Malaysia – The History
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- Map of Malaysia
Peninsular Malaysia has been inhabited for at least 6,000 years. Small kingdoms existed in the 2nd–3rd century when adventurers from India first arrived. Sumatran exiles founded the city-state of Malacca and it flourished as a trading and Islamic religious centre until its capture by the Portuguese in 1511. Malacca passed to the Dutch in 1641. The British founded a settlement on Singapore, and Penang. During the late 19th century, Chinese began to migrate to Peninsular Malaysia (at the time called Malaya). Japan invaded Malaya in 1941 and captured Singapore in 1942. After Japan’s defeat in 1945, opposition to British rule led to the creation of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) in 1946, and in 1948 the peninsula was federated with Penang. Malaya gained independence from Britain in 1957. Malaya, Singapore, and the former British colonies of Sarawak and Sabah on the island of Borneo joined to form the Federation of Malaysia in 1963; Singapore, however, withdrew from the federation in 1965.
Extracted from www.britannica.com 2009.
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