moves his court in several places of the peninsula, for finally founding Johor with the southern point in 1518. Johor will on several occasions try to reconquer Malacca, without success. In 1536, does a Portuguese attack inflict such losses with Johor that the sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah I (reign 1529-64?) must treat with them.

The prosperity of Malacca rested on a sales network in which the Portuguese are not able to be integrated. Malacca périclite quickly.

The kingdom of Aceh in the north of Sumatra manages to collect a big part of the activity of the Moslem merchants. XVIe and XVIIe centuries will be marked by the competition between Aceh and Johor, which try both to take again Malacca with the Portuguese.

Like other Europeans, the English sought to have an direct access with the producing spice areas, the archipelago of the Moluques. In 1591, James Lancaster obtains the authorization of the Queen Elizabeth Ière to undertake the first English forwarding towards the archipelago Indonesia N. He goes in Aceh and to Penang, in the sultanate of Kedah, but the voyage is a catastrophe. The English Compagnie of the Indies Orientales is founded in 1600.

Combined in Johor, which hopes to reconquer Malacca, the Dutchmen take in their turn the city in 1641. To ensure their provisioning of tin, they make then a series of trade agreements with several States of the peninsula, of which in particular Kedah in 1642, Ujung Salang in 1643 and Perak, where they establish a station. In 1651, the garrison of Perak is attacked and destroyed by the Malayan ones. In 1660, the VOC gives up Ujung Salang.

British establishment (18th century and 19th century)

The XVIIIe century is characterized by the aimings of the Burmese of the kingdom of Ava and the Siam ois of the kingdom of Ayutthaya on the Malayan Péninsule, of which they are separate only by the Isthme of Kra. At the time, the sultanate of Terengganu is vassal kingdom of Siam. The sultan of Kedah yields Penang to the English Company of the Indies Orientales in 1786 in exchange of a military protection against the Burmese and Siamese threat. The captain Francis Light founds there a military station and a commercial counter.

The Company makes in 1761 an agreement with the sultanate of Sulu (in the south of the Filipino current), which in 1703 had obtained from the sultan of Brunei, in recognition of a help to fight a rebellion, territories in the north of Borneo. The English establish a counter there.

In 1795, the king Guillaume V of Holland takes refuge in England in front of the invasion of the French Armies. From England, it sends a series of instructions to its administrators so that they yield the Dutch territories to England. The English occupy Malacca.

In 1818 Lord Minto, governor-general of the India, authorizes Thomas Stamford Raffles, lieutenant-governor of Bengkulu in the south of Sumatra, to establish a commercial counter with the southern point of the peninsula. Raids negotiates with the sultan of Johor and obtains the transfer of the island of Temasek, where it founds Singapore in 1819. The development of this new colony very quickly will exceed that of Penang.

In 1821, Siam invades Kedah and creates the sultanate of Perlis by detaching it from Kedah.

By the Treated of London of 1824 , the Dutchmen yield finally Malacca to the English. This treaty devotes the division of the Malayan Monde in two parts, between future the Malaysia and Indonesia.

In 1826 Malacca, Penang and Singapore, under the name of Straits Settlements (" establishments of the Strait "), are placed under the administration of the English Company of the Eastern Indies, whose seat is with Calcutta in the the British Indies. The sultanate of Johor, which had preserved the seat of its government at Singapore, reinstalls it on the peninsula.

In 1839 an English of the name of James Brooke (1803-68) buys, with his modest heritage, a yacht which it arms and with which it leaves for Singapore. From there, it goes to Borneo in search of adventure. It is put at the service of a prince of the sultanate of Brunei, in prey with a civil war. In 1841, it is rewarded while being named Rajah (governor) for the area for Kuching. It is the starting point of an extraordinary private empire which Brooke and its two successors, the rajah white , will extend.

The administration of the colonies is transferred to London in 1867. At that time, the attitude of the British with regard to the Malayan States becomes more aggressive. In the ten years space the majority of the Malaysian Western coast fell under British influence.

At the beginning of the XIXe century, the Napoleonean wars had involved a recession of the activity of Europeans in Southeast Asia. It allows the Moslem merchants, Malais of the Détroit of Malacca and the coasts of Borneo and inhabitants of Sulu and Mindanao, to develop an active trade again. With the end of the Napoleonean wars, Europeans find their ambitions in the area. Antagonism is inevitable with the Moslem trade. This period gave rise to the image of the " pirate malais" whose novels of Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) will be still made the echo at the end of the XIXe century.

The traders of these counters saw the British government intervening in their business, in particular in the producing Malayan tin States. The Malayan sultans refused that their subjects are employed by the foreigners. The British administration must thus resort to the immigration of labor. Thousands of Coolie S from China worked in the mines then quickly were established as traders. The exploitation of the palm plantations required the importation of Indians come especially from the South of India. The Indians of North were selected as substitutes for the administration and the police force. This policy explains the diversity of the populations in Malaysia of today.

These racist policies and classists were quickly denounced. Following the disturbances created by the Chinese secret societies and the civil war, the British diplomacy of the Canonnière had to be used to arrive to a resolution which supported the traders.

British protectorate

Finally, in 1874, the English sign the Traité of Pangkor with the sultanate of Perak, where they install a resident. It is the beginning of the British intervention in the businesses of the Malayan states. The English also install residents in the sultanates of the Negeri Sembilan and Selangor.

