The Colonization Era

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MPW 1133

MALAYSIAN STUDIES

THE COLONIAL ERA

CLASS: PM 2

Lecturer: Mr. Irwan Kurniawan

Session: January 2012


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Group Members

Name Class ID

Low Brittany (L) PM2 1201A18323

Ser Suk Lan PM2 1201A18321

Caroshini A/P Paramesvaran PM2 1201A18531

Goh Wen Suen PM2 1201A18191


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Table Of Contents

Content

1. Introduction

2. Chapter 1: The Portuguese Colonization Era

3. Chapter 2: The Dutch Colonization Era

4. Chapter 3: The British Colonization Era

5. Conclusion

6. The Video: The Colonial Era

7. References


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INTRODUCTION

Malaysia was once a colonised land. Although it is classified as one of

the Commonwealth countries, that is, as a former British colony, it was

subjugated by other powers for approximately 446 years (from 1511 until1957). The Portuguese, Dutch, British, Japanese and even the Siamese


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had colonized the country before, but only the British and the Japanese

succeeded in colonizing almost the whole country and left an impact on

the people. The others merely concentrated on certain states. The colonial

era reflects the attraction of the country and of the Malay Archipelago to

the foreign countries (the West in particular).


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CHAPTER 1:

THE PORTUGUESECOLONIZATION ERA

Portuguese was among the first Europeans to ever set sail to the eastern

part of the world in the 15th century. Gospel, Gold and Glory was a very

influential slogan that was used by Prince Henry, a sailor who had oncebuilt sailing schools in Portugal. Gospel refers to the spreading of


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Christianity. Gold refers to wealth and maritime trade. Glory on the

other hand refers to the pride received when the Portuguese are able to

discover a new route leading to the east.

Bartholomew Diaz successfully reached the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.

Vasco de Gama arrived in India ten years later. Lopez de Sequiera sailed

to Malacca in 1509. Spices such as pepper, cinnamon and star anise were

main profits for traders and merchants during the 15 th century. Western

countries needed them most to help in food flavouring as well as to

preserve meats during winter. The Portuguese saw this as an excellent

opportunity to colonize Malacca in order to control the trading of spices.

The Portuguese intentions were soon short lived when the Sultan of

Malacca, Sultan Mahmud Shah found out about it and decided to captureLopez de Sequiera and his associates.

In 1950, the king of Portugal sent a troop of armies led by Alfonso de

Albuquerque to attack Malacca. However, in order to avoid war,

Albuquerque approached Sultan Mahmud Shah and asked him to fulfil

three of his demands. The demands included the release of all Portuguese

national and permission to build a fort in Malacca. Albuquerque onto

Malacca declared war when the Sultan ignored his demands without

consideration. Malacca fell to the hands of the Portuguese on 24th of

August 1511 after several attacks. The Sultan and his royal family had toleave Malacca and soon settled in a nearby state.

Although, the Portuguese did conquer Malacca, their ultimate objective

was not completely achieved because the locals often attacked them. The

colonization however succeeded in bringing about the downfall of the

Malay Kingdom of Malacca and led to start of the new kingdom, the

Johor-Riau Malay Kingdom.


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CHAPTER 2:

THE DUTCHCOLONIZATION ERA

On 14th

of January 1641, the Dutch took possession from the Portugueseof the fortress of Malacca, with the help of their ally the sultan of Johor.


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The Dutch had treaties with the Johor Sultans to get rid of the Portuguese.

The Malays were confident of a victory, that with the help of the Dutch,

they would regain the Malacca throne. But this was not the Dutchs aim.

After the capture, the Dutch set up a government. Malacca was vital for

the VOC strategies, as the city was situated on the main trade route to the

Far East (Spice islands, China and Japan) and was a formidable strategic

outpost. A short time later after the conquest of Malacca, the Dutch made

trading agreements with several states of the Malay Peninsula, so as to

obtain tin. For this reason, a Dutch outpost was established at Perak, but

in 1651, the garrison was killed and the Malays destroyed the outpost. In

1660, even the factory established at Ujung Salang was abandoned.

In 1650s, the Dutch as the administrative centre and home of the

Governor of Malacca builds a great imposing building, the Stadhuys. By

the 1660s, the trade at Dutch Malacca was in decline and the relations

with the Malay states had deteriorated as well. The Dutch had a factory at

Bengkalis at the mouth of the Siak river (Sumatra). From here they

controlled the tin trade. The trade at Siak was vital for Malacca and for

the Malacca Free burghers community, a community of Dutch and

Portuguese descendants intermarried with the local people. The dutycollected on their Siak trade was an important share of Malaccas

revenue.

