Early history , a collective term used to describe
Indigenous people of Borneo, depicted in an 1864 illustration in
The Illustrated London News. In the
Samang Buat Cave, in
Lahad Datu, Sabah, archaeological evidence suggests that human settlement dates back to around 46,000 years ago, confirming Lahad Datu as one of the most important prehistoric centres in Southeast Asia. Intriguingly, tools found in
Mansuli Valley, also in Lahad Datu, have been dated as early as 235,000 years ago. In
Tingkayu Valley, Kunak, Sabah, archaeological excavations revealed traces of a Palaeolithic community dating from approximately 28,000–30,000 years ago. The site, once a prehistoric lake basin, yielded Hoabinhian stone tools that indicate human activity in the area. In
Niah Cave, Sarawak, human presence has been dated to around 40,000 years ago. Recent studies in the Trader Cave section of the complex discovered microlithic tools and human remains, dated between 55,000 and 65,000 years ago, making it one of the most important early modern human sites in Southeast Asia. in
Lubang Jeriji Saléh. In November 2018, scientists reported the discovery of the oldest known
figurative art painting, over 40,000 (perhaps as old as 52,000) years old, of an unknown animal, in the cave of
Lubang Jeriji Saléh on the island of Borneo. It has been proposed, based on house construction styles, linguistic and genetic evidence, that
Madagascar may have been first populated from southern Borneo. According to ancient Chinese (977), Indian and Japanese manuscripts, western coastal cities of Borneo had become trading ports by the
first millennium AD. 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 described as among the most valuable items from Borneo. The
Indians named Borneo
Suvarnabhumi (Land of Gold), and also
Karpuradvipa (Camphor Island). The
Javanese named Borneo
Puradvipa (Diamond Island).
Archaeological findings in the Sarawak river delta reveal that the area was a thriving centre of trade between India and China from the 6th century until about 1300. By the 14th century, Borneo became a
vassal state of
Majapahit (in present-day Indonesia), later changing its allegiance to the
Ming dynasty of China. Pre-Islamic Sulu, then known as
Lupah Sūg, stretched from
Palawan and the
Sulu Archipelago in the Philippines, to
Sabah,
Eastern, and
Northern Kalimantan in Borneo. The Sulu Empire rose as a rebellion and reaction against the Majapahit, which had briefly occupied its territory.
Islam arrived in the 10th century, brought by Muslim traders who later converted many indigenous peoples in the coastal areas. The Sultanate of Brunei declared independence from Majapahit following the death of the Majapahit emperor in the mid-14th century. During its golden age under the
Bolkiah from the 15th to the 17th century, the Bruneian sultanate ruled almost the entire coastal area of Borneo (lending its name to the island due to its influence in the region) and several islands in the southwestern Philippines. arrived in Sulu from
Malacca. In 1457, he founded the
Sultanate of Sulu; he styled himself
Paduka Maulana Mahasari Sharif Sultan Hashem Abu Bakr. Following its independence in 1578 from Bruneian control, the Sultanate of Sulu began to expand its
thalassocracy to parts of northern Borneo. Both sultanates who ruled northern Borneo had traditionally engaged in trade with China by means of the frequent Chinese
junks. Outside of the two thalassocratic states, Borneo's interior remained free from the rule of any kingdoms.
