Evidence of human habitation in Malaysia dates back 40,000 years.[24] The first inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula were most probablyNegritos.[25] The Malay Peninsula was known to ancient Indians as Suvarnadvipa or the "Golden Peninsula", and was shown on Ptolemy'smap as the "Golden Khersonese". Traders and settlers from India and China arrived as early as the 1st century of the common era, establishing trading ports and towns in the area in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE. Both had a strong influence on the local culture. In the early centuries of the first millennium, the people of the Malay Peninsula adopted the Indian religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. The Sanskritwriting system was used as early as the 4th century.[26] Between the 7th and the 13th century, much of the Malay Peninsula was under theSrivijaya empire, which was centered in Palembang on the island of Sumatra. After the fall of Srivijaya, the Java-based Majapahit empire had influence over most of Peninsular Malaysia and the Malay Archipelago.[27] In the early 15th century, Parameswara, a prince of the former Srivijayan empire, established a dynasty and founded what would become the Malacca Sultanate, commonly considered the first independent state in the peninsula.[28] Parameswara became a Muslim, and due to the fact that Malacca was under a Muslim Prince, the conversion of Malays to Islam accelerated in the 15th century.[3] Malacca was an important commercial centre during this time, attracting trade from around the region.[3]
The first colonial claim occurred in 1511, when Malacca was conquered by Portugal, who established a colony there.[3] This colony was later captured by the Dutch, before being turned over to the British in 1795.[27] The British Empire set foot on the Malay Peninsula in 1786, with the lease of the island of Penang to the British East India Company by the sultan of Kedah,[29] which was followed by the occupation of Singapore.[30] In 1824, the British took control of Malacca following the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 which divided the Malay Archipelago between Britain and the Netherlands, with Malaya in the British zone. By 1826 the British controlled Penang, Malacca, Singapore and the island of Labuan, which they established as the crown colony of the Straits Settlements. By the turn of the 20th century, the states of Pahang, Selangor, Perak, and Negeri Sembilan, known together as the Federated Malay States, had British Residents appointed to advise the Malay rulers, whom the rulers were bound by treaty to defer to.[31] The remaining five states in the peninsula, known as the Unfederated Malay States, while not directly under rule from London, also accepted British advisers around the turn of the 20th century. Development on the Peninsula and Borneo were generally separate until the 19th century.[27] Sabah was governed as the crown colony of British North Borneo. In 1842, Sarawak was ceded by the Sultan of Brunei to James Brooke, whose successors ruled as the White Rajahs over an independentkingdom until 1946, when it became a British colony.
During World War II, the Japanese army invaded and subsequently occupied Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore for over three years. During this time, ethnic tensions were raised and nationalism grew.[32] After Malaya was reconquered by Allied Forces, popular support for independence grew.[33] Post-war British plans to unite the administration of Malaya under a single crown colony called the Malayan Unionmet with strong opposition from the Malays, who opposed the weakening of the Malay rulers and the granting of citizenship to the ethnic Chinese.[34] The Malayan Union, established in 1946 and consisting of all the British possessions in the Malay peninsula with the exception of Singapore, was dissolved in 1948 and replaced by the Federation of Malaya, which restored the autonomy of the rulers of the Malay states under British protection. During this time, rebels under the leadership of the Malayan Communist Party launched guerrilla operations designed to force the British out of Malaya. The Malayan Emergency, as it was known, lasted from 1948 to 1960, and involved a long anti-insurgency campaign by Commonwealth troops in Malaya. In 1963, Malaya along with the then British crown colonies of Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore, federated to form Malaysia. The proposed date of federation was 31 August 1963, however, the date was delayed until 16 September 1963 due to opposition from Sukarno who was supportive of the Manila Accord[35][36][37][38] and the Sarawak United Peoples' Party.[39]
In its initial period, independence brought heightened tensions including a conflict with Indonesia(Konfrontasi) over the formation of Malaysia, Singapore's eventual exit in 1965,[40][41] and racial strife in the form of the 13 May race riots in 1969.[42] After the riots, the controversial New Economic Policy was launched by Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak, trying to increase the share of the economy held by the bumiputra. The country has since maintained a delicate ethno-political balance, with a system of government that has attempted to combine overall economic development with political and economic policies that promote equitable participation of all races.[43]
Under the premiership of Mahathir bin Mohamad, there was a period of rapid economic growth and urbanization beginning in the 1980s.[44] The period saw a shift from an agriculture-based economy to one based on manufacturing and industry in areas such as computers and consumer electronics. It was during this period too, that the physical landscape of the country changed with the emergence of numerous mega-projects. Notable amongst these were the construction of thePetronas Towers (at the time, the tallest building in the world, and still the world's tallest twin building), Kuala Lumpur International Airport(KLIA), the North-South Expressway, the Sepang International Circuit, the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), the Bakun hydroelectric dam, and Putrajaya, the new federal administrative capital. In the late 1990s, Malaysia was shaken by the Asian financial crisis as well as political unrest caused by the sacking of the deputy prime minister Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim.[45] In November 2007, the country was rocked by two anti-government rallies. They were precipitated by allegations of corruption and discrepancies in the election system that heavily favoured the ruling political party, Barisan Nasional, which had been in power since Malaysia achieved its independence in 1957.