Perak was the main producing kingdom in the whole Peninsula and the

VOC was interested in controlling its trade. For this reason, a Dutch

outpost was established from 1670 to 1690 at Teluk Gedung, Pulau

Pangkor. This fort was re-occupied by the Dutch in 1746 and later in the

same year, the fort was moved upstream to Tanjung Putus.


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Malaccas trade quickly declined after Dutch conquest. In fact, the citys

prosperity was supported by free trade. However, to the contrary, the

VOC wanted the monopoly on all goods. Malaccas decline was due to

the fact that, while under the Portuguese rule, the city was behind Goa,

the main Portuguese base in the east. Under the Dutch, Batavia was the

main eastern base of the VOC and the company had no interest in

developing Malaccas trade to the detriment of that of Batavia. The

Sultan of Johor took advantage of all this by opening his seaport of Riau

to all ships and commerce.

During the 17th century, Johor was a powerful force in the Straits. The

trade of Riau had far surpassed that of Malacca. The VOC maintained its

alliance with Johor, despite the incontinent of Malacca, for the Dutch

East India Company. The strength of Johor was seen as safeguard to the

peaceful trade in the straits. The only importance of Malacca, for theDutch, was that it was situated in a very strategic point and they did not

want Malacca to fall into any other European hands; this is why the

Dutch remained. During the period of Dutch rule, Malacca had a garrison

of usually less than 550 Dutchmen.

In 1710, St.Peters Church is built. It is still oldest functioning Christian

church in Malaysia. In the 1720s, a new power came in the scene; the

Bugis. They were and are the main ethnic group of the southwestern

coastal region of Sulawesi. After Dutch conquest of the Sultan of

Makassar, several groups of Bugis emigrated from Makassar and settlednear Malacca in them 1710s. In 1722, the Bugis captured the port of


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Riau and the whole kingdom of Johor. The Bugis developed not only the

port of Riau but also that of Selangor (north of Malacca).

In 1746, the Sultan of Johor gave the Siak Kingdom, as a gift to the VOC.That same year, agreements were made with the Peninsular Kingdom of

Naning, Rembau and Perak. In Perak, the Dutch fort was reoccupied.

With these agreements the prosperity of Malacca was improved.

However, the Bugis were a constant threat to the Dutch. Their leader,

Daeng Kamboja, made Linggi his base and, from October 1756 till July,

besieged Dutch Malacca. In February 1757, help arrived from Batavia

and the Bugis were forced to drop the attack. In that year, the Dutch built

a fort on the Linggi River and named it Philippe (todays Kota Linggi)

after the daughter of the Dutch Governor Jacob Mussel (Governor ofBatavia 1750-1761). The purpose of the fort was to collect taxes from the

tin that was being transported. On the 1st of January 1758, this fort was

the site where the treaty between the Bugis and the Dutch was signed.

This treaty enabled the Dutch to impose their control in this area: Linggi

and Rembau ceded to the VOC. In 1758, on Pulau Gontong at the mouth

of Siak river, the Dutch built a fort to control the tin trade, but later in

1765, the fort was abandoned because of the good relation between Siak

and the VOC. In 1759, the fort of Linggi was also abandoned. Between

1753 and 1760, the Christ Church in Malacca was built. Malacca tradewas flourishing, but a new sea power came on the scene: the British.

From the 1750s, they traded tin with Riau and in 1781,they occupied the

Dutch outpost in Perak. Then in 1786, a British base at Penang was

established.

To prevent a British occupation, the Dutch attacked Riau and on 29th

October 1784, the Bugis were defeated. The resulting treaty ended

Johores independence and a Dutch fort was established at TanjungPinang (Riau). In the Malay Peninsula, Johore. Selangor, Perak

Terengganu, and Pahang, became the Dutchs territories. The VOC was

truly dominant in the Straits. During the Napoleonic wars, the Dutch

governor surrendered Malacca to the English East India Company. In

1818, after the Napoleonic wars, under the Treaty of Vienna, the British

to the Dutch restored Malacca. The British gave Bencoolen, in Sumatera

to the Dutch and Malacca was given to the British. On 9th April 1825, the

Dutch ceded Malacca.


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Treaty Of Vienna


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CHAPTER 3: THE

BRITISHCOLONIZATION ERA


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In the 19th century, the British focused on things like the opening of

Singapore, the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, the establishment and

transfer of power of the Straits Settlements, the growth of the tin mining

industry, the increase in the Chinese population, the intervention in the

Malay states in 1874, the progress in the British administration, theformation of Federated Malay states in 1896 and the opening of new

rubber estates.

