The Federation of Malaysia is a country comprising thirteen states in south east Asia. It has a total area of 329,750 km2. The climate is tropical with annual monsoons in the south-west from April to October and in the north-east from October to February. The terrain is comprised of coastal plains rising to hills and mountains. Natural resources are tin, crude oil, timber, copper, iron ore, natural gas and bauxite. The religion is dependant upon the race, with the Malays are nearly all Muslim, the Chinese inhabitants predominantly Buddhists, Indian inhabitants predominantly Hindu. The official language is Bahasa Malay with English, Chinese and Tamil languages also spoken.
From the 9th to the 14th centuries Malaysia was part of the Buddhist kingdom of Srivijaya before being conquered by the Hindu Javanese. During the 19th century Britain took over control of Malaya, until in 1957 Malaya became independent and in 1963 eleven states formed the federation of Malaysia with three more states: Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak joining afterwards in 1963. Singapore left the Federation of Malaysia in 1965. Research Malaysia
Abbreviations
Gazetteer
Research Malaysia