Malayan Emergency

In 1948, a year after Britain granted India and Pakistan their independence, Britain found itself at war with their south East Asian colony, the Malay Federation. Britain had gained control of what we now call Malaysia from the Dutch in 1794 but it was Portuguese who conquered Malaysia after they planted Malacca in 1511. Malaysia had enough of colonialism as much as other British colonies so for 12 years, Malaysia physically fought for independence through warfare. The first shots to be fired were at rubber plantation managers by Chinese-Malayans
who had been upset with the lack of rights in the Malayan Federation. This happened in June 1948. Even Borneo natives, the Iban people got involved but they went from beheading to shooting by helping the British fight the Malaysians and were given their own army
division, the Sarawak rangers. There was also a Communist insurgency going on in Malaysia at this time.
Despite the limited military resources, the Malaysians were able to fight back and before Britain knew it, they were experiencing their own Vietnam War. The war had a difficult end but eventually, Malaysia became an independent country on 31 August 1957 and the war was declared over in 1960. Today, Malaysia is a federal constitutional monarchy and the current Sultan of Malaysia is Sultan Abdullah of Pahang and the current Prime Minister is Anwar Ibrahim. In the the years since the Emergency, Malaysia has also added the northern part of the island of Borneo to their territory.