Unfederated Malay States

Origins

The Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 transferred Siamese rights over the Kedah Sultanate, Kelantan, Terengganu and Perlis to Britain, which installed British advisers. Johor, long independent under modernising rulers such as Abu Bakar, accepted a general adviser in 1914. These five states, which never joined the Federated Malay States, were known as the Unfederated Malay States.

Rule and society

There was no common government: each sultan kept his own administration staffed largely by Malays, with a British adviser whose advice had to be followed except in religion and custom. Rice farming and fishing dominated the northern states, while Johor developed rubber and pineapple plantations.

Decline and legacy

Japan occupied them from 1942, handing Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Terengganu to Thailand in 1943. In 1946 Britain merged them into the Malayan Union, replaced in 1948 by the Federation of Malaya.