Malay traditional society and a colonial encounter

Abstract

The shift of Nusantara centers after the 16th century and consequently the carving of Nusantara into separate political units after the 19th century were directly related to a series of colonial power struggle in this region, as well as to political and technological changes taking place in the home countries of these powers. Their principal goal was to establish a colonial regime that would look after their economic interests in their newly founded colonies. In essence, that was the inspiring motive behind their colonial satellitization.  The integration of the center of Malacca Empire into European colonial orbit resulted in the disintegration of the empire, which was succeeded by a Johor-Banten Malay Empire in the 17th century. At that time, there arose three centers in Nusantara: Acheh, Banten, and Batavia. In the 18th century, Batavia emerged as the supreme center of  Nusantara: its rise was a direct result of the consolidation of Dutch colonial power in  the Far East. The destiny of the Johor Empire was sealed by the strife between Dutch and British powers which battled their ways both in Europe and in the East. The Waterloo between these powers, over their shares of Nusantara, finally occurred in 1824 when Nusantara was carved out. From then onwards, the history of Nusantara became the history of European satellitization of local production centers.  In the 19th century, Malay Peninsula was gradually brought into the trap of British satellization programme: from influence to control: from control to ownership of production centers; and all these resulted in the death of Asiatic-feudal mode of production. The British satellitization programme was officially launched in the tin states of Malay Peninsula in the year 1874