ABSTRACT
Relative to its other colonial possessions Britain's rule of the Malay states had been peaceful save for the Malayan Emergency. However, despite the apparent tranquillity, colonization represented a period of intense anxiety for Malay leadership because the treaties that had been entered into by the sultans with Britain effectively relegated Malay sovereignty except in religious matters. More importantly Malay rulers were virtually stripped of authority over their own people and throughout the British occupation their state of leadership was in limbo. What was intended as a temporary accommodation of an advisory nature evolved into a state of 'surrogate' leadership that overwhelmed Malay supremacy. Still it must be acknowledged that the colonial presence was largely tolerated if not entirely welcomed by the sultans. The Malays were, of course, not inexperienced in deaUng with European intruders who before the British had been the Dutch and earlier the Portuguese who took Melaka in 1511.
