THE INDIGENOUS STATE AND SOCIETY
The east coast states, particularly Terengganu, have a long tradition of boat-building to meet the needs of the local Malay fishermen.
This study of 19th-century indigenous societies in Malaya begins at a transitional phase of their history, on the eve of colonial rule. Most of these societies flourished as self-sufficient, independent entities, practising their material and social cultures in much the same way as they always had, changing only with the monsoon and dry seasons. The Malay kingdoms (kerajaan) in the Malay Peninsula were more advanced than those in northern Borneo, which had been under Brunei rule until the latter part of the 18th century, when a small portion (the northeast and northwest coasts of present-day Sabah) was presented to the sultan of Sulu. European rule came in 1841, when Brunei allowed Sarawak to be governed by James Brooke, the first white rajah of Sarawak (r. 1841-68). In both the Malay Peninsula and Borneo, peasants provided forced labour for the sultans and the chiefs without any wages. They also served as soldiers and ceremonial escorts.
Territorial boundaries were not well demarcated, but all the native peoples and settlements recognized the overlordship of their respective sultans and paid tribute. By the beginning of the 18th century in what is today Sarawak, the Land and Sea Dayak (the Bidayuh and Iban), the Melanau sago cultivators and fishermen and the coastal Malays, comprising Arab traders and retainers of Brunei pengiran (nobles), had occupied the Batang Lupar, Rajang, Sarawak, Kalaka and other river systems, forming the nucleus of negeri (localized political entities) linked with Brunei. In North Borneo (present-day Sabah), peoples such as the Bajau lived in coastal areas, while the Dusun, Murut and others lived in the interior.
These traditional societies relied on fishing, rice and cash crops as well as the collection and export of forest produce and minerals. The Malays, Bajau and Samal Balangingi were maritime people who had been involved in entrepôt trade since the 14th century, but in the early 19th century this trade declined due to Portuguese, Dutch and English competition, the advent of slave raiding and the frequent insurrections against Brunei rule. With European economic intrusion, the Iranun and Balangingi peoples of present-day Sabah, who were under Sulu rule, indulged in slave raiding to serve the organized slave markets in the Sulu Archipelago and Borneo. Chinese miners from Dutch West Borneo were attracted to Sarawak by antimony mining, which began in the 1820s, after the Dutch imposed controls.
On the Malay Peninsula, Kedah's rice industry was the most advanced, with a modern irrigation system by the end of the 19th century. Perak's tin (which was mined on a large scale in the 19th century), had been known as early as the 17th century, causing Aceh to invade and demand tribute. On the east coast of the Peninsula, textile production was reported to already be a thriving industry in 1838. However, with European penetration of these societies from the early 19th century, much of the indigenous commercial and social life was soon either disrupted or forced to adapt to the new developments taking place.