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Binatang Secondary School Examination (History)
Name: Aminah Bacha bt. Gumbak
Date: 21/06/2012
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Question 1: Essay
With the Great War breaking communications and naval reach from Europe, what was the response of the British colonies in the Indian Ocean?
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For the British Empire across the world, it was a test of how much could they maintain themselves without the guidance of the British Isles. New Zealand, southern Africa, India, Singapore, and Australia, all of them realized that it falls on them to help the Mother Country when it cannot help them, especially with the Royal Navy busy in Europe and the Atlantic.
A plan emerged after days of negotiations with all the governments.
1) Maintain communication between Wellington to Calcutta.
2) Open the sea routes of New Zealand and Australia to India through the East Indies.
3) Defeat enemy colonies in Indochina, Papua, and East Africa.
4) Link up with their Arabian bases and save the Royal Navy holdout at the Suez Canal.
5) Link up with the Cape Colony and defeat French Madagascar.
...
Verdict (Mr. Bako): Nice try, but I did not ask for bullet points!!
Amal Sahak, Brunei’s Twentieh Century, (Saifuddin Press: 1999)
…The closest Brunei came to true annihilation was during the Great War.
For the past 59 years, demolishing the sultanate had been a matter of policy for Sarawak. To the Brookes and their cohorts, it was a surety that great swathes of the Bornean Empire were carved up and ceded to the kingdom as a sign of their rise. The sultans weren’t managing piracy and headhunting well, so why not cede the burden to a family who are more competent? Now, with the Great Powers of Europe at each other’s throats, Rajah Charles saw a chance to complete what his predecessor began. Through piggybacking on the War and Great Britain’s conflict with Italy, the Kingdom of Sarawak could now achieve its final form: through the total swallowing of Bandar Brunei. The potential obtainment of the lucrative Seria oilfields was another good incentive to wage a new campaign.
And it was thus that the Sarawakian ruler signed the war declaration on July the 17th, officially plunging his exotic kingdom – with all its tattooed warriors, sea traders, and traditional mores – into the catastrophe of the Great War, and sending the administration of Bandar Brunei in a panic. Even with their inferior methods of war, a belligerent Sarawak could give the now profitable protectorate a bashing for the ages, especially considering their sultanate’s exposure to the South China Sea and the formidable allied Royal Navy contingent docked at Singapore. The later announcement that the British would join Sarawak in combating Italian Borneo made the situation direr.
The effect was immediate. Upon the declaration’s arrival, the city’s Resident ordered whatever gunboats anchored nearby to protect the petroleum-rich Seria estuary while the Bruneian monarchy sprang their own machinations behind the Residency’s back. For all that Brunei clamoured for a protector against Brooke expansionism, they have chosen a rather dubious knight. For over two decades, Italy offered invaluable protection and supported the royal court through generous stipends, but it also came at the partial loss of temporal power and authoritative decision-making even at the city level, leaving the monarchy with only religious and cultural prerogatives. Simply put, the sultan and local nobility became clawless prisoners in gilded cages.
For Sultan Aqmaddin, it was a bargain he enormously regretted. His sons were as equally opinionated and the dawn of the 20th century saw numerous plans discussed behind closed doors for a new protector for Brunei, preferably the Ottoman Empire
[1]. The reach of Kostantiniyye was furthest at the Malacca Straits, but the years leading to the Great War saw the crafting of a secret plan that entailed an overturn of the Italian Residency and inviting the Porte’s gunships to take control in a risky gamble of
fait accompli. When news came of the Italo-Balkan alliance declaring war on the Ottomans in 1905, a group of nobles embarked to Aceh and Riau-Lingga to carry out the plan, requesting aid and protection if possible and some measure of weaponry if not.
[2]
However, the Bruneian monarchy was also caught flat-footed by Sarawak’s declaration and found themselves paralysed with indecision as talks were still inconclusive in Kutaraja and Penyengat Inderasakti. There was also fear of the palace’s telegraphy system being under surveillance, which negated any measure of quick contact with the outside world. Three stressful days passed with barely a word, until Sarawak finally forced the royals’ hands. On the night of July 20th, the oil town of Seria fell to a multi-pronged attack from both Sarawak and the Royal Navy. Despite heavy resistance, the fleet of Italian gunships protecting the estuary sank under the shots of the allied forces while the coastal Seria Fort buckled under an unexpected riverine attack of Dayaks bearing Maxim guns and Enfield rifles. The following morning saw news of more coastal settlements falling, and the afternoon was marked with a new missive from Charles Brooke: Surrender, or perish.
