history of Malaysia

British in the Malay Peninsula- The Straits Settlement

Pulau Pinang (Penang) 1786

The British East India Company had been longing desperately to muscle into sea commercial trade territories that were dominated by the Dutch East India Company- VOC. They have been kept at bay throughout the 17th-18th century. However the cards change hands with their success in Indian colonies and the decline of the Dutch, and the English once again muscle their campaign to control the lucrative spice islands.

The first piece of Malay Peninsula land that become Britain’s territory was Penang Island. In 1786, three vessels led by Captain Francis Light occupied Pulau Pinang (the Island of Betel-nut). Inhabited the island was a small number of Malays and at that time the island was part of the Kedah state territory. The Kedah Sultan (Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah), hoping to get an alliance from the British East India Company to defend Kedah sovereign state against re-invasion by Siam (modern-day Thailand), agreed to a permanent lease of the island. On the other side, the English company has no intention at all to defend Kedah, left that point vague, and continues carrying the occupation of the island. The Sultan attempted to recapture the island but failed. And in 1791 was forced to cede Penang, and again in 1800, the strip of the mainland coastline of Kedah opposite the island, Perai later being named Province Wellesley, both in exchange for a certain sum of money annually.

Singapura (Singapore) 1819

When Malacca was handed back to the Dutch in 1815, British Governor at that time, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles eagerly look for an alternative.

An opportunity for Britain when the Johor-Riau-Lingga was in the Game of Thrones when 2 royal brothers were in a dispute over one of who had the right to succeed the last Sultan. Being aware of the dispute, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles struck a deal with Tengku Hussein Shah in Singapore, acknowledged him as the legitimate successor of Johor’s throne, and proclaimed him the Sultan of Johor. Fluent in Malay, and serving as assistant secretary to the Governor of Penang at the age of 23, Raffles was indeed familiar with the region’s history and culture. He eventually served as Lieutenant-Governor in Java and wrote the book ‘History of Java‘. He managed to convince the newly proclaimed Sultan Hussein Shah to sign an official treaty on 6th February 1819 to give the British East India Company the right to operate a trading post in Singapore. Both the Sultan and Temenggung Abdul Rahman (Governor of Johor-Riau-Lingga Sultanate) would earn a handsome sum of money to uphold the treaty.

The Dutch heard the wind about the English establishment in Singapore and this led both parties to sign the Anglo-Dutch Treaty in 1824. This also marked the separation of the big Malay archipelago that led to modern-day Indonesia and Malaysia.

Malacca 1824

The Dutch colony of Malacca was ceded to the British in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 in exchange for the British possession of Bencoolen and for British rights in Sumatra. Malacca’s importance was in establishing an exclusive British zone of influence in the region, and it was overshadowed as a trading post by Penang, and later, Singapore.

Dinding

The Dindings — named after the Dinding River in present-day Manjung District — which comprised Pangkor Island, and the towns of Lumut and Sitiawan on the mainland, were ceded by Perak to the British government under the Pangkor Treaty of 1874. Hopes that its excellent natural harbor would prove to be valuable were doomed to disappointment, and the territory sparsely inhabited and altogether unimportant both politically and financially was returned to and administered by the government of Perak in February 1935.

In 1824 British hegemony in Malaya (before the name Malaysia) was formalized by the Anglo-Dutch Treaty, which divided the Malay archipelago between Britain and the Netherlands. The Dutch evacuated Malacca and renounced all interest in Malaya, while the British recognized Dutch rule over the rest of the East Indies. By 1826 the British controlled Penang, Malacca, Singapore, and the island of Labuan, which they established as the crown colony of the Straits Settlements, administered first under the East India Company until 1867 when they were transferred to the Colonial Office in London.

British Malaya-
Federated and the Un-Federated Malay States

Unlike the term British India, British Malaya is often referred to as the Federated and Unfederated Malay States, which were British protectorates with their own local Sultans, together with the Straits Settlements, which were under the sovereignty and direct rule of the British Crown, after a period of control under British East India Company.

