Archaeologists have found traces of human existence dating back to the Middle Paleolithic phase of 40,000 to 50,000 BC.
Many of today’s indigenous tribes migrated from Kalimantan, including the Iban, who came here around the end of the 15thth century and now make up around 30% of the state’s population.
It is unknown when first the Malays came to Borneo. According to Malay tradition the original home of the race was the kingdom of Minangkabau in Sumatra.
By thirteenth century Arab traders and missionaries began to preach the doctrines of Islam throughout the Malay World. There the most important Malay state to emerge was Brunei, on the north-west coast, which was to give its name to the whole island. From the 15th until the early 19th century Sarawak was under the loose control of the sultanate of Brunei.
A Spanish report from 1520 describes Cerava (or Sarawak) as one of four chief ports of Borneo, inhabited by ‘many and rich merchants’ whose trade consisted of diamonds, camphor, aloes-wood, provisions and wine.
In 1839, the English adventurer James Brooke formed a fast friendship with the Governor of Sarawak, Rajah Muda Hassim. Brooke, invalidated from the British East India Company after being wounded in Burma, eschewed an easy retirement and set off on a voyage of a discovery aided by a sizable inheritance and a well armed ship.
He helped Hassim to repress a revolt of Bidayuh dayaks and local Malay elites against Brunei rule.
As a reward Hassim offered to install James Brooke as Rajah of Sarawak in 1841. In 1946, following three years of Japanese occupation of Sarawak, the third Rajah Vyner Brooke, ceded the country to the British Government.
History of Sarawak