Back then, in 1600, British merchants set up the British East India

Company with the intention of improving trade in the region especially

with China. However, China was not interested in trading with the

British. So the British was left with no choice but to look for other trading

zones in the Malay Archipelago. On the 11 August 1786, after anagreement between Francis Light and Sultan Abdullah to protect Kedah

from Siamese threat, Penang Island came under the occupation of the

British.

On 6th February 1819, Stamford Raffles occupied Singapore, as it was

seen as a suitable base for the British in the Islands of the Malay

Archipelago. The British of a local misunderstanding the Singapore

administrator and Sultan Abdul Rahman in Riau achieved this throughthe manipulation. With the occupation of Penang Island, Singapore and

subsequently Malacca, the spread of British colonization in Malaya

began.

The Anglo-Dutch treaty of 1824 deserved most attention because it

resulted in the division of the Malay Archipelago in two different geo-

political areas in the 19th and 20th century. The treaty was signed on 17th

March 1824 with the main aim of ending all rivalry between the Britishand the Dutch, especially in the East. Before this, the British and the

Dutch had been hostile to each other because of trade. Besides this, the

Dutch were unhappy with the British occupation of Singapore. The

hostility escalated when a few British men were killed in Ambon, a Dutch

colony. In Europe, however, the British government was on good terms

with the Dutch. Furthermore, the Dutch were indebted to the British

because of the Napoleonic War. The Dutch King, William of Orange

signed the Kew letters, allowing the British access in to and thus

protection over Dutch colonies in the East until the Napoleonic War wasover.


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There are a number of terms that had been agreed upon in the Anglo-

Dutch Treaty of 1824. The most important was that of territoriality: the

Dutch handed over Malacca to the British in exchange for Bencoolen.

The areas south of Singapore continued to belong to the Dutch, while the

British controlled the north. They also agreed to work together to

eradicate pirate activities.

The consequence of this treaty included: the Malay Archipelago was split

into two spheres of Dutch and British influence. Thus, the Johor-Riau

Empire ended as Johor now belonged to the British while the Islands of

Riau came under the Dutch. Despite the Treaty, the Dutch and the British

rivalry continued to become intense. This was aggravated by the dispute

between them over Brunei Island that the British claimed North of

Singapore and was therefore a British territory. The Dutch, on the other

hand thought otherwise. However, to Malaysia, the effect of the treaty

was the split of the Archipelago region into two different spheres of

influence and the effects of the two different cultures remain even until

today. This also shows that, at that time foreign forces determined the

destiny of this country.

Before 1873, the British government did not have any policy ofintervention in the affairs of the Malay states in Peninsula Malaya.

However even before then there had been several issues of indirect

intervention in the matters of the Malay states. These include the dispute

between Raja Ali and the Temenggung Ibrahim in Johor in the middle of

the 19th century, the Naning War of 1831, and Andersons agreement with

Selangor and Perak in 1825.

In September 1873 Lord Kimberley, Secretary of the colonial office,inaugurated a policy of intervention in the affairs of the Malay states.

Before that, the British intervened only in Sarawak.


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Colonization was spurred by the internal weaknesses such as unrest and

civil war in the states concerned. In other words, there was no unity

among the locals and this gave the British the chance and excuse to

intervene by installing an advisor, which is later known as a resident. The

presence of important economic resources such as tin ore and agricultural

products in those states were also reasons for intervention.

To make the administrative system more efficient and to strengthen their

hold over the colonized territory, the British introduced the Resident

system in the Malay states. Every Malay state that was conquered had a

British Resident. The role of the Resident was to advice the Sultan: but

only in certain cases. The British certainly developed their colonies

though the residents. From the point of administration, every state was

divided into districts, divisions or residency, parish and villagers, eachwith its own head. From the economic point of view, public infrastructure

such as roads and railway tracks were built to facilitate the transport and

exploitation of the introduction of new plants such as, rubber. From the

social aspect, the taxation system and imposition of licenses on boats and

firearms were introduced. The British also enforced the ban on slavery.

Meanwhile, immigration of a foreign workforce, especially from India

and China, was encouraged to assist the development of rubber estates

and tin mines. Although there was development in terms of infrastructure,

it was concentrated mainly in areas where British economic interest werelocated such as in towns. The foreign workers, which include the Chinese


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and the Indians, caused many other problems. They were isolated from

the locals in terms of living quarters and occupation. The problem of

physical separation was compounded by the differences in backgrounds.

As a result, there was no interaction between them and this physical

distance was among the many causes for the increasing social gapbetween them.

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The Colonization Era

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