Brunei is small enough. Why is the land split in two by Malaysia?

Brunei is the second smallest country in Southeast Asia, with only 5,765 square kilometers, which is only bigger than Singapore (728 square kilometers) and similar to China (6,340 square kilometers).

However, in history, Brunei once dominated Southeast Asia, which is also considered a powerful country.

Kalimantan island, where Brunei is located, is divided into three parts, with Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia distributed from north to south, with a total area of 743,000 square kilometers. Among them, 540,000 square kilometers belong to Indonesia and197,000 square kilometers belong to Malaysia. In contrast, only Brunei is disproportionately small.

However, historically, the Malaysian part of the island originally belonged to Brunei. Later, its territory became smaller and smaller, and it was even split in two. There is no land connection channel. How did this happen?

The first is Brunei, where Chinese people are king.

Although kalimantan island has a large area, it is mountainous in the middle, dominated by primitive tropical rain forests in the south and plains in the northwest, making it more suitable for human habitation. Therefore, the primitive Malays on the island formed a tribal society in the northwest very early.

Kalimantan island and China, facing each other across the South China Sea, opened a sea passage as early as the 5th century and had contacts with China. China history books call this island "Borneo" and the primitive Malay tribes on the island "Li Po" and "Boni".

▲ Brunei and China face each other across the South China Sea, and have had trade since ancient times.

According to China's historical records, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Tang Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty, envoys from Borneo paid tribute to China, and their relations with China were very friendly. Apart from absorbing part of China culture, they are also deeply influenced by Indian and Buddhist culture.

Primitive Malays are one of the earliest aborigines in Southeast Asia, mainly distributed in Malay Peninsula and Borneo. The Malay Peninsula has frequent exchanges with other ethnic groups and developed rapidly, and has evolved into a modern Malay nation, commonly known as Malays. However, the primitive Malays in Borneo were limited by the closed environment, the development of civilization was stagnant and there was no writing. Their descendants are called "Dayak people".

1 1 In the Northern Song Dynasty, after the opening of the Maritime Silk Road, a large number of Arab businessmen came to Southeast Asia. While they settled in business, they also introduced Islam into Southeast Asia, making Malays gradually become Muslims.

Since the13rd century, Malays have established Islamic countries and expanded to kalimantan island, occupying a livable area in the northwest, which is now Brunei and its adjacent areas. As a result, the local ethnic and religious composition was changed, and the Dayak people were pushed out to mountainous areas and forest areas and became ethnic minorities.

Although these Islamic Malays established the Sultanate of Boni, the country was weak and had to succumb to the early Islamic regimes in Indonesia and the Philippines and endure their oppression and exploitation. In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang sent Huang Ping, the company commander, to Bernie, which changed their fate.

▲ The tomb of Boni King in Nanjing, there is literature that this king is Huang Ping.

Huang Ping, with his family and subordinates, united with Sultan Boni, defeated the hostile country and made Boni completely independent. In the Ming Dynasty, Boni was renamed Brunei. Since then, Sultan Boni has married the Huang Sen Ping family and become the ancestor of the modern Brunei royal family.

1408, Sultan Bernie personally went to China to express his gratitude to the Ming Dynasty. Unfortunately, he died and was buried in Nanjing. According to some documents, the Sultan of Boni is yellow and flat. He once proposed to Emperor Yongle that Boni should be included in the territory of the Ming Dynasty, but the Ming Dynasty had no intention of expanding its territory overseas, so it did not agree to his request.

Yellow Ping brought China troops and their families to Brunei. Later, immigrants from the southeast coast increased the number of China people. Historically, the proportion of Chinese in Borneo has reached 30% of the total population, and the customs and habits of Chinese have always been preserved.

By virtue of its special relationship with the Ming Dynasty, Brunei became the main transit point for Southeast Asian goods to enter China, and thus developed into a Southeast Asian power. Its land territory includes the whole of kalimantan island and some islands in the southern Philippines. It is one of the economic and cultural centers in Southeast Asia, and its prosperity is beyond the reach of neighboring Southeast Asian countries, far from being as lifeless as modern Brunei.

Second, the arrival of the colonists.

The first western navigators were shocked by Brunei's wealth and strength. They won the favor of Brunei people with gifts and respect, but the colonists who arrived later regarded Brunei as an object of weakening or even slavery.

The Spanish took the Philippines as their main foothold and colonial goal in Southeast Asia, when the southern Philippines was within Brunei's sphere of influence. As a result, the Spanish launched a sustained offensive against Brunei, supporting the Philippine local government against Brunei.

