History of Malaysia

Hey fellow adventurers! It’s time to discuss the history of Malaysia. Throughout the post, I’m going to use the name Malaysia for convenience but that’s a more recent name. Malaysia has been called Malaya in the past, as well as some other names. I’m sorry if that confuses anyone.

There is evidence to support that human activity has occurred in Malaysia for at least 40,000 years. Trade with China and India was established as far back as 100 BCE. Trade doesn’t just bring in buyable goods though, but culture and religion. By 400 CE, Buddhism and Hinduism were introduced to Malaysia via India. By 1300, Islam was introduced by Arab and Indian merchants. During what is sometimes called a “second flowering of Islam,” four Muslim empires (Ottoman, Safavid, Songhay and Mughal) gained strong political and military power, as well as economic prosperity. By the 1400s, the trading network was largely controlled by Muslims in the Southeast Asia area. To attract these traders to their cities, a lot of Hindu and Buddhist rulers converted to Islam and enforced Islamic law.

A few countries have occupied Malaysia throughout history but the British controlled Malaysia the longest. Although at first the British only wanted economic control over Malaysia, they soon wanted territorial control as well. Under British rule, the British brought in Indians to do manual labor, such as Tin mining. This made Indian and Chinese Malaysians the primary manual labor workforce. While Malay Malaysians had opportunities to work in government positions, such as for the police. Positions the British generally closed off to non-Europeans. Not only that but the British gave off the impression that the Malay Malaysians were the rulers of Malaysia but didn’t give them any authority to rule. This inequality created a rift between the races. If you want to learn more about Colonial control over Malaysia, read the following article:

http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Malaysia/sub5_4a/entry-3619.html

During World War II, Japan set out to acquire resources that would free it from its dependence on the West. The Japanese shared a desire with several Southeast Asian countries to liberate countries under European control. The Japanese claimed they were going to make “Asia for Asians.” However soon after they began conquering countries, it became clear that they were more interested in resources, than liberation. The Japanese’s first act in Malaysia was to kill the Chinese Malaysians. After which, the Japanese established a rule, and you either followed or died. The occupation of the Japanese ended after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. If you wish to learn more, I highly recommend this show from history channel:

After Japanese occupation ended, it wasn’t long until the British took control again. This was welcomed by some Malaysians and dreaded by others. Those who wanted Malaysian independence fought to get rid of British control. In 1957, Malaysia is free from British control. And in 1963, Malaysia officially becomes Malaysia. If you would like a more comprehensive timeline of the history of Malaysia, check out BBC:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-15391762

I also recommend watching this interesting piece about former Malaysian communists that were kicked out of Malaysia while it was still Malaya:

That’s all for today’s post! I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for reading my blog, and as always, until our next adventure!

6,348 thoughts on “History of Malaysia”

  2. Great to be visiting your blog again, it continues to be months for me. Nicely this article that ive been waited for so long. I will need this article to complete my assignment inside the university, and it has same subject with your write-up. Thanks, great share.

    Reply

  8. hi!,I really like your writing so so much! share we
    communicate extra about your post on AOL? I need an expert
    in this area to solve my problem. May be that’s you!
    Looking ahead to look you.

    Reply

  13. I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme.

    Did you create this website yourself or did you hire someone
    to do it for you? Plz answer back as I’m looking to design my own blog and would like to find out where
    u got this from. thanks

    Reply

  15. Just want to say your article is as astonishing. The clearness in your publish is just nice and
    i can think you are knowledgeable in this subject.
    Fine together with your permission let me to grab your RSS feed to keep updated with
    coming near near post. Thanks one million and please carry on the rewarding
    work.

    Reply

  31. Heya! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any problems
    with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing a few months of hard work due to no data
    backup. Do you have any solutions to prevent hackers?

    Reply

  32. I absolutely love your blog and find many of your post’s to be precisely what I’m looking for.

    can you offer guest writers to write content for you personally?
    I wouldn’t mind composing a post or elaborating on most of the subjects you write concerning here.

    Again, awesome site!

    Reply

  40. Thanks for the auspicious writeup. It in truth used to be a amusement account it.
    Glance complicated to more added agreeable from you!
    By the way, how can we keep up a correspondence?

    Reply

  43. Hello would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re using?

    I’m planning to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a difficult time selecting
    between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
    The reason I ask is because your layout seems different then most blogs
    and I’m looking for something completely unique.
    P.S My apologies for getting off-topic but I had
    to ask!

    Reply

  48. Hello There. I discovered your weblog using msn. This is a very
    neatly written article. I’ll make sure to bookmark it and come back to learn more of your helpful info.

    Thanks for the post. I will definitely return.

    Reply

  49. Hey there! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any issues with hackers?
    My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing many months of hard work due to no backup.
    Do you have any methods to stop hackers?

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *