Malaya through European maps

On certain maps, the Malay peninsula is wrongly marked as a gigantic stretch covering the entire Philippine Islands, the Kra Isthmus of Thailand and the Malay homeland. On the peninsular region, the Johor Sultanate was the most prominent and historically significant Islamic kingdom that lasted for nearly three centuries. The Johor Sultanate was also in conflict with the rising English that later became the masters of the region, establishing the roots of today's Malaysia. This post is to discuss the changing cartography of Malaysia over centuries by European cartographers. 

Most of the 16th-century maps of Asia mark the Malay peninsula as a single entity, called Malacca. This is primarily because of the existence of a Malacca Sultanate or Kesultanan Melayu Melaka (1400-1511). This is once again a classic example of European mispronunciation of the letter 'k' with 'c', and hence Melaka became Malacca. Important trade centres such as Johor, Pahang, Selangor etc. were marked as Iohor, Pahang, Solongor, Singora etc. Although the label of India Extra Gangem was continued to denote the entire southeast Asian kingdoms, including the Malay peninsula, these regions had their own separate identities with the only common feature with mainland India being certain names. We are well aware of how several settlements of Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos are Indianized, this trend was used extensively in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Timor-Leste and Singapore as well which is observable even today. 

Sarawak is a recent entity that joined the Federated Malay States only in 1963. On older maps, Sarawak has always been shown as a part of the bigger Borneo island that swung between various Islamic Sultanates and later the Dutch colonists. Historically, although the Malacca Sultanate was spread in some parts of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, none of the European maps marks it in that way. Sumatra has always been shown as a single entity although it had numerous smaller kingdoms - Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist alike. The French maps would denote the Strait of Malacca between Sumatra and the Malay peninsula as Detroit de Malacca.

Moving on to the 19th-century maps, the one by Aaron Arrowsmith is by far the most accurate and well-defined cartographically. One could see ports and harbours marked properly at their exact locations on 1812 dated map by the cartographer and the peninsula labelled as Malaya, instead of a singular entity called Malacca. The British history of Malaysia properly started in 1846 when the smaller Strait Settlements (Malacca, Penang, Singapore and Labuan) were removed from British India and treated as a separate Crown Colony. However, being part of British India for a long time, English maps would still continue labelling Malaya (and the entire Indochina region) as 'Southeast Provinces of India', as seen on an 1861 dated map by William Blackwood & Sons. Apart from Malaya, the territories of Burma and Lower Siam (the southern strip of today's Thailand) was also considered part of an extended India, although Siam (or Thailand) was never really under any Indian administration. The labelling of the Malay peninsula as an extension of India might also be the reason for Indonesia's etymology, which loosely translates as Indian Islands. 

The British had well-established ports of Malacca, Singapore, Salangore, Georgetown, Tringganu, Patani and Singora in this region that connected trade routes between Sumatra and Sarawak. These ports were also an opening to the Spanish territories of the Philippines in the extreme east and the British found it strategically important as they could eye on their French and Spanish counterparts conveniently. With Sarawak also a British territory, they were well-established power among the thriving Dutch that had just one key Asian colony - the Dutch East Indies or later to be known as Indonesia.  

Moving on to the early 20th century maps where one can see a clear demarcation between the greater Malaysia that comprised of the entire stretch of the Sunda Islands, Borneo, Sumatra, Celebes and the Philippines while the New Guinea was clubbed under Melanesia. It's strange that a map by Rand McNally & Company (a well-established name in the cartographic world) dating 1903 still shows the Malay peninsula as a separate entity while Malaysia is sorted more like a sub-continent or a different set of Asian territories. It is to be noted that Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines - these are terminologies adjusted by European cartographers combining several islands in Southeast Asia to ease out their administrative process. On another map by the same publisher, dating 1912, 'Malaysia' is labelled to what today is Indonesia, the entire stretch of islands from Sumatra in the west to New Guinea in the east. 

During the Second World War, the Malay peninsula is now seen clearly divided into the following divisions: 

1. Perlis
2. Kedah
3. Province of Wellesley
4. Penang
5. Perak
6. Kelantan
7. Pahang
8. Trengganu
9. Selangor
10. Negri Sembilan
11. Malacca
12. Johore
13. Singapore

On the Minneapolis Morning Tribune dating 1942, the above-mentioned territories were listed under the 'Theater of Singapore Campaign'. Colonial shade on the peninsula could be seen in certain names such as Port Swettenham (Port Klang), George Town, Port Dickson, Port Weld (Kuala Sepetang), etc. Entering into the 1950s, the maps show Federation of Malaya as a British territory (successor to British Malaya) that would exist till 1963. The Federation became independent in 1957 and in 1963, the territories of North Borneo (Sabah), Sarawak and Singapore merged to form Malaysia, an entity that started appearing on modern maps with the boundaries as they are today. Two years later in 1965, due to political differences, Singapore was sliced out as a separate country. The country of Brunei would see light of self-government in 1971 and finally in 1984, it achieved independence. 

Below here is a recreated map of 1904 dated Malay peninsula originally made by Edward Stanford.