History of Sabah - North Borneo

North Borneo

In 1761, Alexander Dalrymple, an officer of the British East India Company, concluded an agreement with the Sultan of Sulu to allow him to set up a trading post in the region. This plan, together with other attempts to build a settlement and a military station centering around Pulau Balambangan, proved to be a failure. A map by Dalrymple of North Borneo is exhibited in the National Museum of Scotland. There was minimal foreign interest in this region afterward and control over most parts of north Borneo seems to have remained loosely under the Sultanate of Brunei.

In 1846, the island of Labuan on the west coast of Sabah was ceded to Britain by the Sultan of Brunei and in 1848 it became a British Crown Colony. Labuan became a base for British operations against piracy in the region.

The first recorded ascent of Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in Borneo, was made in 1851 by British Malaya colonial administrator and naturalist Hugh Low. The highest peak and the deep gully of the mountain was later named after him.

In 1865 the American Consul General of Brunei, Charles Lee Moses, obtained a 10-year lease over North Borneo from the Sultan of Brunei Abdul Momin. Ownership was then passed to an American trading company owned by Joseph William Torrey, Thomas Bradley Harris, and some Chinese merchants. They set up a base and settlement in Kimanis and the Sultan of Brunei appointed Torrey as "The Rajah of Ambong and Marudu". His fortress "Ellena" was located in Kimanis with hundreds of Iban trackers led by Lingkanad. Torrey returned to America in 1877 and died near Boston, Massachusetts, in March 1884. The rights of the trading company were then sold to Gustav Baron Von Overbeck, the Austro-Hungarian Consul in Hong Kong (though he was actually a German national), and he later obtained another 10-year renewal of the lease. The lease was subsequently converted into a cession via a treaty which was signed by the Sultan of Brunei Abdul Momin. In the treaty, the Sultan appointed Overbeck as "Maharajah of Sabah and Rajah of Gaya and Sandakan." The treaty granted Overbeck the right over whole region of Sabah, including parts purporting to be the dominion of the Sulu Sultanate including Sandakan and Tawau. The treaty was signed on December 29, 1877 at the Brunei Palace.

On the east coast of North Borneo near Sandakan, Overbeck and William Cowie, on behalf of Dent's company, negotiated and obtained a lease in perpetuity from the Sultan of Sulu over its holdings in this region in 1878. This lease was signed on January 22, 1878 in the palace of the Sultan of Sulu. The lease would later be the subject of dispute by the modern republic of Philippines regarding the sovereignty of the state of Sabah. The rights were subsequently transferred to Alfred Dent, who in 1881 formed the British North Borneo Provisional Association Ltd. In 1881, the British government granted the British North Borneo Company a royal charter. William Hood Treacher was appointed the first British Governor of North Borneo.

In the following year, the British North Borneo Company was formed and Kudat was made its capital. Beginning 1882, the Company brought in Chinese people mainly Hakkas from Guangdong province to work as labourers in plantation farms. Most of the migrants settled in Kudat and Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu).

In 1883 the capital was moved to Sandakan to capitalise on its potential of vast timber resources. In 1885, United Kingdom, Spain and Germany signed the Madrid Protocol of 1885. The purpose of the protocol was to recognise the sovereignty of Spain in the Sulu Archipelago and also for Spain to relinquish all claims it might have had over North Borneo.

In 1888 North Borneo became a protectorate of the United Kingdom. Administration and control over North Borneo remained in the hands of the Company despite being a protectorate and they effectively ruled until 1942. Their rule had been generally peaceful except for some rebellions, including one led by the Bajau-Suluk leader Mat Salleh from 1894 to 1900, and another led by Antanum of the Muruts known as the Rundum resistance in 1915. Beginning 1920, more Chinese migrants arrived from the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and even Hebei after the British changed its immigration policy to stimulate the stagnant economy during that period. There was also Javanese migration into Sabah beginning 1891 and subsequent recruitment of laborers by the British from 1907 onwards. Other significant migrants from present-day Indonesia into Sabah consists of the Bugis people beginning mid-19th century and the Florenese people from Flores beginning early 1950s.

The First Natives Paramount Leader was Pehin Orang Kaya-Kaya Koroh bin Santulan of Keningau "The father of former Sabah State Minister Tan Sri Stephen (Suffian) Koroh, and Sabah's fifth State Governor Tun Thomas (Ahmad) Koroh (the elder brother of Suffian)". Santulan which also a Pengeran, the father to Pehin Orang Kaya-Kaya Koroh was a Murut descendant of Hashim Jalilul Alam Aqamaddin, the 25th Sultan of Brunei.