Malaysian History and Politics

Early Kingdoms to Merdeka

25 practice questions, each with the answer and an explanation.

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Random questions from this topic, one at a time. You see the answer and the explanation straight after each one.

All 25 questions

  1. Which king of Singapura is credited with founding the Malacca Sultanate around 1400?
  2. As a great trading port, Malacca became a centre of which religion, spreading it throughout Maritime Southeast Asia?
  3. In which year did Afonso de Albuquerque, the governor of Portuguese India, conquer Malacca?
  4. Which European power, with its local allies, captured Malacca from the Portuguese in January 1641?
  5. Which British captain obtained the island of Penang from the Sultan of Kedah in 1786?
  6. Which three territories did the British East India Company group together in 1826 to form the Straits Settlements?
  7. Which treaty was signed between Great Britain and the Sultan of Perak on 20 January 1874?
  8. Which four protectorates in the Malay Peninsula made up the Federated Malay States?
  9. Which treaty of 1909 moved Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Terengganu from Siamese to British influence?
  10. From the Sultan of which state did the Englishman James Brooke acquire the land concessions that formed the Raj of Sarawak?
  11. Which company administered North Borneo, now Sabah, from 1881?
  12. In which year did the Japanese occupation of Malaya end with Japan's surrender to the Allies?
  13. Which proposal brought by the British did Malay associations reject in the movement that led to UMNO?
  14. Which armed conflict from 1948 to 1960 pitted British and Malayan forces against the Malayan Communist Party?
  15. On what date did the Federation of Malaya become independent?
  16. Who became the first Prime Minister of independent Malaya?
  17. Which four territories joined to form Malaysia on 16 September 1963?
  18. In which year did Singapore separate from Malaysia?
  19. Which country's opposition to the creation of Malaysia led to the armed conflict known as Konfrontasi from 1963 to 1966?
  20. Which affirmative action programme was formulated by the National Operations Council in the aftermath of the 13 May Incident in Malaysia?
  21. Which Malaysian declaration of national philosophy was instituted by royal proclamation on Merdeka Day, 1970?
  22. Which literary work, also called the Malay Annals, gives a romanticised history of the Malacca Sultanate?
  23. Ships bearing goods from China sailed into Malacca on which seasonal wind, from December to January?
  24. In which year did the Straits Settlements come under direct British control as a Crown colony?
  25. In which year did the Malayan Union officially come into existence?

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