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.

Borneo

Borneo (/ˈbɔːrnioʊ/; Indonesian: Kalimantan, Malay: Borneo) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest island in Asia. At the geographic center of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and east of Sumatra.

The island is divided among three countries: Malaysia and Brunei in the north, and Indonesia to the south. Approximately 73% of the island is Indonesian territory. In the north, the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak make up about 26% of the island. Additionally, the Malaysian federal territory of Labuan is situated on a small island just off the coast of Borneo. The sovereign state of Brunei, located on the north coast, comprises about 1% of Borneo's land area. Antipodal to an area of Amazon rainforest, Borneo is itself home to one of the oldest rainforests in the world.

Etymology

The island is known by many names; internationally it is known as Borneo, after Brunei, derived from European historical contact with the kingdom in the 16th century during the Age of Exploration. The name Brunei possibly was initially derived from the Sanskrit word "varuṇ" (वरुण), meaning either "ocean" or the mythological Varuna, the "god of the ocean." Indonesian natives called it Kalimantan, which was derived from the Sanskrit word Kalamanthana, meaning "burning weather island" (to describe its hot and humid tropical weather).

North

North is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. North is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west.

Etymology

The word north is related to the Old High German nord, both descending from the Proto-Indo-European unit ner-, meaning "down" (or "under"). (Presumably a natural primitive description of its concept is "to the left of the rising sun".)

The Latin word borealis comes from the Greek boreas "north wind, north", which, according to Ovid, was personified as the son of the river-god Strymon, the father of Calais and Zetes. Septentrionalis is from septentriones, "the seven plow oxen", a name of Ursa Maior. The Greek arktikos is named for the same constellation, and is the derivation of the English word "Arctic".

Other languages have sometimes more interesting derivations. For example, in Lezgian, kefer can mean both 'disbelief' and 'north', since to the north of the Muslim Lezgian homeland there are areas formerly inhabited by non-Muslim Caucasian and Turkic peoples. In many languages of Mesoamerica, "north" also means "up". In Hungarian the word for north is észak, which is derived from éjszaka ("night"), since above the Tropic of Cancer, the Sun never shines from the north.

Sabah State Railway

Sabah State Railway (SSR) is a railway system and operator in the state of Sabah in Malaysia. It is the only rail transport system operating on the island of Borneo. The railway consists of a single 134 km line from Tanjung Aru, near Kota Kinabalu, to the town of Tenom, in the Interior Division. It was formerly known as North Borneo Railway.

History

Construction of the then North Borneo Railway began in 1896 under the command of engineer Arthur J. West with his assistant Gounon, a member of the Murut people from Keningau. The railway was built by workers who were brought in from Japan, led by Akira. It was originally intended primarily for the transport of tobacco from the interior to the coast for export. The first line built was a 32 km track from Bukau River, north to Beaufort, and south to the port of Weston. This was then extended with a further 48 km route in 1903 to Tenom, the works for which was completed in 1905. The line was extended again in 1906 with a further 16 km from Tenom to Melalap. Engineer Arthur J. West also planned to build another railway line heading to Keningau, but he was transferred to Australia, causing the construction to be interrupted.