ABSTRACT
In September 1963, Britain ended colonial rule in Singapore, Sarawak, and Sabah (North Borneo), by amalgamating these ethnically distinct states with the newly independent Malaya to form an expanded federation known as Malaysia. The making of Malaysia was an important landmark in the postwar history of Southeast Asia. It marked, in a single stroke, the end of the formal British Empire in Southeast Asia (excepting Brunei); yet, at the same time, the very formation of a “Greater Malaysia” provided for the establishment of a sizeable Commonwealth bastion centrally positioned in Southeast Asia, which provided that crucial link in an extensive British strategic and military presence stretching from Aden to New Zealand.