▲ In the early days of the Great Navigation Era, European colonists did not have absolute advantages and often provoked conflicts between local ethnic groups.

1578, the Spanish fleet invaded Brunei, resulting in huge losses. Although the invaders were finally driven away, the decline of Brunei was inevitable. Coupled with the civil strife and division of the royal family in Brunei, this decline was greatly aggravated, giving the colonists more opportunities to nibble away.

/kloc-After the 7th century, the Spanish, Dutch and British gradually occupied the maritime trade in Southeast Asia with their powerful ships and guns. By 1773, the trade between Brunei and China was completely cut off by western colonists.

With the decline of Brunei, Javanese in ancient Indonesia gradually became the main ethnic group in the south of the island, while Malays only occupied the north and northwest of the island. The Dutch took advantage of the contradiction between Javanese and Malays, provided military protection first, then monopolized trade, and turned Java into their own colony, forming the Indonesian part of the island today.

▲ Europeans first obtained spices, which opened the colonization of Southeast Asia.

By the beginning of the19th century, the territory of Brunei included not only the present Brunei mainland, but also Sarawak and Sabah in Malaysia, which were two provinces of Brunei at that time. What is even more distressing is that the civil war in Brunei almost ran through the 18- 19 century, giving colonists the opportunity to nibble away.

Although the territory and taxes are decreasing, the luxury life of the Sudanese has not decreased. In order to maintain huge expenses, Sultans Of Brunei had to step up its oppression and exploitation of the people, which triggered a series of uprisings. Sultans Of Brunei didn't have enough troops to suppress it, so it had to turn to Britain for help. I didn't expect this move to lead the wolf into the room.

Third, it almost destroyed the country.

/kloc-At the beginning of the 9th century, the notorious East India Company dominated the British colonial activities in Southeast Asia. 1826, the East India Company has colonized the Malay Peninsula and plans to expand to kalimantan island. After receiving Sultans Of Brunei's call for help, the East India Company immediately sent a staff member named James Brooke to Brunei.

Brooke reached an agreement with Sultans Of Brunei to help Brunei fight against the rebellion. After his success, he became the governor of Sarawak. Mr. Brooke signed a contract in his own name, but he was able to mobilize the British army to fight for him, quell the rebellion in Brunei, and then become the ruler of Sarawak Province as he wished.

▲ The portrait of James Brooke, a man created a country.

Sultans Of Brunei believed that Brooke would obey his own ruling order. In fact, Brooke turned Sarawak into his own independent kingdom, passed on sovereignty to his descendants, and constantly invaded Sultans Of Brunei's territory. There are many documents that refer to Sarawak under Brooke as Sarawak Dynasty or Brooke Dynasty.

/kloc-in the middle of the 0/9th century, the pace of European powers' struggle for global colonies was accelerating. The British government forced Brunei to sign a treaty in 1847, making it a British protectorate.

At this time, Sultans Of Brunei finally saw Britain's ambition and leased Sabah in the north to the Americans to balance British power. However, the US government has no intention to intervene in this matter, and only allows Americans to rent Sabah privately. As a result, due to poor management, the concession of Sabah finally fell into the hands of the British, belonging to another British colonial company, which had nothing to do with the Brooke family.

1888, Brunei was forced by Britain to sign an agreement and officially became a British colony. Sarawak and Sabah were separated from Brunei. Brunei's territory has shrunk from the original whole of kalimantan island to a small piece in the northern part of the island.

Before 1874, Britain had turned the Malay Peninsula into a colony. Together with two states of kalimantan island separated from Brunei, it will form the foundation of modern Malaysia in the future. However, Brunei was still a whole piece at this time, and Li Meng, which later belonged to Malaysia, was not cut off.

1890, there was another rebellion in this Li Meng area. The Brooke family suppressed it first, and then announced its annexation. Sultans Of Brunei finally woke up this time and refused to admit that the Brooks had invaded Li Meng. But the rest of Brunei's land is actually divided into two parts, and there is no land passage.

▲ The Linmeng area completely cut off the land passage between the east and the west of Brunei.

The Brooke family didn't stop there. They were still plotting the remnants of Brunei. 1899, at the instigation of the Brooke family, there was rebellion in the last two territories of Brunei, and the Brooke family was also prepared to do the same and further occupy Brunei. If it succeeds again, Brunei will become smaller than it is now, and only the capital of Sultan Palace may be left.