In 1877, the sultan of Sulu (southern of current the Filipino) gives in lease to British North Borneo Chartered Company his possessions in the north of Borneo. The company deals with the administration of this territory, as well as others obtained from the sultan of Brunei, in 1881. Borneo of North becomes British protectorate in 1888. This same year, the English name a resident near the sultan of Pahang.

They push the sultans of Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak and Selangor to form the “Malayan States federate” ( Federated Malay States ) in 1896, under the supervision of a British High-Commissioner installed in Singapore, which is also governor of the three colonies or Straits Settlements .

Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu, is always vassal Siam. In these sultanates, that with Johor the English call “States Malais not-federate”, they detach from the " conseillers" , but not in Johor. Kelantan becomes in its vassal turn of Siam in 1900. By the anglo-Siamese Treated of 1909 , Siam yields finally Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Terengganu in England. In 1910, the British detach finally a " conseiller" near the sultan of Johor. The nine Malayan States of the peninsula are from now on under British protectorate.

Rupture of the Second world war and genesis of Malaysia

After the occupation Japan ease of the Second world war, the feeling of independence became increasingly popular, encouraged by the communist Insurrection. In 1946, the British join together these nine States and the " British Settlements" of Malacca and Penang in only one colony, l'" Malayan Union " ( Malayan Union ). This Union thus does not include Singapore, that the British until had however regarded there by as part of Malaysia. One can think that his population, with 80 % Chinese, refused the Malayan prépondérence in such a union.

This same year, the protectorate of Borneo of North becomes colony of the Crown. Charles Vyner Brooke, great nephew of James, abdicate and Sarawak becomes also colony of the Crown.

In front of the opposition of the Malayan nationalists, the Union dissolved and is replaced in 1948 by a " Federation of Malaisie" (in English Federation off Malaya , in Malayan Persekutuan Tanah Melayu ), which restores the position symbolic system of the sovereigns of the Malayan States. Within this federation, the Malayan States are protectorates United Kingdom, whereas Malacca and Penang remain colonies crown. The federation imposes a single citizenship, in order to make sure honesty of the Chinese and suspectés Indians of a very measured patriotism.

The Federation of Malaysia becomes independent within the framework of the Commonwealth in 1957. In 1963, the federation joins the British colonies Singapore, Borneo of North (famous Sabah) and Sarawak to form a new federation called Malaysia (in French however, the name of " Malaysia " was preserved to indicate the new federation). Singapore separates from Malaysia in 1965 to become an independent republic.

The Confrontation Indonesia-Malaysia

From 1959 to 1962, the British, Malaysia, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak negotiate in order to create a widened federation. This project is denounced by the president indonésien Soekarno, who declares that Malaysia is a marionette creation of the British which will increase their control on the area, threatening independence of Indonesia. On their side, the Filipino assert Sabah, under pretext that this territory had belonged to the sultanate of Sulu at the 18th century. The two countries are based on an opinion widespread anti-federation in Sarawak and Brunei.

In Brunei, a revolt bursts on December 8th, 1962, constant by Indonesia. British troops and gurkha stationed in Singapore are sent. The commander of the rebels is captured on April 17th, 1963 and the rebellion ends. At once, of the " volontaires" indonésiens penetrates with the Sarawak and Sabah, being devoted to attacks and actions of sabotage and propaganda. The July 27th, Soekarno declares that it goes " to crush Malaisie" ( " Ganyang Malaysia" ). Mid- 1965, the armed forces indonésiennes cross the border in direction of the oriental party of the island of Sebatik close to Tawau in Sabah. The climbing towards an open conflict of greater width was probably avoided only because of the increase in the internal political tensions in Indonesia.

See also: Confrontation Indonesia-Malaysia

Beyond the ethnic lines?

The UMNO ( United Malay National Organization , which gathered the whole of the parties Malayan, the MCA ( Malayan Chinese Association , its Chinese equivalent) and the MIC ( Malayan Indian Congress of the Indians) had formed in 1955 a baptized coalition " Alliance". But years 1960 are remembered by a rise of the tensions between a poor Malayan majority and a Chinese minority holding the keys commercial. In 1969, the electoral failure of Alliance is followed racial riots in Kuala Lumpur. The government declares the state of emergency.

In order to leave ethnic and economic cleavages, gouvernment the lance in 1970 the New Economic Policy (" new policy économique") or NEP with for objective at 20 years of:

To raise the share of the shareholding of the Bumiputera (" wire of the sol" , i.e. the Malayan ones) from 2 to 30%, the other Malaysian ones from 35 to 40%, to reduce that from abroad from 63 to 30%
To eliminate the bond between ethnos group and economic function
Éradiquer poverty.

In 1990, the assessment of the NEP is mitigated, the share of the Bumiputera is assembled only to 20%. That of the other Malaysian ones it also increased, instead of being reduced, passing to 55%. The losers are the foreigners, from which the share fell to 25%.

From now on the government preaches the national unit and wishes to promote a nation " malaisienne" who transcends the current definitions (Malayan, Chinese, Indiens, others). One of the reasons of the adoption of the name of " Malaysia" during its formation in 1963 was besides to exceed the ethnic reference of " Tanah Melayu " (" Malaisie"), name of the Federation until 1963. However the policies of positive discrimination based on ethnic criteria contradict this aspiration.

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