There is evidence of humans in Malaysia as far back as 40,000 years ago. The original inhabitants are thought to be the Negrito people that live in the northern mountainous rainforests. They were later joined by the Senoi people who came down from Thailand and the Malay people who came up from Indonesia. By the second century AD, Malaya was already known for gold, tin and aromatic jungle woods and Indians regularly came to buy these goods. The Indians introduced Buddhism, Hinduism, and the notion of Kingship.

During the 7th century, the Malaysian peninsula was conquered by the Srivijaya Empire, which was ruled by a king in Sumatra (the island directly west of the Malaysian peninsula, across the Malacca Straits, and today part of Indonesia). Under that empire, southern Malaya flourished as a trading state. The Srivaijaya empire lost control of Malaya in the 13th century. Malaysia went back to being made up of several small and separate empires ruled by local sultans (kings).

In 1400, a self-proclaimed sultan conquered the town of Melaka and turned it into a thriving trading port where Indonesians, Malays, Chinese and Indians came to trade goods. As Islam gained popularity in India, the Indians introduced Islam to Melaka and it eventually spread to the rest of Malaysia and Indonesia.

Meanwhile, the Portuguese decided they wanted to control the spice trade. Most of it came from Indonesia, through Melaka, then to Europe. In 1511, the Portuguese waged war with Melaka and defeated them within a month. With Melaka in their control, the Portuguese set up exclusivity agreements with the islands in Indonesia where their coveted spices originated from.

130 years later, the Dutch decided they wanted to control the spice trade. They set up a base in present day Jakarta and started negotiating with the sultans of the spice islands for trading rights. The Dutch allied with the Johor Empire, which at the time controlled the southern portion of Malaysia and Singapore, to attack the Portuguese in Melaka in January 1641. The attack was successful and the Dutch controlled Melaka for 150 years.

Of course, England needed to get in on the Asian spice and trade action. In 1786, the English struck a deal with the Sultan of Kedah (today Northern Western Malaysia) to open a free trade port on the island of Penang, right off the coast of the mainland. Penang thrived, and in 14 years the island went from largely uninhabited to a population of 10,000. They also opened a port on Sumatra Island and one on Singapore Island, at the Southern tip of Malaysia.

In 1824, England and Holland signed the Anglo-Dutch treaty, where they traded Melaka for Sumatra, thus leaving the Dutch firmly in control in the South (present day Indonesia) and the English in control in the north (present day Malaysia and Singapore).

In 1874, the English began to peacefully conquer the various kingdoms within Malaysia. They struck deals with the sultans to preserve the sultan’s image and prestige as ruler in exchange for giving up real control. Over time, the sultans that did not want to deal were forced under British control, anyway, and by 1919 the whole Malaysian area belonged to Britain. The British enthusiastically developed the area, encouraging foreign laborers to immigrate. The Malayan people experienced a growing resentment about being marginalized in their own country and were pushing for independence.

In December 1941, the Japanese invaded Malaya and in a month had taken the capital of Kuala Lumpur. After WWII ended, in 1946, the British created a Malayan Union, which unified all the separate kingdoms into one nation, took away all sovereignty of the sultans, offered citizenships to all residents regardless of race, and took away societal privileges for the Malayan race. The Malays were outraged and in 1948 the British buckled to pressure and dismantled the Malayan Union for the newly created Federation of Malaya, which upheld the sultan sovereignty, provided citizenship restrictions, and gave special privileges to the Malay people. The Chinese now outnumbered the Malays and were outraged that the British had betrayed them. A civil war broke out between a Chinese political group and the British. The war lasted for 12 years.

In 1957, there was finally an election and the Federation of Malaya became an independent government. Malaysia is still part of the British Commonwealth today. The newly elected president wanted to merge with Brunei and Singapore, which did not work out.

Meanwhile, racial tensions between the Malays and Chinese grew and there was a bloody riot in 1969 where hundreds of people died. The Chinese had prospered in Malaysia and had considerable economic control in the country. Malays wanted a bigger share of the financial power. In the 70’s, the government passed laws requiring corporations to sell a minimum of 30% of its stock to Malays, gave Malays priority on government contracts, and gave Malays low interest loans and scholarships in an effort to increase Malay wealth to equal that of the Chinese. Since the implementation of these policies, poverty levels have dropped from 49% to 15% and a new Malay middle class has emerged.

Malaysia’s government is officially an Islamic nation, though we are unclear as to exactly what that means since other religions are also openly practiced in Malaysia. In following public pressure, currently the government is inching towards becoming more conservative and strict in Islamic law.