Kuala Lumpur | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

(2002 pop. 1.5 million). Kuala Lumpur (or "KL," as it is commonly known) is the federal capital city of Malaysia. In comparative historical terms, Kuala Lumpur is a young city. Its genesis is traced to the middle of the nineteenth century, when a settlement of Chinese tin miners grew up on the muddy confluence of two rivers (Gombak and Klang); hence its place name: "Kuala Lumpur" means "muddy confluence." Although Malay and Sumatranvillage settlements had existed in the vicinity, Kuala Lumpur's meteoric rise as a major trading center and, later, as the colonial and postcolonial capital, is attributed to a number of fortuitous factors. Among others, they include a boom in tin prices and the pioneering entrepreneurship of various individuals. In particular, Yap Ah Loy, a Hakka Chinese immigrant who had come to seek his fortune in the Malay States, is customarily credited with playing an influential role in Kuala Lumpur's formative stages. From 1868 to 1885, he ruled the town as the third Chinese kapitan.

In 1880, recognizing the growing commercial importance of Kuala Lumpur, the British relocated their state administrative capital 35 kilometers from Klang. In 1896, Kuala Lumpur was chosen to become the capital of the Federated Malay States (FMS) when this political unit (comprising Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, and Pahang) was formed to standardize governmental policy and practice. This initiated the modernization of the town as the British put into place municipal planning practices and erected ornate administrative buildings. Following the Japanese occupation of British Malaya between 1939 and 1945, Kuala Lumpur became the capital of the Federation of Malaya created in 1948. When the country achieved political independence from Great Britain in 1957, Kuala Lumpur was the natural choice as the capital for the new nation.

It achieved city status in February 1972 and was ceded to the federal government by the Selangor state government in 1974. In the 1990s, its landscape and skyline were transformed dramatically. The enforced demolition of squatter colonies, the completion of the light rail transit system and the ring roads, and a construction boom in the property market are some of the driving forces of this transformation into a bustling metropolis. Emblematic of these changes is the Petronas Twin Towers, at 452 meters the tallest building in the world when it was completed in the late 1990s. Moreover, in keeping with city hall's efforts to project Kuala Lumpur as a recognizable world-class city, the motif of "The Garden City of Lights" pervades its official discourse and transformative activities.

Gullick, John Michael. (2000) A History of Kuala Lumpur, 1857–1939. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.

——. (1994) Old Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Oxford University Press.

Khoo, Kay-Kim. ed. (1996) Kuala Lumpur: The Formative Years. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Berita Publishing.

Lim, Heng-Kow. (1978) The Evolution of the Urban System in Malaya. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Penerbit Universiti Malaya.

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