trading ranges, during which Sandakan is still a part of the
Bruneian Empire. Like most of Borneo, this area was once under the control of the
Bruneian Empire in the 15th century before being ceded to the
Sultanate of Sulu between the 17th and 18th centuries as a gift for helping the Bruneian forces during the
Brunei Civil War. Since the 18th century, Sandakan start to be ruled by the Sultanate of Sulu. In 1855, when Spanish power began to expand in the Philippine archipelago, they began to restrict the trade of foreign nations with Sulu by establishing a port in
Zamboanga and issuing a ruling which declared that ships wanting to engage in trade with the
Sulu Archipelago must first visit the Spanish port. In 1860, the Sultanate of Sulu became important to the British as their archipelago could allow the British to dominate trade routes from
Singapore to
Mainland China. But in 1864, William Frederick Schuck, a German ex-member for the German consular service arrived in
Sulu and met Sultan
Jamal ul-Azam, who encouraged him to remain in
Jolo. thus the Sultanate granted Schuck an area of land in the Sandakan Bay to establish a trading port to monopolise the
rattan trade in the northeast coast where Schuck could operate freely without the Spanish blockade. After efforts by Overbeck to sell northern Borneo to the
German Empire,
Austria-Hungary and the
Kingdom of Italy were unsuccessful, he went into business with
Alfred Dent in 1877. In 1877 the Sultan of Brunei agreed to lease land to Overbeck, The Cowie settlement was accidentally burnt down on 15 June 1879 and was never thereafter rebuilt. The first British Resident,
William B. Pryer then moved the administration to a new settlement on 21 June 1879 to a residence in what is today known as
Buli Sim Sim near Sandakan Bay. During Pryer's tenure of being the first resident of Sandakan, one of his first tasks was to establish law and order. The situation in the nascent colony remained tense, with the Borneans being hostile towards the authority of the British North Borneo Company, and all-out warfare prevented only by the presence of
Royal Navy ships offshore. To resolve the situation, Pryer imported policemen from
British India and
Singapore. His first contingent of police was made up of Indian
Sikhs with a large body stature. The Indian police were probably from the
Sepoy Company in India and were generally called 'Sipai' by the locals. During their occupation, the Japanese restored the town's previous name,
Elopura and established a
prisoner of war camp to hold their captive enemies. Allied planes started to raid Sandakan in September 1944. As the Japanese feared further retaliation from the Allied forces, they began to move all prisoners and forced them to
march to Ranau. Thousands of British and Australian soldiers lost their lives during this forced march in addition to
Javanese labourers from the
Dutch East Indies. Only six Australian soldiers survived from this camp, all after escaping. Sandakan was completely destroyed both by bombing from Allied forces and by the Japanese occupation. at the end of the war. The bombing was intended to flush out the
Japanese who occupied the town during this period. The heavy damage to the town eventually led to the British moving the capital of
British North Borneo to
Jesselton. At the end of the war, the British North Borneo Company returned to administer the town but were unable to finance the costs of reconstruction. They gave control of North Borneo to the
British Crown on 15 July 1946. The new colonial government chose to move the capital of North Borneo to
Jesselton instead of rebuilding it as the cost of reconstruction was higher due to the damage. Although Sandakan was no longer the administrative capital, it still remained as the "economic capital" with its port activities related to the export of timber and other agricultural products in the east coast. To improve the facilities, the Crown Colony administration designed a plan, later known as the "Colonial Office Reconstruction and Development Plan for North Borneo: 1948–1955". This plan established the Sandakan Fisheries Department in April 1948. As a first step towards the development of Sandakan's fishing industry, the Crown Colony devised the "Young Working Plan" through the "Colonial Development and Welfare Scheme". Through this plan, the British administration were given the responsibility to import basic materials from Hong Kong for fishermen and distribute the materials at a price lower than the one offered by the capitalists. As a result, Hong Kong
towkays (bosses) were involved with the fishing industry in Sandakan. ==Government and international relations==