History of Borneo

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Introduction

Borneo (Kalimantan in Bahasa Indonesia) is the world's third largest island, with an area of 743,330 square km and a population of 18.5 million. Borneo is located north of Australia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia. Administratively, the island is divided among three countries: Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia. Approximately 73% of the island is Indonesian territory. The Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah (East Malaysia), in the north, occupy about 26% of the island. The sovereign state of Brunei, located on the north coast, comprises about 1% of Borneo's land area.

Prehistory

Humans arrived on Sumatra "long before it became an island" [Crossroads p.32]. Paleolithic and Mesolithic stone tools have been found at a number of places. A Paleolithic settlement was found at Lahad Datu. An archaeological site of major importance is Niah Caves; here evidence of human activity dates back at least to 34,000 BP. In Island Southeast Asia the Neolithic began around 2000 BCE. Cave paintings, potsherds, both dated about 1200 BCE, and even iron objects have been found at Niah Caves. Pieces of obsidian originating from New Britain hint at interinsular trade connections at about 1000 BCE. The deposits of high concentration Iron ore on the island make Borneo a likely site within the region of Southeast Asia for the transition from the usage of imported iron tools to the stage of ironworking; Blust 2005 believes, based on linguistic evidence, that the knowledge of iron significantly predates the time for which iron objects are first documented in the area (500-200 BCE).

Early History

Inscriptions in Pallawa script and Sanskrit language have been found at Kutai and refer to a Hindu kingdom historians call Kutai Martadipura (about 400 CE). Also traces documenting the presence of Buddhism have been found. During this era, Borneo for the larger part was covered by rainforest, an ecosystem inhabited by tribal peoples with their traditional religion, who did little agriculture and extractyed much of their needs from the forest. Evidence of trade as well as the influx of foreign religions was concentrated to coastal areas where the local population practised a more intense form of agriculture, at some locations mining. Indian sources refer to Borneo as "Suvarnabhumi" (land of gold), Chinese sources as "Boni".In the emerging regional trade network, Borneo gains importance as a source of diamonds, gold, camphor.

According to ancient Chinese, Indian and Javanese manuscripts, western coastal cities of Borneo had become trading ports, part of their trade routes, since the first millennium. In Chinese manuscripts, gold, camphor, tortoise shells, hornbill ivory, rhinoceros horn, crane crest, beeswax, lakawood (a scented heartwood and root wood of a thick liana, Dalbergia parviflora), dragon's blood, rattan, edible bird's nests and various spices were among the most valuable items from Borneo.

The Indians named Borneo as Suvarnabhumi (the land of gold) and also Karpuradvipa (Camphor Island), which includes the western part of the island shared with Sumatra. The Javanese named Borneo as Puradvipa, or Diamond Island. Archaeological findings in the delta river of Sarawak reveal that the area was once a thriving trading centre between India and China from the 500's until about 1300 AD.

Majapahit

One of the earliest evidence of Hindu influence in Southeast Asia were stone pillars which bears inscriptions in the Pallava script found in Kutai along the Mahakam River in East Kalimantan dated around the second half of the 300's AD. In the 14th century, almost all coastal parts of Borneo were under the control of Majapahit kingdom as is written in the Javanese Nagarakretagama document (ca. 1365) and it was called Nusa Tanjungnagara.

The name of a trading port city in Borneo is Tanjungpura in the Nagarakretagama; the same name written in another Javanese Pararaton document (ca. 1355). In the 15th century, the Majapahit rule exerted its influence in Borneo. Princess Junjung Buih, the queen of the Hindu kingdom of Negara Dipa (situated in Candi Agung area of Amuntai) married a Javanese prince, Prince Suryanata, and together they ruled the kingdom which is a tributary to the Majapahit Empire (1365).

In this way, it became a part of Nusantara. Along the way, the power of Negara Dipa weakened and was replaced by the new court of Negara Daha. When Prince Samudra (Prince Suriansyah) of Negara Daha converted to Islam and formed the Islamic kingdom of Banjar, it inherited some of the areas previously ruled by the Hindu kingdom of Negara Daha.

