Crown colony

A Crown colony, also known in the 17th century as royal colony, was a type of colonial administration of the British overseas territories.

Crown, or royal, colonies were ruled by a governor appointed by the monarch. By the middle of the 19th century, the sovereign appointed royal governors on the advice of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. Under the name of "royal colony", the first of what would later become known as Crown colonies was the English Colony of Virginia in the present-day United States, after the Crown, in 1624, revoked the royal charter it had granted to the Virginia Company, taking over direct administration.

Until the mid-19th century, the term "Crown colony" was primarily used to refer to those colonies that had been acquired through wars, such as Trinidad and Tobago and British Guiana, but after that time it was more broadly applied to any colony other than the Presidencies and provinces of British India and the colonies of settlement, such as The Canadas, Newfoundland, British Columbia, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, and New Zealand, later to become the Dominions.

North Borneo

North Borneo was a British protectorate located in the northern Borneo which was under the sovereign North Borneo Chartered Company from 1882 to 1941. From 1942 to 1945, North Borneo was occupied by Japanese military forces, before they were driven out by Australian troops. From 1946 to 1963, North Borneo was turned into a Crown Colony of Great Britain, known as British North Borneo Crown. During the time also seven of the British-controlled islands in north-eastern Borneo named Turtle Islands together with Cagayan de Tawi-Tawi were ceded to the Philippine government under a past treaty signed between the United Kingdom and the United States. Today, the former North Borneo is part of Malaysia as the state of Sabah, apart from the island group of Labuan which was separated from the rest in 1984 to form a Federal Territory, administered directly from the federal government.

History

North Borneo Company

Before the eastern part of the territory was ceded by the Sultanate of Brunei to the Sultanate of Sulu as a gift for helping the Bruneian forces during a civil war that happened in Brunei, the whole territory was once under the rule of the Bruneian Empire. In 1761, British East India Company officer Alexander Dalrymple concluded an agreement with the Sultan of Sulu to allow him occupation of Balambangan Island, located 51 km off the coast of Kudat and known to the British as Felicia Island. A free port was then established here which was of importance for the interest of Britain in the east Asia region, namely, trade with China. The port however failed to become a long term success due to constant pirate attacks as well as other reasons and the British left in 1805.

Sarawak

Sarawak (Malay pronunciation: [saˈrawaʔ]) is one of the two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. It is also one of the founding members of the Malaysian federation alongside North Borneo (now Sabah), Singapore (expelled in 1965) and the Federation of Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia or West Malaysia). This territory has a certain level of autonomy in administration, immigration, and judiciary which differentiates it from the rest of the Malaysian Peninsula states. It is also known as Bumi Kenyalang ("Land of the Hornbills").

Sarawak is situated on the northwest Borneo, bordering the state of Sabah to the northeast, Kalimantan Borneo to the south, and surrounding the independent state of Brunei. Capital city is Kuching. The city is also the economic centre of state and seat of Sarawak state government. Other cities and towns are Miri, Sibu, and Bintulu. As of the last census (2015), the state population was 2,636,000. Sarawak has an equatorial climate with tropical rainforests and abundant animal and plant species. The state has several prominent cave systems at Gunung Mulu National Park. Rajang River is the longest river in Malaysia. Bakun Dam, one of the largest dams in Southeast Asia is located at one of the tributaries of the Rajang River. Mount Murud is the highest point in Sarawak.

Federation of Malaya

The Federation of Malaya (Malay: Persekutuan Tanah Melayu; Jawi: ڤرسكوتوان تانه ملايو) was a federation of 11 states (nine Malay states and two of the British Straits Settlements, Penang and Malacca) that existed from 1 February 1948 until 16 September 1963. The Federation became independent on 31 August 1957, and in 1963 was reconstituted as Malaysia with the addition of Singapore, North Borneo, and Sarawak. The combination of states that formerly made up the Federation of Malaya is currently known as Peninsular Malaysia.

History

From 1946 to 1948, the 11 states formed a single British crown colony known as the Malayan Union. Due to opposition from Malay nationalists, the Union was disbanded and replaced by the Federation of Malaya, which restored the symbolic positions of the rulers of the Malay states.

Within the Federation, while the Malay states were protectorates of the United Kingdom, Penang and Malacca remained British colonial territories. Like the Malayan Union before it, the Federation did not include Singapore, despite its traditional connections with Malaya.

Singapore

Singapore (ⁱ/ˈsɪŋɡəpɔːr/), officially the Republic of Singapore, and often referred to as the Lion City, the Garden City, and the Red Dot, is a global city in Southeast Asia and the world's only island city-state. It lies one degree (137 km) north of the equator, at the southernmost tip of continental Asia and peninsular Malaysia, with Indonesia's Riau Islands to the south. Singapore's territory consists of the diamond-shaped main island and 62 islets. Since independence, extensive land reclamation has increased its total size by 23% (130 km²), and its greening policy has covered the densely populated island with tropical flora, parks and gardens.

The islands were settled from the second century AD by a series of local empires. In 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles founded modern Singapore as a trading post of the East India Company; after the company collapsed, the islands were ceded to Britain and became part of its Straits Settlements in 1826. During World War II, Singapore was occupied by Japan. It gained independence from Britain in 1963, by uniting with other former British territories to form Malaysia, but was expelled two years later over ideological differences. After early years of turbulence, and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation developed rapidly as an Asian tiger economy, based on external trade and its human capital.