At this moment, oil was suddenly discovered off the coast of Brunei. The second industrial revolution, represented by internal combustion engine and electric power, has begun, and oil suddenly has an extremely important strategic position. For global hegemony, the British government does not want oil fields to be in private hands.

The Brooke family has always ruled Sarawak in private, and often disobeyed the demands and orders of the British government, which hindered the implementation of the British colonial policy. Therefore, on the pretext that oil resources must be controlled by Britain, the British government prevented the Brooke family from embezzling Brunei and took direct control of Brunei instead.

From 65438 to 0906, the British government took over Brunei's sovereignty and Sudan became a puppet. Despite this, Sudan still refuses to acknowledge the decline of Li Meng, making it a disputed area after independence in the future.

Fourth, Brunei is independent.

Brunei has been a British colony except for a few years ruled by Japan during World War II. After World War II, the national liberation movement rose, and Britain could no longer maintain a huge overseas colony. The whole Malay region began to plan to establish an independent country.

The British colony in the Malay Peninsula established the "Malayan Union State" in 1957, gained certain autonomy, and actively sought to form an independent Malay State with Singapore, kalimantan island and Brunei. Apart from Singapore, where Chinese are the main population, Malays have great advantages in several other places.

Brunei also formulated a constitution and established a government in 1959, and took over the ruling power from Britain, but it was not formally founded. At that time, there were two plans for the founding of the country: one was to form the Borneo Federation with Sarawak and Sabah; The second is to join the Malaysian Federation and the United States of Malaya.

The first plan met with great resistance in Brunei. Sarawak and Sabah used to be Sultans Of Brunei's territory, but now they want to be equal to the Sultan, which is emotionally unacceptable. Moreover, Brunei has always been a nominal country, and both States are British colonies, which also makes Brunei people feel inferior.

Another problem that Brunei can't forget is the Li Meng area, which was occupied by the Brooks family before the Japanese surrendered and the British took over the two States, and it was within the scope of Sarawak State, and there was no intention to return it to Brunei. For the above reasons, Brunei is unwilling to become an equal federation with these two countries.

▲ Brunei royal family is famous for its luxury.

Although the second option is attractive to Brunei, it has great internal resistance. The United States of Malaya is far superior to Brunei in all aspects, especially in terms of talents. Once merged, it will seriously affect the employment of Brunei natives, so it is opposed by local forces. This difference even rose to 1962 coup and civil war, and the British army was pacified.

After the opposition was eliminated, Brunei began to negotiate with the United States of Malaya for merger and founding. However, the two sides failed to reach an agreement on the distribution of oil revenue, the special status of Sultans Of Brunei and Brunei's seat in the federal government.

The rich offshore oil fields have brought considerable income to Brunei, which is naturally unwilling to give up, and Sultans Of Brunei is unwilling to occupy the last position in the power structure of the new country, which makes it difficult to make substantial progress in the negotiations on the founding of the country.

▲ Oil and gas resources are Brunei's main source of wealth.

1September 1963 16, the independent Malaysian Federation was formally established. Apart from Brunei, Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah are all members of the Federation. Since Malaysia implemented the Malay priority policy after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Singapore, which is dominated by Chinese, strongly opposed this policy. It was expelled from the Federation in 1965 and had to be independent.

Brunei is not in a hurry to establish a country. Its narrow territory and the civil war in 1962 forced Brunei to continue to rely on British military protection. It was not until New Year's Day of 1984 that Brunei officially declared its independence. The country name is "Brunei Darussalam", which means "the country of peace".

As a part of Sarawak, Li Meng has been a Malaysian territory for a long time, while Brunei insists on sovereignty over the region, but it is powerless to change the status quo. In 2009, this problem was successfully solved. Brunei signed an agreement with Malaysia, and Brunei was taken care of in the division of sea areas and the development of offshore oil fields, while giving up its sovereignty claim over Li Meng.

▲ Chinese are the second largest ethnic group in Brunei, with a population of about 15%, and maintain their own customs.

Considering that Brunei's territory is divided into two parts by Li Meng, the Malaysian government allowed Brunei citizens to enter Sarawak and Sabah with simple travel permits as early as 1998, which made the land passage between Brunei and the east and west very convenient.

Today, Malaysian economic indicators are relatively high among China developing China countries. Brunei is one of the richest countries in the world, with a small population and abundant oil resources, while Sultans Of Brunei is famous for its luxurious court. The Linmeng area, which benefits from Brunei's wealth, is the first choice for Brunei people to shop and travel, and it is very prosperous.

▲ Brunei is a tourist attraction with beautiful scenery in the water mosque.