| In the end of18thcentury and the beginning of19thcentury, the colonial policywhich took mercantilism as guiding thought started to be gradually abandoned byBritain; on the road of transition towards to The Free Empire, the colonial policywhich took trade benefit as primary purpose was widely advocated; theimplementation of new colonial policy certainly would drive British government tobreak Netherlanders’ trade monopoly in The Southeast Asia. Before Netherlanders’trade monopoly was broken, the local safety guard on Indian Subcontinent was alsoon the agenda; due to lack of necessary navy supply station on the Indian Ocean, itwas very inconvenient for British navy to have a flexible extension. By chance,Francis Light knew Kedah (a country on the Malaysian Peninsula) was bitterlyseeking for foreign aid due to being under oppression of Siam; therefore, he made theSultan to give Penang Island through active negotiation and took it as the cost ofseeking for support and protection of the East Indian Company. Later, NapoleonicWar broke out, and Malacca originally affiliated to the Netherlands was trusted underBritain. During trusteeship period, many factors made Malacca become a strongholdwhich Britain couldn’t give up; The London Treaty in1824finally confirmed theaffiliation position of Malacca; meanwhile, Raffles made unremitting efforts in orderto obtain a more advantageous strategic point–Singapore; through intervention intothe Johore throne struggle, Raffles finally rented Singapore in1819. In1826, PenangIsland, Malacca, and Singapore were combined into a uniform region–the StraitsSettlements, which became a colony firstly established by the East Indian Company inthe Malaysian Peninsula and also a base via which Britain continued to makeexpansion and penetration in inland of the Malaysian Peninsula.However, in1830s, the East Indian Company was caught in some difficultiessuch as fiscal crisis; besides, the authority didn’t realize actual value of the MalaysianPeninsula yet and it was stingy to make decisions about defense and construction ofgovernment administration and judicial system of the Straits Settlements. Forced by such problems as threat from pirates, insufficient food supply, insufficient power inindustrial development, and limited investment market, all circles of the StraitsSettlements had to think about their road of development. Therefore, the trade peopleof the Straits Settlements took the lead to invest Malaysian Peninsula; this was thefirst step of primary penetration that the Straits Settlements made on the MalaysianPeninsula, and the penetration mainly focused on economic penetration. However, asnewcomers, they met many difficulties; there were Siamese eyeing covetously in thenorth and Netherlanders watching for a chance to pry in the south, as well as chaoticsituation of various states in Malay. The economic penetration was a kind ofpenetration without any guarantee; at this time, in order to guarantee that theinvestment made by business circle in the Straits Settlements could be smoothlycarried out, the comprehensive penetration of the Straits Settlements governmentbecame very necessary. Besides, due to geographical factor, it was inevitable for theStraits Settlements to be involved into political dispute in Malaysian Peninsula fromobjective perspective.In a word, after The British Siam Treaty was signed, British colonial policy wasalso gradually changed from non-intervention to intervention, and the interventionway included diplomatic intervention, military intervention, and political intervention.The transition of British colonial policy also experienced a process, the most obviousfeature of which was a change from passive evasion to active participation on affairsof the Malaysian Peninsula. On January20,1874, under the coordination of theGovernor of the Straits Settlements Andrew Clarke, many Malay influential officialsand leaders of Chinese secrete societies jointly signed The Bang-Kor Treaty, whichshowed a climax of British intervention on Malaysian Peninsula. |
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