Malaysia is located in the heart of Southeast Asia, slightly north of the Equator. Consisting of 127,000 sq. miles (330,200 sq. km), Malaysia is divided into two main regions: - Peninsular Malaysia, which lies just south of Thailand, and East Malaysia, which can be found north of Indonesia on the island of Borneo.

General Information

Population: c.a. 23,000,000
Capital: Kuala Lumpur
Ethnicity : 59% Malay & other indigenous, 32% Chinese and 9% Indian.
Religion: Muslim, Buddhism (Chinese), Hindu (Indian), Christianity, Confucianism, Taoism and tribal religions.
Languages: Malay (official), English, Chinese (Mandarin, Hakka dialects, Cantonese), Tamil and tribal languages.

The country has two regions. Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia and is divided into thirteen states and federal territories.

History of Malaysia

The original in inhabitants of Malaya, the "Orang Asli" were actually refugees from the south-western provinces of Yunan in China, fleeing conflicts in that area some 10,000 years ago. It then came under the rule of several different regional empires including the Hindu Sri Vijaya and Majapahit from the Indonesian Archipelago.
By the middle of the 14th century Islam arrived in Malaya via traders and merchants from India and began to spread rapidly as the local nobles embraced it.

By the middle of the 15th century Melaka's wealth and power had grown to a point where it was considered the center for trade in the south-east Asian region, this was mainly due to its strategic positioning on the Straits of Melaka, right in the middle of the spice trade route and the successful persecution and subjugation of the numerous pirate clans in the region, merchant ships from all over Asia including India, the Middle East and China regularly crowded its harbour. The first European visitors to Melaka, a small flotilla of Portuguese ships landed at Melaka in 1509. With the coming of the Dutch in the late 1520's the Portuguese rule of Melaka was coming to an end.

The less autocratic and generally more tolerant Dutch were considerably more successful than the Portuguese and succeeded not only in controlling Melaka, they also acquired holdings and fortifications in various other states on the peninsula.

The Dutch East India Company's days were numbered for after the establishment of Penang by Sir Francis Light in 1786 and Singapore by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles in 1819 the influence of England began to overshadow the Dutch. The Anglo Dutch Treaty of 1824 finally formalized the succession of English rule.

The British Straits Settlements born in 1826, consisted of the three states of Penang, Singapore and Melaka with the capital moving from Penang to Singapore in 1832, all matters of policy though initially referred to the British administration in India were later centralized at the Colonial Office in London.

By 1896 local rulers wielded only token influence and The Federated Malay States consisting of Perak, Selangor, Pahang and Negeri Sembilan was formed under direct control of the Resident General's office in Kuala Lumpur. In 1909 the Treaty of Bangkok was signed and the kingdom of Siam relinquished the states of Kelantan, Kedah, Terengganu and Perlis to British rule, thus the Unfederated Malay States were formed.

Malaya underwent a period of rapid growth and development with the construction of transport and communication infrastructure such as the building of roads, a railway and a telegraph system, natural resources were heavily exploited with the construction of tin, gold and coal mines, reforms were also made in the agricultural sector with the introduction of modern agricultural methods and the extensive farming of cash crops such as rubber and sugar cane. The population of Malaya would see a massive influx of labourers from China and India at this time, an event which caused a racial mix which has persisted to the present day.