British and Dutch control hoisted for the first time on the island of
Labuan, on 24 December 1846. After the
fall of Malacca in 1511, Portuguese merchants traded regularly with Borneo, and especially with Brunei from 1530. Having visited Brunei's capital, the Portuguese described the place as surrounded by a
stone wall. While Borneo was seen as rich, the Portuguese did not make any attempts to conquer it. The Dutch tried to settle the island of
Balambangan, north of Borneo, in the second half of the 18th century, but withdrew by 1797. In 1812, the sultan in southern Borneo ceded his forts to the
British East India Company. The British, led by
Stamford Raffles, then tried to establish an intervention in Sambas but failed. Although they managed to defeat the sultanate the next year and declared a blockade on all ports in Borneo except Brunei,
Banjarmasin and
Pontianak, the project was cancelled by the British governor-general
Lord Minto in India as it was too expensive. and the waters around the island infested with
pirates, especially between the north eastern Borneo and the southern Philippines. The
Malay and
Sea Dayak pirates preyed on maritime shipping in the waters between Singapore and Hong Kong from their haven in Borneo, along with the attacks by
Illanuns of the
Moro pirates from the southern Philippines, such as in the
Battle off Mukah. The Dutch began to intervene in the southern part of the island upon resuming contact in 1815, posting
residents to Banjarmasin, Pontianak and Sambas and
assistant-residents to Landak and Mampawa. The Sultanate of Brunei in 1842 granted large parts of land in Sarawak to the British adventurer
James Brooke, as a reward for his help in quelling a local rebellion. Brooke established the
Raj of Sarawak and was recognised as its rajah after paying a fee to the sultanate. He established a monarchy, and the Brooke dynasty (through his nephew and great-nephew) ruled Sarawak for 100 years; the leaders were known as the
White Rajahs. Brooke also acquired the island of
Labuan for
Great Britain in 1846 through the
Treaty of Labuan with the sultan of Brunei,
Omar Ali Saifuddin II on 18 December 1846. The region of northern Borneo came under the administration of
North Borneo Chartered Company following the acquisition of territory from the Sultanates of Brunei and Sulu by a German businessman and adventurer named
Baron von Overbeck, before it was passed to the British Dent brothers (comprising
Alfred Dent and Edward Dent). Further expansion by the British continued into the Borneo interior. This led the 26th sultan of Brunei,
Hashim Jalilul Alam Aqamaddin to appeal the British to halt such efforts, and as a result a Treaty of Protection was signed in 1888, rendering Brunei a British protectorate. during an
Erau ceremony in
Tenggarong Before the acquisition by the British, the Americans also managed to establish their temporary presence in northwestern Borneo after acquiring a parcel of land from the Sultanate of Brunei. A company known as
American Trading Company of Borneo was formed by
Joseph William Torrey,
Thomas Bradley Harris and several Chinese investors, establishing a colony named "Ellena" in the
Kimanis area. The colony failed and was abandoned, due to denials of financial backing, especially by the US government, and to diseases and riots among the workers. Before Torrey left, he managed to sell the land to the German businessman, Overbeck. Meanwhile, the Germans under William Frederick Schuck were awarded a parcel of land in northeastern Borneo of the Sandakan Bay from the Sultanate of Sulu where he conducted business and exported large quantities of arms,
opium, textiles and tobacco to Sulu before the land was also passed to Overbeck by the sultanate. in 1930 Prior to the recognition of Spanish presence in the Philippine archipelago, a protocol known as the
Madrid Protocol of 1885 was signed between the governments of the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain in
Madrid to cement Spanish influence and recognise their sovereignty over the Sultanate of Sulu—in return for Spain's relinquishing its claim to the former possessions of the sultanate in northern Borneo. The British administration then established the first railway network in northern Borneo, known as the
North Borneo Railway. During this time, the British sponsored a large number of Chinese workers to migrate to northern Borneo to work in European plantation and mines, and the Dutch followed suit to increase their economic production. By 1888, North Borneo, Sarawak and Brunei in northern Borneo had become British
protectorate. The area in southern Borneo was made Dutch protectorate in 1891. In 1895,
Marcus Samuel received a concession in the Kutei area of east Borneo, and based on
oil seepages in the
Mahakam River delta, Mark Abrahams struck oil in February 1897. This was the discovery of the
Sanga Sanga Oil Field, a refinery was built in
Balikpapan, and discovery of the
Samboja Oil Field followed in 1909. In 1901, the Pamusian Oil Field was discovered on
Tarakan, and the
Bunyu Oil Field in 1929.
Royal Dutch Shell discovered the
Miri Oil Field in 1910, and the
Seria oil field in 1929.
World War II on 14 January 1942. moving towards
Victoria and Brown beach to assist the landing of members of the Australian
24th Infantry Brigade on the island during
Operation Oboe Six, 10 June 1945. During World War II, Japanese forces gained control and occupied most areas of Borneo from 1941 to 1945. In the first stage of the war, the British saw the Japanese advance to Borneo as motivated by political and territorial ambitions rather than economic factors. The occupation drove many people in the coastal towns to the interior, searching for food and escaping the Japanese. The Chinese residents in Borneo, especially with the
Sino-Japanese War in
Mainland China mostly resisted the Japanese occupation. Following the formation of resistance movements in northern Borneo such as the
Jesselton Revolt, many innocent indigenous and Chinese people were executed by the Japanese for their alleged involvement. In Kalimantan, the Japanese also killed many Malay intellectuals, executing all the Malay sultans of West Kalimantan in the
Pontianak incidents, together with Chinese people who were already against the Japanese for suspecting them to be threats. The Japanese also set-up
Pusat Tenaga Rakjat (PUTERA) in the Indonesian archipelago in 1943, although it was abolished the following year when it became too nationalistic. Some of the Indonesian nationalist like
Sukarno and
Hatta who had returned from Dutch exile began to co-operate with the Japanese. Shortly after his release, Sukarno became president of the Central Advisory Council, an advisory council for south Borneo,
Celebes, and
Lesser Sunda, set up in February 1945. In addition, of the total of 17,488
Javanese labourers brought in by the Japanese during the occupation, only 1,500 survived mainly due to starvation, harsh working conditions and maltreatment. with Allied
Z Special Unit provided assistance to them. Australia contributed significantly to the liberation of Borneo. The
Australian Imperial Force was sent to Borneo to fight off the Japanese. Together with other Allies, the island
was completely liberated in 1945.
