Malaysia is a modern concept, created in the second half of the 20th century. However, contemporary Malaysia regards the entire history of Malaya and Borneo, spanning thousands of years back to prehistoric times, as its own history. Significant events in Malaysia's modern history include the formation of the federation, the separation of Singapore, the racial riots, Mahathir Mohamad's era of modernisation, and the nation's political upheavals of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
The first evidence of archaic human occupation in the region dates back at least 1.83 million years, while the earliest remnants of anatomically modern humans are approximately 40,000 years old. The ancestors of the present-day population of Malaysia entered the area in multiple waves during prehistoric and historical times.
Hinduism and Buddhism from India and China dominated early regional history, reaching their peak from the 7th to the 13th centuries during the reign of the Sumatra-based Srivijaya civilisation. Islam made its initial presence in the Malay Peninsula as early as the 10th century, but it was during the 15th century that the religion firmly took root, at least among the court elites, leading to the rise of several sultanates, the most prominent being the Sultanate of Malacca and the Sultanate of Brunei.
The Portuguese were the first European colonial power to establish themselves on the Malay Peninsula and in Southeast Asia, capturing Malacca in 1511. This event led to the establishment of several sultanates, such as Johor and Perak. Dutch hegemony over the Malay sultanates increased during the 17th to 18th centuries, with the Dutch capturing Malacca in 1641 with the aid of Johor. In the 19th century, the English ultimately gained hegemony across the territory that is now Malaysia. The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 defined the boundaries between British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies (which became Indonesia), and the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 defined the boundaries between British Malaya and Siam (which became Thailand). The fourth phase of foreign influence was marked by a wave of immigration of Chinese and Indian workers to meet the needs created by the colonial economy in the Malay Peninsula and Borneo.Annual Report on the Federation of Malaya: 1951 in C.C. Chin and Karl Hack, Dialogues with Chin Peng pp. 380, 81.
The Japanese invasion during World War II ended British rule in Malaya. After the Japanese Empire was defeated by the Allies, the Malayan Union was established in 1946 and reorganized as the Federation of Malaya in 1948. In the peninsula, the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) took up arms against the British, leading to the declaration of emergency rule from 1948 to 1960. A forceful military response to the communist insurgency, followed by the Baling Talks in 1955, led to Malayan independence on August 31, 1957, through diplomatic negotiation with the British. On 16 September 1963, the Federation of Malaysia was formed, but in August 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation and became a separate independent country. A racial riot in 1969 resulted in the imposition of emergency rule, the suspension of parliament, and the proclamation of the Rukun Negara, a national philosophy promoting unity among citizens. The New Economic Policy (NEP), adopted in 1971, sought to eradicate poverty and restructure society to eliminate the identification of race with economic function.
Under Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia experienced rapid economic growth and urbanization beginning in the 1980s. The National Development Policy (NDP), succeeding the previous economic policy, was implemented from 1991 to 2000. The 1997 Asian financial crisis nearly caused the country's currency, stock, and property markets to collapse, though they subsequently recovered. The 1MDB scandal came to prominence in 2015 as a significant global corruption scandal, implicating then-Prime Minister Najib Razak. The scandal significantly influenced the 2018 general election, resulting in the first change of ruling political party since independence. In early 2020, Malaysia faced a political crisis, concurrent with the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to political, health, social, and economic disruptions. The 2022 general election resulted in Malaysia's first hung parliament, leading to Anwar Ibrahim's appointment as Prime Minister on November 24, 2022.
Prehistory
Stone hand axes from early hominids, probably Homo erectus, have been unearthed in Lenggong. These axes date back 1.83 million years, making them some of the oldest evidence of hominid habitation in Southeast Asia.
The earliest evidence of modern human habitation in Malaysia is a 40,000-year-old skull excavated from the Niah Caves in present-day Sarawak. This skull is also one of the oldest modern human remains found in Southeast Asia. The first foragers visited the West Mouth of the Niah Caves, located 110 kilometers (68 miles) southwest of Miri, 40,000 years ago when Borneo was connected to the mainland of Southeast Asia. Mesolithic and Neolithic burial sites have also been discovered in the area. The region around the Niah Caves has been designated as Niah National Park.
A study of Asian genetics suggests that the original humans in East Asia came from Southeast Asia. The oldest complete skeleton found in Malaysia is the 11,000-year-old Perak Man, unearthed in 1991. Indigenous groups on the peninsula (known as the Orang Asli) can be divided into three ethnicities: the Negritos, the Senoi, and the Proto-Malays. The first inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula were most likely Negritos. These Mesolithic hunters were probably the ancestors of the Semang, an ethnic Negrito group. The Semang populations on the coast died out in the 20th century but there are still groups living in the interior of the Peninsula.
The Senoi appear to be a composite group, with approximately half of their maternal mitochondrial DNA lineages tracing back to the ancestors of the Semang and about half to later ancestral migrations from Indochina. Scholars suggest they are descendants of early Austroasiatic-speaking agriculturalists, who brought both their language and technology to the southern part of the peninsula approximately 4,000 years ago. They eventually united and coalesced with the indigenous population.
