How has colonial rule changed the natives’ lives?

IMPACT of Colonial Rule

Political - Malaya

Pre-colonial Malaya• Sultans and Malay Chiefs

ruled• Traditional rule was

based on RELIGION• Sultan was seen as the

protector and propagator of the Islamic faith

• Informal rule: the Malay Chiefs collected taxes for the Sultans and could pocket some amount of the taxes

Political - Malaya• Indirect rule was applied to colonial Malaya • British residents were attached to the Sultans

– Supposed to advise the Sultans on matters excluding religion

Political

• What happens when Western bureaucracies replaced traditional structures?

Malaya: Residential System

Straits Settlements

Federated Malay States

Unfederated Malay States

Malaya’s Residential System• Residents were supposed to “advise” the Sultans • But they ended up making the decisions political powers

shifted from the Sultans and Malay chiefs to the Residents• Sultans and Malay chiefs became salaried employees

Administrative Hierarchy1896-1908

High Commissioner

Resident-General = Durbar

Heads of Federal Departments

State Councils of States

States Departments

Where are the sultans?

Economic changes

• Transformation took place in the region– From subsistence and self-sufficiency to

commercialized and profit motive– From a closed world to one which was closely

linked to the global market– Plantations and industries sprang up and

dotted the landscapes of Southeast Asia

Economic - Malaya

• Pre-colonial Malaya– No rubber plantations, only tin industries– Tin industries were controlled by the Malay

chiefs, then small Chinese capitalists– Tin was mined periodically to supplement

incomes between rice harvests

Economic - MalayaColonial Malaya• Rubber plant was brought in for production

– Suitable climate and sufficient land– Provided a constant yet cheap supply of rubber

• Rubber plantations sprang up– By 1970s, rubber plantation accounted for 65% of

the land

• Increase in revenue due to increase in export earnings

Economic

• What happened when only the Europeans could afford the technologies for the plantations and industries?

Malaya: Tin mining industries

Malaya : profits

Tin mining in Malaya• Economic alienation of the

Chinese small capitalists• The Europeans could

afford modern technology such as tin dredge to effectively mine more tin

• While the Chinese could not

• Hence, Europeans slowly replaced the Chinese small capitalists in the tin mining industries

• HERITAGE: An old tin dredge. In the days of old when tin mining was booming, these structures could be seen afloat on mining pools in Perak and Selangor. The dredge scoops sand and earth from the bottom of the mining pool, processes them and separates the tin ore in the dredge itself.

• Source: New Straits Times Online (Malaysia)

Profits

• Although revenue of Southeast Asian countries increased due to her export economy

• Much of these profits were channeled to the home countries of the colonial powers

so… who actually benefited more?

Effects

• What happened when Southeast Asian economies were closely linked to the global economy?– The region exported most of her products

elsewhere

• Case study: The Great Depression

Case study: The Great Depression

• The Great Depression impacted Southeast Asia because of the region’s close links with the global market

• Had great economic and social impacts on the Southeast Asian natives

• Effects– Falling prices– Falling revenues– Retrenchment– Poverty

Case study: The Great Depression• Falling prices

Rubber prices on the London market plummeted from 10.25 to 2.3 pence per pound from 1929-1932Fall in value of rubber exports in FMS

What happens when the tire bursts?

Case study: The Great Depression

• Falling revenue

State revenues of the Federated Malay States

Case study: The Great Depression

• Retrenchment– Cost cutting measure– Malaya: 30-40% of the plantation community

were retrenched between 1930 and 1933

Case study: The Great Depression

• Poverty– Due to fewer jobs and less/little/ no wage– Falling prices affected those who owned land/

were involved in the export economyNo money to pay debtsLand fell in the hands of the debtors which went

uncultivatedno land, no money how to survive?

Infrastructure

• development of roads, rail, telegraphs &

harbour wharves

• railway line linking Province Wellesley to

Johor Bahru and extended to Singapore

• rubber plantations & tin mines well-served

by roads

Rubber & tin-mining areas in Perak

Maritime Trade & Services

• Export trade : tin & rubber

• 1870s, Singapore assumed status of premier port in SEA

- opening of Suez Canal (1869) increased

traffic passing through Straits of Malacca

- use of steamships – harbour of

Singapore upgraded

Opening of the Suez Canal, 1869

Social changes• Western education due to the civilizing mission

• New and heavier taxes imposed on the natives– Centralization of taxes and controlled by the

colonial government– Tax for revenue to carry out public works

• Land alienation– More land was allocated for plantation purposes– Seizure of land from village communities

System of Law & Order/Justice

• British system of justice

- equality in the eyes of the law

• Attempt at law and order – policemen

- did it cut down corruption?

Social - MalayaWestern education

Frank Swettenham: “teach on a need to know basis”

• Western education for members of the Malay aristocracy– Malay college to train and prepare sons of the Malay chiefs for the

British administration

• Vernacular education for the masses– Sultan Idris College to train teachers for kampong schools

Malay collegeMalay college

Growth of towns & population

• rise of towns eg Ipoh, Taiping, Kuala

Lumpur – urbanisation

• increase in population

– availability of jobs

- demand for cheap labour – influx of

Indian & Chinese migrants

Land Ownership

• new laws passed which curtailed Malay

farmer’s free use of land – Sultans owned

all land

• Issue of land titles – use of specific plot of

land – encouraged farmers to settle down

and plant crops, reduce shifting cultivation

• Malay Land Reservations System – defined

land reserved for Malays only – ensured

Malays do not lose all land to non-Malays

Social

• What happens when you educate the uneducated?

• “As a result of Western education, students

acquired new language and new ideas

to combat the colonial rule that possessed their own society and determined their disadvantaged position within it”

—Nicholas Tarling