The British were reluctant to acquire other commitments in the region, but periodic forays by Siam (now Thailand) into north Malay states, piracy supported by Malay rulers, and periodic conflicts between Malay rulers of tin-producing states and Chinese tin miners mobilized by Chinese secret societies all threatened British commercial interests and prompted the British to become increasingly involved in peninsular affairs. In the 1870s, the British adopted a system of indirect rule over Malay states that furnished the beginnings of a centralized state. In 1874 the British agreed to recognize and support a contender as the sultan of Pangkor in exchange for the sultan’s acceptance of a British representative, or “resident,” whose advice would be sought and followed on all issues except Malay custom and religion. British residents were later established in three other tin-producing states, which became known as “protected states.” In 1896 the Malay rulers of these states and Pangkor signed the Treaty of Federation, which established the Federated Malay States. Malay rulers were invited to provide input into the federation’s development, but in reality, the new constitutional arrangements were designed to provide an appearance of Malay rule while effectively reducing traditional rulers to mere decorous bystanders.

To streamline the administration of the Malay states, and especially to protect and further develop the lucrative trade in tin-mining and rubber, Britain sought to consolidate and centralize control by federating the four contiguous states of Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan, and Pahang into a new entity, the Federated Malay States (FMS), with Kuala Lumpur as its capital. The Residents-General administered the federation but compromised by allowing the Sultans to retain limited powers as the authority on Islam and Malay customs. Modern legislation was introduced with the creation of the Federal Council. Although the Sultans had less power than their counterparts in the Unfederated Malay States, the FMS enjoyed a much higher degree of modernization. Federalisation also brought benefits through cooperative economic development, as evident in the earlier period, when Pahang was developed through fiscal federalism, using fiscal equalization payment funds derived from the revenue of Selangor and Perak.

A different governing arrangement was established with other Malay states that were more independent of British control than the Federated Malay States. Siam tenuously controlled the northern countries of Kedah, Terengganu, Kelantan, and Perlis until a 1909 convention between Britain and Siam placed those countries under British influence.

The sultans of these states refused to join the confederation, but they did accept British advisors. Unlike residers, the counsels had no effective superintendent power and reckoned on tactfulness with the sultans for policy matters. The southern state of Johor also remained fairly independent of British influence until 1909, when the sultan accepted a British “ fiscal counsel ” with wide-ranging powers. therefore, by 1914 the Malay Peninsula was composed of 10 political realities the woe agreements, four Federated Malay States, and five Unfederated Malay States.

Initially, the British followed a policy of non-intervention in the relationship between the Malay states. The commercial importance of tin mining in the Malay states to merchants in the Straits Settlements led to infighting between the aristocracy on the peninsula. The destabilization of these states damaged the commerce in the area, causing British intervention. The wealth of Perak’s tin mines made political stability there a priority for British investors, and Perak was thus the first Malay state to agree to the supervision of a British resident. British gunboat diplomacy was employed to bring about a peaceful resolution to civil disturbances caused by Chinese and Malay gangsters employed in a political tussle between Ngah Ibrahim and Raja Muda Abdullah. The Pangkor Treaty of 1874 paved the way for the expansion of British influence in Malaya. The British concluded treaties with some Malay states, installing “residents” who advised the Sultans and soon became the effective rulers of their states. These advisors held power in everything except to do with Malay religion and customs.

Johore alone resisted, by modernizing and giving British and Chinese investors legal protection. By the turn of the 20th century, the states of Pahang, Selangor, Perak, and Negeri Sembilan, known together as the Federated Malay States, had British advisors. In 1909 the Siamese kingdom was compelled to cede Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, and Terengganu, which already had British advisors, over to the British. Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor and Queen Victoria were personal acquaintances and recognized each other as equals. It was not until 1914 that Sultan Abu Bakar’s successor, Sultan Ibrahim accepted a British adviser. The four previously Thai states and Johor were known as the Unfederated Malay States. The states under the most direct British control developed rapidly, becoming the largest suppliers in the world of first tin, then rubber.

This period of slow consolidation of power into a centralized government and compromise—the Sultans retained their reign but do not rule in their states—would have a great impact on the later road to nationhood. It effectively marked the transition of the idea of Malay states from a collection of separate lands governed by their own different feudal rulers, toward a federation with a Westminster-style constitutional monarchy. This became the accepted model for the future Federation of Malaya and ultimately Malaysia, distinguishing the nation throughout the Asian continent, whereby most other countries adopted stricter, heavily centralized unitary state administrations.

Read more about British in Malaya