The British Advance

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THE BRITISH ADVANCE
The 19th Century

In 1819 the East India Company acquired Singapore island from Johor. In 1824 an Anglo-Dutch treaty delivered Melaka into British hands too, as part of the delineation by the two European powers of their respective spheres of influence in maritime Southeast Asia. Making Melaka Straits a frontier, the British took the Peninsula as their preserve while the Dutch took Sumatra and all islands to the south of Singapore.

North Borneo was not mentioned though British interests would claim later with Dutch protests, that the terms of the 1824 treaty made that area a British sphere of influence too. The 1824 treaty effectively determined the future boundaries of the British and Dutch colonial possessions in the region and the nation states which emerged from the colonial era, Malaysia and Indonesia. In the 1820s the British had no intention of entangling themselves in the Peninsula ± satisfied with the Straits Settlements, as Singapore, Melaka, and Penang became known from 1826.

The Straits settlements remained under the East India Company until 1858 when te government of British India took over. In 1867 they were transferred to the control of the British Colonial Office. The Straits Settlements boomed and Western and Chinese business interests became interested in exploiting the Peninsula states. The question arose of whether the states¶ traditional administrative structures would be able to cope with the pressures arising from the new economic ventures.

The rulers of Johor, closest to Singapore, proved capable to a major expansion of Chinese commercial agriculture in their state, principally in pepper and gambier. Kedah was also well governed and able to cope with spill-over pressures from Penang. The ruling groups of other states proved less adroit. Pahang experienced civil war between 1858 and 1863, partly over spoils arising from expanding ventures in mining and jungle produce.

Endemic feuding developed within the ruling classes of Perak, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan over the control of vast tin deposits which began to be worked in the 1840s. Tin was mined by Chinese controlled by secret societies and rival Malay chiefs aligned themselves with the forces of rival secret societies. Rival business houses in the Straits settlements backed one side or the other with money and guns.

By the 1860s these states were in anarchy and demands for official British intervention grew. The Pangkor Engagement (Treaty) signed on the 20th January, 1874 between the British and certain Malay chiefs of Perak marked the beginning of intervention and colonial rule in the state. Under the treaty it was agreed, ³that the Sultan received and provide a suitable residence of a British Officer to be called Resident, who shall be accredited to his court, and whose advice must be asked and acted upon on all questions other than those touching Malay religion and custom.´

Another clause of the treaty which favored the British was in the sphere of taxes ± it was agreed that ³the collection and control of all revenues and the general administration of the country be regulated under the advise of these Residents´. These two clauses in effect brought the entire governing of the state by colonial administrators and terminated the rights of the traditional ruling class.

Subsequent to the installation of the Resident in Perak, British intervention spread to other Malay states. Between 1974 and 1889, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, and Pahang came under their control. In 1896, these four states came to be known as the Federated Malay States (FMS) with their capital in Kuala Lumpur, which was also the administrative center for Selangor.

After the establishment of the FMS, British influence was systematically extended to the five remaining states of Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, Trengganu and finally Johor, in 1914 ± these came to be known as the Unfederated Malay States (UMS). Events leading to the formation of UMS ± in 1909 Thailand relinquished its imperial claims to the northern Malay states of Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Trengganu, and Britain moved to install Advisers in these states.

In 1914 Johor was also obliged to accept an Adviser, despite its long record of satisfactory administration. By the second decade of the 20th century the British had begun to talk about µMalaya¶ ± the term distinguishing a constitutional hotch-potch of the Crown colony (the SS) and nine protected sovereign states, four of them federated and five not.

In northern Borneo two unique expressions of British colonialism emerged at the expense of the sultanate of Brunei. Brunei was impoverished in the 19th century and further weakened by bitter factionalism within its ruling class. In 1840 a British adventurer, James Brooke, was recruited to quell a revolt in the Sarawak river region, at the sultanate¶s western extremity. Between 1841 and 1843 Brooke acquired full possession of the region and made Kuching his base.

From there he and his nephew and successor as µWhite Rajah¶ Charles Brooke (ruler 1868-1917) expanded their territory eastward, establishing Sarawak¶s final borders shortly after the turn of the century. Brunei would be left as two small enclaves within Sarawak. Several factors propelled Brooke expansionism, the most important being Brunei¶s poverty and the dispersal of power in the sultanate, which made the piecemeal acquisition of territory for small sums relatively easy.

In addition, in the 1840s the British navy saw James Brooke as an ally in its efforts to stamp out piracy in Southeast Asian waters. Brooke was backed on several occasions by intimidating displays of British naval power when dealing with Brunei. From the 1850s British support was withheld from the Brookes, for fear that such private imperial ventures might embarrass Britain, but this made no difference.

The Brookes had their own source of intimidating power ± large contingents of Dayak warriors. They also had an idealistic rationale for their advance, believing that they were developing a unique experiment in efficient and benevolent government for native peoples. Competition would add further urgency to Charles¶ expansionism from the 1870s. In 18877-78 a British business consortium acquired the rights to most of the territory of Sabah from Brunei and from the Sultanate of Sulu in what is now in the Southern Philippines.

Here was the origin of a dormant but still unresolved dispute over Sabah between the Philippines and Malaysia. The Philippines, as successor state to Sulu, claims that Sulu merely µleased¶ rather than µceded¶ its rights in Sabah. By 1881 the business consortium had persuaded the British government to charter a company, financed by shares, to administer the Sabahan territories, hopefully at a profit.

Thus Sabah became µBritish North Borneo¶ governed by the British North Borneo Chartered Company. Charles Brookes was outraged ± during the 1880s and 1890s there was fierce competition between him and the Chartered Company over the Brunei territories that remained unceded. In 1888 Britain moved to guarantee that at least the core lands of the Sultanate should survive, making Brunei a British protectorate.

In 1906Brunei received a British Adviser with powers similar to those of Residents in the Peninsular states. By then Brunei had new-found economic significance; large oil deposits had been located in Brunei Bay.

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