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!

7,690 thoughts on “History of Malaysia”

  1. You actually make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this matter to be
    actually something that I think I would never understand.
    It seems too complicated and extremely broad for me.
    I’m looking forward for your next post, I’ll try to get
    the hang of it!

  2. Awesome website you have here but I was wanting to know if you knew of any community forums that cover the same topics discussed here?
    I’d really love to be a part of online community where I can get feedback from
    other knowledgeable individuals that share the same interest.

    If you have any recommendations, please let me
    know. Thanks!

  3. Hello this is kinda of off topic but I was wondering
    if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have
    to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding knowledge
    so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience.
    Any help would be greatly appreciated!

  4. Thanks for your marvelous posting! I quite enjoyed reading it, you may be a great author.
    I will remember to bookmark your blog and definitely will come back later in life.
    I want to encourage you to ultimately continue your great work, have a nice afternoon!

  5. Hey I am so happy I found your blog, I really found you by
    mistake, while I was browsing on Digg for something
    else, Anyways I am here now and would just like to say thank you
    for a tremendous post and a all round entertaining blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t
    have time to read it all at the moment but I have book-marked it and also included your
    RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read more, Please do keep up the superb jo.

  6. What i do not understood is in fact how you are not really much more
    neatly-appreciated than you may be right now. You are so
    intelligent. You already know therefore considerably on the
    subject of this topic, made me for my part believe
    it from a lot of numerous angles. Its like women and men are not
    fascinated until it is something to do with Lady gaga!
    Your own stuffs excellent. At all times care for it up!

  7. I got this web page from my pal who shared with me on the topic
    of this site and now this time I am visiting this website and reading very informative posts at this
    place.

  8. I am really inspired with your writing skills as smartly as
    with the structure for your blog. Is that this
    a paid subject matter or did you customize it your self?
    Anyway stay up the excellent high quality writing, it’s uncommon to see a great blog like this one nowadays..

  9. Nice post. I used to be checking constantly this blog and I am impressed!
    Very helpful information specially the last phase 🙂 I take
    care of such info a lot. I was looking for this certain info for a long
    time. Thank you and best of luck.

  10. My coder is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP.
    I have always disliked the idea because of the expenses.
    But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on numerous websites for about a year and am worried
    about switching to another platform. I have heard great things about blogengine.net.
    Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress content into
    it? Any kind of help would be really appreciated!

  11. Hi, i think that i saw you visited my website thus i came
    to go back the desire?.I’m trying to in finding issues to improve my website!I guess
    its ok to make use of some of your ideas!!

  12. I blog quite often and I genuinely appreciate your content.

    Your article has really peaked my interest. I’m going to bookmark your website and keep checking for new
    information about once per week. I opted in for your
    RSS feed as well.

  13. Hello there I am so thrilled I found your blog, I really
    found you by error, while I was researching on Digg
    for something else, Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say thanks a lot for a remarkable post and a all round enjoyable blog (I
    also love the theme/design), I don’t have
    time to go through it all at the moment but I have saved it and also included your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will
    be back to read a great deal more, Please do keep up the great jo.

  14. Have you ever considered creating an e-book or guest authoring
    on other blogs? I have a blog centered on the
    same ideas you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information.
    I know my subscribers would appreciate your work. If you’re
    even remotely interested, feel free to send me an email.

  15. It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d most certainly donate to this
    brilliant blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my
    Google account. I look forward to fresh updates and will talk about this
    blog with my Facebook group. Chat soon!

  16. whoah this blog is magnificent i like studying your posts.
    Stay up the great work! You understand, many people are hunting around for
    this info, you could aid them greatly.

  17. Hello! Quick question that’s completely off topic.
    Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My website looks weird when viewing from my
    apple iphone. I’m trying to find a theme or plugin that might be
    able to fix this issue. If you have any recommendations,
    please share. Many thanks!

  18. It’s really a great and useful piece of info. I’m
    happy that you simply shared this useful info with us.
    Please keep us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.

  19. I’m not sure why but this web site is loading very slow for me.
    Is anyone else having this problem or is it a problem
    on my end? I’ll check back later on and see if the problem still exists.

  20. Hmm it looks like your website ate my first comment (it was
    extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I
    submitted and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your
    blog. I too am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to the whole thing.
    Do you have any tips for rookie blog writers? I’d really appreciate it.

  21. Excellent goods from you, man. I have understand
    your stuff previous to and you are just extremely magnificent.
    I really like what you’ve acquired here, certainly like what you are stating and
    the way in which you say it. You make it entertaining and you still care for to keep it sensible.
    I cant wait to read far more from you. This is really a wonderful
    web site.

  22. I have been browsing on-line more than three hours today,
    yet I by no means discovered any attention-grabbing
    article like yours. It is pretty worth enough for me.
    In my view, if all web owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the internet will likely be much more useful than ever before.

  23. whoah this weblog is magnificent i really
    like reading your articles. Keep up the great work! You already know,
    lots of people are searching round for this info, you can aid them greatly.

Leave a Reply

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