Anglo-Dutch Treaty
The Anglo-Dutch Treaty (1824) aimed to terminate Anglo-Dutch rivalry in the Malay Archipelago and East Indies. It attempted to end clashes and disputes between British and Dutch merchants by dividing the Malay Peninsula and the East Indies into British and Dutch spheres of influence. The treaty was signed in London by British and Dutch officials without consulting the local rulers concerned.
The line demarking British and Dutch spheres of influence was south of the Straits of Singapore. The Netherlands transferred to Britain her factories in India, relinquished Malacca and its dependencies, and accepted British occupation of Singapore; Britain surrendered its dependencies south of the Straits and Bencoolen on the southwest coast of Sumatra. The Dutch agreed to terminate tin monopoly treaties with Perak and Selangor in the Malay Peninsula. Both parties agreed not to conclude treaties with local leaders or form new settlements on islands in each other's spheres of influence.
The treaty did not fully end Anglo-Dutch rivalry. The British claimed Dutch agents still occasionally penetrated their territory. The Dutch protested in the 1840s and 1870s, when James Brooke and Dent and Overbeck took control over what are now parts of Sarawak and Sabah. Since the treaty failed to define the position of the island of Borneo, the British claimed Borneo was not covered by it.
The treaty broke up the Malay empire of Johore. The British and Dutch effectively excluded other powers from the region, using the treaty as a means of controlling what became British Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies.
Further Reading
Andaya, Barbara Watson. (1982) A History of Malaysia. London: The Macmillan Press Limited.
Baker, Jim. (1999) A Popular History of Singapore and Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Times Books International.
Mills, L. A. (1971) British in Malaya: 1824–1867. New York: AMS Press.
This is the complete article, containing 291 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