By the 14th century, the castal regions of Borneo were under the control of the Javanese Hindu Kingdom of Majapahit. Majapahit disintegrated in the late 15th to early 16th century; one of its successors, the Muslim Sultanate of Banten, inherited the control of the coast of West Borneo. Majapahit's former vassal states of Banjar (South B.) and Brunei (North B.) in the early 16th century appear as independent, Muslim sultanates. The Kingdom of Kutai (Kutai Kartanegara, East Borneo) has existed at least since the 13th century; conversion to Islam took place in the 17th century. The Sulu Sultanate had been founded in 1405; its influence extended to Sabah (Northeast B.). In 1771 the Sultanate of Pontianak was founded.

Brunei

The Sultanate of Brunei, during its golden age from the 15th century to the 17th century, ruled a large part of northern Borneo. In 1703 (other sources say 1658), the Sultanate of Sulu received part of North Borneo from the Sultan of Brunei, after Sulu sent aid against a rebellion in Brunei.

During the 1450s, Shari'ful Hashem Syed Abu Bakr, an Arab born in Johor, arrived in Sulu from Malacca. In 1457, he founded the Sultanate of Sulu; he then renamed himself "Paduka Maulana Mahasari Sharif Sultan Hashem Abu Bakr". Subsequently HM Sultan Jamalul Ahlam Kiram (1863–1881), the 29th reigning Sultan of Sulu, leased North Borneo in 1878 to Gustavus Baron de Overbeck and Alfred Dent, representing the British North Borneo Company in what is now the Malaysian state of Sabah.

The company also exerted control on inland territories that were inhabited by numerous tribes. In the 19th century, coastal areas ruled by the Sultanate in the west of the island were gradually taken by the dynasty of James Brooke. The Brooke dynasty ruled Sarawak for a hundred years and became famous as the "White Rajahs".

1500-1795

Antonio Pigafetta, the chronist of the Magellan expedition (1519-1522), established the spelling under which Borneo is known in the west. Portugal in the 16th century and the V.O.C. in the 17th and 18th century showed limited interest in Borneo. The V.O.C. traded at Banjarmasin and in western Borneo (Landak, Sambas, Sukadana). Mining was mostly undertaken by Chinese settlers.

Borneo 1795-1949

By the 18th century, the area from Sambas to Berau were tributaries to the Banjar Kingdom, but this eventually shrunk to the size of what is now South Kalimantan as a result of agreements with the Dutch. In the Karang Intan Agreement during the reign of Prince Nata Dilaga (Susuhunan Nata Alam) (1808–1825), the Banjar Kingdom gave up its territories to the Dutch Indies which included Bulungan, Kutai, Pasir, Pagatan and Kotawaringin. Other territories given up to the Dutch Indies were Landak, Sambas, Sintang and Sukadana.

In 1824 and 1871 the British and Dutch concluded agreements delimiting their spheres of interest in the region. Most of Borneo was allocated to the Dutch East Indies; the North (Sarawak, the Sultanate of Brunei, and North Borneo) to the British. Sarawak had been granted to James Brooke as a fief in 1841 and was ruled by his successors until 1946. Sabah became the North Borneo Protectorate in 1888.

The Dutch annexed the Sultanate of Kutai in 1844, the Sultanate of Banjar in 1860

Borneo since 1949

Indonesia became independent in 1949. Indonesia's capital is Jakarta; the country's economy is concentrated on heavily populated Java. From the 1950s to 1980s, the Transmigrasi program resettled millions of Javanese families on the larger, but lesser populated island of Borneo. Logging was intensified. Both the influx of non-Bornean settlers and the intrusion of commercial companies into the rainforest threatened the lifestyle of the tribal population (Dayaks et al.) and resulted in conflict and violence in the 1990s, causing internal displacement.

During World War II, the island was administrated by the Japanese (1942-1945).

By the early 1950s, Indonesia's president Sukarno regarded Sarawak, North Borneo and Brunei (under British administration respectively protection until 1963/1984) as vestiges of colonialism and as territories to be included in a larger Indonesia; he pursued the policy of Konfrontasi. In 1963, Sarawak and Sabah were integrated into Malaysia; a 1965 coup in Indonesia removed the threat of Konfrontasi. In 1984, Brunei was released into full independence. While national and international efforts are undertaken to protect the rainforest on Borneo, commercial activities continue to pose a threat.

Source : sejarahnorthborneo, jstor, borneothemes