The Proto-Malays have a more diverse origin and had settled in Malaysia by 1000 BC as a result of Austronesian expansion. Although they show some connections with other inhabitants of Maritime Southeast Asia, some also have ancestry in Indochina around the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, about 20,000 years ago. Areas comprising what is now Malaysia participated in the Maritime Jade Road, a trading network that existed for 3,000 years, between 2000 BC and 1000 AD.Tsang, Cheng-hwa (2000), "Recent advances in the Iron Age archaeology of Taiwan", Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association, 20: 153–158, doi:10.7152/bippa.v20i0.11751Turton, M. (2021). Notes from central Taiwan: Our brother to the south. Taiwan's relations with the Philippines date back millennia, so it's a mystery that it's not the jewel in the crown of the New Southbound Policy. Taiwan Times.Everington, K. (2017). Birthplace of Austronesians is Taiwan, capital was Taitung: Scholar. Taiwan News.Bellwood, P., H. Hung, H., Lizuka, Y. (2011). Taiwan Jade in the Philippines: 3,000 Years of Trade and Long-distance Interaction. Semantic Scholar.
Anthropologists support the notion that the Proto-Malays originated from what is today Yunnan, China.R.H von Geldern, J.H.C Kern, J.R Foster, J.R Logen, Slametmuljana and Asmah Haji Omar.A history of Malaya and her neighbours – Page 21 – by Francis Joseph Moorhead, published by Longmans of Malaysia, 1965India and ancient Malaya (from the earliest times to circa A.D. 1400) – Page 3 – by D. Devahuti, Published by D. Moore for Eastern Universities Press, 1965The making of modern Malaya: a history from earliest times to independence – Page 5 – by N. J. Ryan, Oxford University Press, 1965The cultural heritage of Malaya – Page 2 – by N. J. Ryan published by Longman Malaysia, 1971A history of Malaysia and Singapore – Page 5 – by N. J. Ryan published by Oxford University Press, 1976"How the dominoes fell": Southeast Asia in perspective – Page 7 – by Mae H. Esterline, Hamilton Press, 1986A design guide of public parks in Malaysia – Page 38 – by Jamil Abu Bakar published by Penerbit UTM, 2002, , An introduction to the Malaysian legal system – Page 1 – by Min Aun Wu, Heinemann Educational Books (Asia), 1975A short history of Malaysia – Page 22 – by Harry Miller published by F.A. Praeger, 1966Malaya and its history – Page 14 – by Sir Richard Olaf Winstedt published by Hutchinson University Library, 1962Southeast Asia, past & present – Page 10 – by D. R. SarDesai published by Westview Press, 1994Malaya – Page 17 – by Norton Sydney Ginsburg, Chester F. Roberts published by University of Washington Press, 1958Asia: a social study – Page 43 – by David Tulloch published by Angus and Robertson, 1969Area handbook on Malaya University of Chicago, Chester F. Roberts, Bettyann Carner published by University of Chicago for the Human Relations Area Files, 1955Thailand into the 80's – Page 12 – by Samnak Nāyok Ratthamontrī published by the Office of the Prime Minister, Kingdom of Thailand, 1979Man in Malaya – Page 22 – by B. W. Hodder published by Greenwood Press, 1973The modern anthropology of South-East Asia: an introduction, Volume 1 of The modern anthropology of South-East Asia, RoutledgeCurzon Research on Southeast Asia Series – Page 54 – by Victor T. King, William D. Wilder published by Routledge, 2003, , Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society – Page 17 – by Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Malaysian Branch, Singapore, 1936Malay and Indonesian leadership in perspective – Page 9 – by Ahmad Kamar 1984The Malay peoples of Malaysia and their languages – Page 36 – by Asmah Haji Omar published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia, 1983Encyclopedia of world cultures Volume 5 – Page 174 – by David Levinson – History – 1993 published by G.K. Hall, 1993Indigenous peoples of Asia – Page 274 – by Robert Harrison Barnes, Andrew Gray, Benedict Kingsbury published by the Association for Asian Studies, 1995Peoples of the Earth: Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia edited by Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard published by Danbury Press, 1973American anthropologist Vol 60 – Page 1228 – by American Anthropological Association, Anthropological Society of Washington (Washington, D.C.), American Ethnological Society, 1958Encyclopaedia of Southeast Asia (set of 5 Vols.) – Page 4 – by Brajendra Kumar published by Akansha Publishing House, 2006, , This was followed by an early-Holocene dispersal through the Malay Peninsula into the Malay Archipelago. Around 300 BC, they were pushed inland by the Deutero-Malays, an Iron Age or Bronze Age people descended partly from the Chams of Cambodia and Vietnam. The Deutero-Malays, the first group in the peninsula to use metal tools, were direct ancestors of modern Malaysian Malays and introduced advanced farming techniques. The Malays remained politically fragmented throughout the Malay Archipelago, although they shared a common culture and social structure.
Early Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms
In the first millennium AD, the Malay became the dominant ethnicity on the peninsula. The small early states that were established were greatly influenced by Indian culture, as was most of Southeast Asia. Indian influence in the region dates back to at least the 3rd century BC. South Indian culture was spread to Southeast Asia by the South Indian Pallava dynasty in the 4th and 5th centuries.History of Humanity: From the seventh century B.C. to the seventh century A.D. by Sigfried J. de Laet p. 395
Trade with India and China