Malaysia contains 33.9 million people distributed across Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia on Borneo. The population divides into three constitutional categories: Bumiputera (sons of the soil) comprising 69.9 percent, Chinese 22.8 percent, Indians 6.6 percent, with the remainder holding other classifications. This structure originates from Article 153 of the Federal Constitution adopted at independence in 1957, which defines Malays as persons who profess Islam, habitually speak Malay, conform to Malay custom, and were born in the Federation or Singapore before independence or are descendants of such persons. The Bumiputera category extends beyond ethnic Malays to include Orang Asli groups in Peninsular Malaysia and indigenous peoples in Sabah and Sarawak such as Iban, Kadazan-Dusun, Bidayuh, and Melanau populations. The Chinese population descends primarily from migration waves during British colonial administration from 1826 through the 1930s, when tin mining and rubber plantation labor drew workers from Fujian, Guangdong, and Hakka regions. Indian Malaysians trace lineage predominantly to Tamil Nadu, brought as indentured labor for rubber estates and railway construction between 1880 and 1930. Census data from 2020 records Islam as the faith of 63.5 percent of citizens, Buddhism 18.7 percent, Christianity 9.1 percent, Hinduism 6.1 percent, with Chinese traditional religions and other beliefs comprising the remainder.
The territory's documented history begins with Sanskrit inscriptions at Kedah dating to the 5th century, indicating Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms controlled coastal settlements engaged in maritime trade between India and China. The Srivijaya empire based in Sumatra dominated the Strait of Malacca from the 7th through 13th centuries, collecting tribute from ports along the Malay Peninsula. Inscriptions at Gandasuli in Kedah reference Srivijayan authority over the region circa 1050. The Majapahit empire of Java claimed suzerainty over the peninsula from 1293 until the establishment of the Malacca Sultanate, though actual control remained limited to periodic tribute collection. Parameswara, a prince from Palembang fleeing Majapahit forces, founded the Malacca settlement in 1400 after periods in Temasek (Singapore) and Muar. The Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals) compiled around 1612 records that Parameswara converted to Islam circa 1414, adopting the name Megat Iskandar Shah, though Portuguese sources suggest the conversion occurred under his son or grandson.
The Malacca Sultanate grew into the dominant entrepôt of Southeast Asian trade by 1450, controlling both coasts of the Strait of Malacca. The port attracted merchants from Gujarat, Coromandel, Bengal, Persia, Arabia, Java, Sumatra, Siam, and China. Chinese Admiral Zheng He visited Malacca seven times between 1405 and 1433 during his treasure fleet voyages, establishing tributary relations with the Ming Dynasty that provided protection against Siamese expansion. Malacca's commercial law code, the Undang-Undang Laut Melaka, governed maritime trade disputes and became the legal framework adopted by later Malay sultanates. The sultanate functioned as the primary vector for Islam's spread through the archipelago, with Malay becoming the lingua franca of trade from Sumatra to the southern Philippines. Portuguese forces under Afonso de Albuquerque captured Malacca in August 1511 after a month-long siege, killing Sultan Mahmud Shah who fled to Johor. The Portuguese held Malacca for 130 years, constructing the A Famosa fortress in 1512, portions of which remain standing.
The Dutch East India Company seized Malacca from Portugal in January 1641 after an eight-month siege, integrating the port into their Indonesian trading network centered on Batavia. Dutch governance emphasized the spice trade with Indonesia over Malaccan commerce, causing the port's decline as regional trade shifted to Penang and Singapore under British control. The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 transferred Malacca to British possession in exchange for Bencoolen in Sumatra, establishing the current division of the Malay world between British and Dutch colonial spheres. The British had already obtained Penang from the Sultan of Kedah in 1786 through Francis Light, establishing their first permanent settlement on the peninsula. Stamford Raffles founded Singapore in 1819 through treaty with the Sultan of Johor, creating a free port that drew trade from throughout the region. These three settlements merged in 1826 to form the Straits Settlements, administered as a crown colony from 1867.
British expansion into the Malay states of the peninsula proceeded through a system of indirect rule beginning with the Pangkor Treaty of 1874, which installed the first British Resident in Perak. The Resident system placed British advisors in sultanate courts with authority over all matters except Malay custom and Islam. Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, and Pahang formed the Federated Malay States in 1896 under a British Resident-General. Johor, Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, and Terangganu became Unfederated Malay States, accepting British advisors between 1909 and 1914 but retaining greater autonomy. This administrative division would shape political alignments through independence. The tin mining boom of the 1870s through 1920s drove mass Chinese immigration, with production centered in Perak, Selangor, and Negeri Sembilan. British companies obtained rubber tree seedlings from Brazil via Kew Gardens in 1877, establishing plantations that made Malaya the world's largest rubber producer by 1920, accounting for 53 percent of global output. Chinese workers dominated tin mining through kongsi partnerships and secret societies, while Tamil Indian workers formed the rubber plantation labor force under the kangani recruitment system managed by estate supervisors.
Japanese forces landed at Kota Bharu on December 8, 1941, eight hours before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Lieutenant-General Tomoyuki Yamashita's 25th Army advanced down the peninsula in 70 days, entering Singapore on February 15, 1942. The occupation lasted 44 months until British forces returned in September 1945. Japanese administration dissolved ethnic divisions in governance, promoting pan-Asian ideology while requisitioning food supplies that caused widespread malnutrition. An estimated 40,000 to 100,000 ethnic Chinese died during the Sook Ching purge in Singapore and Malaya in February-March 1942, targeting individuals suspected of supporting China against Japan. The Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army, organized by the Malayan Communist Party and supported by Force 136 British liaison officers, conducted guerrilla operations from jungle bases, numbering approximately 7,000 fighters by 1945.
The British Military Administration governed until April 1946, when London proposed the Malayan Union that would strip sultans of sovereignty and grant equal citizenship to all residents regardless of ethnicity. Malay opposition coalesced under Dato' Onn Jaafar, who founded the United Malays National Organisation in March 1946 at the Kuala Lumpur Malay Congress. UMNO mobilized protests that forced Britain to abandon the Union in favor of the Federation of Malaya Agreement of 1948, which restored sultanate authority and defined restrictive citizenship criteria favoring Malays. The Malayan Communist Party launched an insurgency in June 1948 after the colonial government banned the organization, assassinating three European plantation managers. Britain declared a State of Emergency that lasted twelve years, deploying 40,000 Commonwealth troops and 66,000 police against approximately 8,000 communist fighters led by Chin Peng. The Briggs Plan of 1950 resettled 500,000 rural Chinese into 450 new villages to cut communist supply lines. Lieutenant-General Harold Briggs implemented this strategy before his successor Gerald Templer intensified military pressure and civic programs from 1952. The government declared the Emergency over in 1960 after communist forces withdrew to the Thai border.