BRITISH colonialism in Malaya may be looked back on as a kind of umbrella under whose shelter two different societies grew in vigour and strength until they combined to discard the protecting cover. The order established by British administrators on the one hand enabled the Malay political organisms to preserve and consolidate themselves in a new milieu and on the other encouraged the development of rich new economic organisms by immigrant peoples, partly British but preponderantly Asian. Before Britain entered on the scene the Malay peninsula was thinly peo led, with formed a single political unit and out of the struggles of rival local empires nine distinct states survived into the nineteenth century. The great bulk of the population were Malay by race and Muslim by religion, although there had long been traders of other races. Economically the peninsula, having none of the s ices of the surrounding countries.Three factors determined the pattern of British intervention : the basic British interest in trade, the geographical position and contacts of the Malay peninsula, and the lack of economic enterrise among the Malays. Wishing to establish trading centres and Lter to promote internal economic development, Britain inevitably sought co-operation with the economically more active inhabitants of Malaya's great neighbours in India and Chna. At the same time sentiment and policy alike led to the desire to disturb the Malays as little as possible. Peace in the Malay peninsula was important for shipping moving in the area and onward to the Far East, for trade based on its ports and later for the economic development of the peninsula itself. Nobody ever so formulated it, but it was as if a bargain had been struck under which the Malays were guaranteed protection in their own ways in return for their ac uiescence in the a settled population only in the lower river valleys. It x ad never archipelago, attracted interest mainly as a centre o P trade with economic changes going on around and amongst t 1 emselves.
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