Wednesday 28 April 2010

Sabah Map & History
















Sabah History


During the 15th century, Sabah together with Sarawak were vassals of the Sultan of Brunei. Then in 1658, Sultan of Brunei gave Sultan of Sulu gave the north east coast of Borneo in return for his help in settling a civil war dispute between the Sultan Abdul Mubin and Pengeran Bongsu.In 1761, an officer of the British East India Company at Madras in India, Alexander Dalrymple, concluded an agreement with the Sultan of Sulu that permitted him to set up a trading post in the North Borneo region. He chose Pulau Balambangan (Balambangan Island), an island off the northern tip of the mainland, and renamed it 'Felicia'. But the island was abandoned in November 1805 after several attempts to turn it into a port.Then the British turned to Labuan, an island situated north west of Borneo. On December 18, 1846, a treaty was signed in which the Sultan of Brunei ceded in perpetuity Labuan and its islets to the British Crown. But like Balambangan, Labuan failed as a port.In 1890, Labuan was placed under the control of the British North Borneo Chartered Company. Seventeen years later, the island was placed under the Government of the Straits Settlements.After World War II, Labuan became part of the colony of North Borneo. Together with North Borneo, it was made a State within the Federation of Malaysia on September 16, 1963. Then on April 16, 1984, Labuan was proclaimed a Federal Territory of Malaysia. After the disappointment with Labuan, the British Government temporary lost interest in North Borneo. Then in 1881, the privately owned British North Borneo Chartered Company began administering the State that it named British North Borneo.The company's ruling brought great impact on the region's development. It effectively ruled the State up to 1942 when the Japanese forces landed in Labuan on January 1 and occupied North Borneo until the island was liberated in 1945 by the Ninth Division Australian Imperial Forces.After the War, North Borneo was administered by the British Military Administration until civil Government was restored on July 15, 1946. In 1946, Sabah was placed under the British Crown as the Company could not afford to rebuild Sabah, after the devastation of the War.Peace ruled over the State until the 1960s when political consciousness emerged among the people of the State. It all began with an announcement by the first Prime Minister of Malaya, the late Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj in 1961 pertaining to the formation of the Federation of Malaysia which were to include Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei and Singapore. On August 31, 1963, North Borneo obtained self-government from the British.Together with Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya, Malaysia was formally established on September 16, 1963. North Borneo's name was changed to Sabah. However by 1965, Singapore was out of the Federation.Today, Sabah is a prosperous state with an expanding economy, fuelled by mining, forestry, agriculture, manufacturing and tourism.