Malaysia travel guide

Due to increasing affluence, Kedah, in the north, was Malaysia’s original premier state. However, it was the prosperous city of Srivijaya on Sumatra that would dominate much of the region from the 7th to 11th centuries. As Srivijayans controlled the Malacca Strait they were able to police the passage between the Indian Ocean and the China Sea which meant further Chinese and Indian influence in Malaysia alongside greater wealth and the increased importance of Buddhism.

Thanks to Malacca's proximity to Sumatra the port city became the country’s trading powerhouse with ships arriving from as far as the Middle East, as well as India and China. With the decline of the Srivijaya Empire in the 13th century, Malacca found itself under the rule of Parameswara, the last king of Singapura (Singapore). This island was a Malay kingdom from the turn of the 13th century to the early 14th when the arrival of Majapahit ships forced Parameswara to flee the island and set up a new base at the mouth of the Malacca River which would grow to become the city of Malacca.

The Malacca Sultanate thrived and prospered, thanks to allegiances with China's Ming Dynasty; with Parameswara's conversion to Islam, perhaps due to his marriage to a Persian princess, influencing the decline of Hinduism and Buddhism throughout Malaysia. The wealth and strategic location of Malacca didn't go unnoticed and it would be the arrival of the Portuguese, after they'd captured the Indian state of Goa, that would defeat the Malacca Sultanate in 1511 and go on to establish Southeast Asia's first Christian trading base.

Meanwhile the son of Parameswara, Megat Iskandar Shah, headed south to Johor in order to set up another important trading centre which would also be used as a strategic base from where to try to reclaim Malacca back from the Portuguese. Despite boycotts from the Chinese, including Portuguese executions in China, the Dutch East India Company, with help from Johor in 1641, managed to wrest control of Malacca away from the Portuguese. The British subsequently put the squeeze on Malacca, and the rest of the Malay Peninsula, resulting in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty, signed in 1824. The British established advisory boards across the Malay Peninsula with imported labour from China and India actively encouraged by the prospect of citizenship. Sabah and Sarawak, on Borneo, would follow suit and come under the British rule of Malaysia until the invasion of the Japanese in WW2.

Following the war, nationalism and a desire for independence saw tensions with Chinese immigrants come to a fore with the rise of Communism further increasing pressure on the British who subsequently brought in Commonwealth troops to help quash rebellions. Malaya became the Federation of Malaya with nine independent states existing alongside the British enclaves of Penang and Malacca. Full independence was declared in 1957 and in 1963, Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah were introduced to the federation which would become Malaysia. Singapore was expelled two years later.

Modern day Malaysia has seen a steady increase in tourism since the early 1970s, largely encouraged by government initiatives, in attempt to vary the country’s economy and decrease dependence on agricultural exports. The Malaysia Tourist Board’s tagline: ‘Malaysia, Truly Asia’, certainly lit the touch paper when it came to global, slightly kitsch, recognition with the lure of low living costs and high wages encouraging western expats to make the move and further mix up Malaysia’s cultural legacy.