Recent history visiting
Pontianak, West Kalimantan, in 1963. In May 1945, officials in Tokyo suggested that whether northern Borneo should be included in the proposed new country of Indonesia should be separately determined based on the desires of its indigenous people and following the disposition of
Malaya. Sukarno and
Mohammad Yamin meanwhile continuously advocated for a
Greater Indonesian republic. Towards the end of the war, Japan decided to give an early independence to a new proposed country of Indonesia on 17 July 1945, with an Independence Committee meeting scheduled for 19 August 1945. While nationalist guerrillas supporting the inclusion of southern Borneo in the new Indonesian republic were active in Ketapang, and to lesser extent in Sambas where they rallied with the red-white flag which became the
flag of Indonesia, most of the Chinese residents in southern Borneo expected to be liberated by
Chinese Nationalist troops from mainland China and to integrate their districts as an overseas province of
China. Meanwhile, Sarawak and Sabah in northern Borneo became separate British crown colonies in 1946. 1st Battalion conduct a patrol to search for enemy positions in the jungle of Brunei. In 1961, Prime Minister
Tunku Abdul Rahman of the independent
Federation of Malaya desired to unite Malaya, the British colonies of
Sarawak,
North Borneo,
Singapore and the protectorate of
Brunei under the proposed
Federation of Malaysia. The idea was heavily opposed by the governments in both Indonesia and the Philippines as well from communist sympathisers and nationalists in Borneo. Sukarno, as the president of the new republic, perceiving the British trying to maintain their presence in northern Borneo and the Malay Peninsula, decided to launch a military infiltration, later known as the
confrontation, from 1962 to 1969. As a response to the growing opposition, the British deployed their armed forces to guard their colonies against Indonesian and communist revolts. Australia and New Zealand also participated in these measures. The Philippines opposed the newly proposed federation, claiming the eastern part of North Borneo (today the Malaysian state of Sabah) as part of its territory as a former possession of the
Sultanate of Sulu. The Philippine government mostly based their claim on the Sultanate of Sulu's
cession agreement with the British North Borneo Company, as by now the sultanate had come under the jurisdiction of the Philippine republican administration, which therefore should inherit the Sulu former territories. The Philippine government also claimed that the heirs of the sultanate had ceded all their territorial rights to the republic. , an attempt to establish a sovereign state by unifying North Borneo, Brunei, and Sarawak by
A. M. Azahari The Sultanate of Brunei at first welcomed the proposal of a new larger federation. Meanwhile, the
Brunei People's Party led by
A.M. Azahari desired to reunify Brunei, Sarawak and North Borneo into one federation known as the
North Borneo Federation (), where the
sultan of Brunei would be the head of state for the federation—though Azahari had his own intention to abolish the Brunei monarchy, to make Brunei more democratic, and to integrate the territory and other former British colonies in Borneo into Indonesia, with the support from the latter government. This directly led to the
Brunei Revolt, which thwarted Azahari's attempt and forced him to escape to Indonesia. Brunei withdrew from being part of the new Federation of Malaysia due to some disagreements on other issues while political leaders in Sarawak and North Borneo continued to favour inclusion in a larger federation. With the continuous opposition from Indonesia and the Philippines, the
Cobbold Commission was established to discover the feeling of the native populations in northern Borneo; it found the people greatly in favour of federation, with various stipulations. The federation was successfully achieved with the inclusion of northern Borneo through the
Malaysia Agreement on 16 September 1963. To this day, the area in northern Borneo is still subjected to attacks by Moro pirates since the 18th century and militant from groups such as
Abu Sayyaf since 2000 in the frequent
cross border attacks. During the administration of Philippine president
Ferdinand Marcos, Marcos made some attempts to destabilise the state of Sabah, although his plan failed and resulted in the
Jabidah massacre and later the
insurgency in the southern Philippines. In August 2019, Indonesian president
Joko Widodo announced a
plan to move the capital of Indonesia from
Jakarta to a newly established location in the
East Kalimantan province in Borneo. ==Demographics==