the british advance

8/9/2019 The British Advance

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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 respectivespheres of influence in maritime Southeast Asia.

Making Melaka Straits a frontier, the British took

the Peninsula as their preserve while the Dutchtook Sumatra and all islands to the south of

Singapore.


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North Borneo was not mentioned though Britishinterests would claim later with Dutch protests,that the terms of the 1824 treaty made that areaa British sphere of influence too.

The 1824 treaty effectively determined the future

boundaries of the British and Dutch colonialpossessions in the region and the nation stateswhich emerged from the colonial era, Malaysiaand Indonesia.

In the 1820s the British had no intention ofentangling themselves in the Peninsula satisfied with the Straits Settlements, asSingapore, Melaka, and Penang became known

from 1826.


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The rulers of Johor, closest to Singapore, proved

capable to a major expansion of Chinesecommercial agriculture in their state, principally

in pepper and gambier.

Kedah was also well governed and able to copewith 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.


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Endemic feuding developed within the rulingclasses of Perak, Selangor and Negeri Sembilanover the control of vast tin deposits which beganto be worked in the 1840s.

Tin was mined by Chinese controlled by secretsocieties and rival Malay chiefs alignedthemselves with the forces of rival secretsocieties.

Rival business houses in the Straits settlementsbacked one side or the other with money andguns.


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By the 1860s these states were in anarchy anddemands for official British intervention grew.

The Pangkor Engagement (Treaty) signed onthe 20th January, 1874 between the British andcertain Malay chiefs of Perak marked thebeginning of intervention and colonial rule in thestate.

Under the treaty it was agreed, that the Sultanreceived and provide a suitable residence of a

British Officer to be called Resident, who shallbe accredited to his court, and whose advicemust be asked and acted upon on all questionsother than those touching Malay religion andcustom.


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Another clause of the treaty which favored theBritish was in the sphere of taxes it was

agreed that the collection and control of all

revenues and the general administration of the

country be regulated under the advise of theseResidents.

These two clauses in effect brought the entire

governing of the state by colonial administratorsand terminated the rights of the traditional ruling

class.


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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.


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After the establishment of the FMS, British

influence was systematically extended to the fiveremaining states of Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan,Trengganu and finally Johor, in 1914 thesecame to be known as the Unfederated Malay

States (UMS).Events leading to the formation of UMS in1909 Thailand relinquished its imperial claims tothe northern Malay states of Kedah, Perlis,

Kelantan and Trengganu, and Britain moved toinstall Advisers in these states.


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In 1914 Johor was also obliged to accept anAdviser, despite its long record of satisfactory

administration.

By the second decade of the 20th century the

British had begun to talk about Malaya the

term distinguishing a constitutional hotch-potch

of the Crown colony (the SS) and nine protected

sovereign states, four of them federated and fivenot.


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In northern Borneo two unique expressions of

British colonialism emerged at the expense ofthe sultanate of Brunei.

Brunei was impoverished in the 19th century andfurther weakened by bitter factionalism within its

ruling class.In 1840 a British adventurer, James Brooke, wasrecruited to quell a revolt in the Sarawak riverregion, at the sultanates western extremity.

Between 1841 and 1843 Brooke acquired fullpossession of the region and made Kuching hisbase.


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From there he and his nephew and successor asWhite Rajah Charles Brooke (ruler 1868-1917)expanded their territory eastward, establishingSarawaks final borders shortly after the turn ofthe century.

Brunei would be left as two small enclaves withinSarawak.

Several factors propelled Brooke expansionism,the most important being Bruneis poverty and

the dispersal of power in the sultanate, whichmade the piecemeal acquisition of territory forsmall sums relatively easy.


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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 whendealing with Brunei.

From the 1850s British support was withheld

from the Brookes, for fear that such privateimperial ventures might embarrass Britain, but

this made no difference.


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The Brookes had their own source of intimidatingpower large contingents of Dayak warriors.

They also had an idealistic rationale for theiradvance, believing that they were developing aunique experiment in efficient and benevolent

government for native peoples.Competition would add further urgency toCharles expansionism from the 1870s.

In 18877-78 a British business consortium

acquired the rights to most of the territory ofSabah from Brunei and from the Sultanate ofSulu in what is now in the Southern Philippines.


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Here was the origin of a dormant but still

unresolved dispute over Sabah between thePhilippines and Malaysia.

The Philippines, as successor state to Sulu,

claims that Sulu merely leased rather thanceded its rights in Sabah.

By 1881 the business consortium had persuaded

the British government to charter a company,

financed by shares, to administer the Sabahanterritories, hopefully at a profit.


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Thus Sabah became British North Borneo

governed by the British North Borneo CharteredCompany.

Charles Brookes was outraged during the

1880s and 1890s there was fierce competitionbetween 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.


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In 1906Brunei received a British Adviser withpowers 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.

the british advance

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