With almost all local gunboats now smouldering in Seria, the interventionist faction – led by the presumptive heir Pengiran Muda Besar
[3] – finally took the initiative. At 10:30 p.m., the palace guards rebelled and slew the colonial guard, taking off with rifles and stashes of bullets. By midnight, the city was aroused with calls by palace-backed imams to overpower Italian high officials, whom were preparing to leave the city for Sandakan. Confusion reigned throughout the early hours of the morning, but the dawn of July 22nd saw the Italian Resident and his colonial guard fleeing Bandar Brunei ahead of a local armed mob, leaving stores of rifles and bullets behind. The nearby garrison island of Labuan tried to aid the escapees but was blocked by the arrival of the Anglo-Sarawakian fleet, whom blockaded and pummelled the base into surrendering the next day. As for the Resident, he was fished out of Brunei Bay and became the first high-profile prisoner of war in Borneo.
It was here that the situation became the most uncertain. Factions of the palace court wanted to fight the British and the Brooke family, but both Sultan Aqmaddin and Pengiran Muda Besar retorted how doing so would only ensure Brunei’s complete extinction. In the end, it was decided for a delegation to meet with the belligerents under flag of truce, which was met with surprise from the allied fleet, especially Rajah Charles. The city uprising formed an unexpected snarl to his annexation plans as the British commanders preferred dealing somewhat halfway with the monarchy, seeing them as useful allies in the colonial front. Unsurprisingly, the Rajah became intransigent as he favoured Brunei to capitulate with his son Clayton Brooke noting how his father’s relations with the commanders became strained as the hours went by.
As night fell, the three sides were at an impasse. But while the parties at Brunei haggled, an event at the far north began to play its turn…
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Off the coast of Bandar Charles, Kingdom of Sarawak, 23 July 1905
No one noticed the
Victor Emmanuel. Not till it was too late.
All night, the cruiser slowly slinked into the waters off Bandar Charles. Keeping silent, the gunship rounded the outcrop that was Gaya Island and coasted between the reefs protecting the town, evading the patrol boats that kept watch along the coast.
Then, it fired.
Anchored off the docks was the
Ghita. A shallow-bottomed river gunboat purchased from India, she bobbed for only four minutes.
Not far-off from her was the
Badruddin. Modern, sleek, and freshly brought in from Glasgow, she was amongst the new line of ocean screw steamers invested by Kuching. But like the Bruneian noble that gave the name, she burned and drowned fleeing the firing line.
Then, the
Emmanuel turned landward. With Sarawak now in the war, Bandar Charles’ infrastructure is now a threat to Sandakan’s existence. Even if the docks couldn’t be upgraded to handle the new hulks of the Royal Navy, the port facilities and warehouses ensured a constant resupply for any river gunboats travelling from the south. For Eastern Sabah and the Kingdom of Italy, the harbour must be destroyed.
The order was given. Blast upon blast rocked the wee hours of the morning as the docks of the port town splintered and burst. Shophouses along the waterfront rattled and shook as their occupants were thrown out from their deepest sleep. Warehouses collapsed. Burning shells rained into the harbour. Boats and barges buckled and heaved, sinking where they moored as their hulls were ripped apart.
Then, something struck the
Emmanuel.
It was a tiny artillery shell, and it made barely a dent on the hull, but the ship turned. Moored quite a ways off was… a sailboat!? No, a barque. All wooden planks and corded rope, her iron-plated hull glistened in the dim light. Her three masts and gun turrets soared into the early morning sky like telegraphic poles. A soaring tribute to a bygone era of sail. Despite her age of 48 years, and despite being outmoded and outclassed in every way, the
Rajah of Sarawak was broadsiding the belligerent. Booms were heard, and another round of cannon and artillery shot struck across the
Emmanuel’s side.
The cruiser’s answer was brutal.
Ten minutes later, the
Victor Emmanuel left Bandar Charles. The waters below entombed the river gunboat and the two blue-water vessels she fought.
The war for Sabah has begun.
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Notes:
Remember what I said about the last instalment not gelling well with the update? The
Victor Emmanuel was why. On another note, this will be my last presence on the site for a week as I’m leaving for the Hari Raya break (or Eid to all you non-Malays) and won’t be back until next Wednesday, so consider this a celebratory update for the festive season!
1.) This wasn’t as far-fetched as one might think. 19th-century Brunei always had a candle to the Ottomans IOTL and Sultan Aqmaddin even sent a letter to the Porte in 1903 (or more specifically, to Sultan Abdul Hamid himself) to request aid against Sarawakian machinations. ITTL, the Ottoman pull would be even stronger due to the empire’s protection of Aceh and diplomatic presence in both Johor and Riau-Lingga, and the Porte’s interventionism in northern Sumatra would not be taken lightly.
2.) See post #1201 to see a snapshot of such talks.
3.) Also known as Omar Ali Saifuddin IV, who got lucky ITTL and didn’t die of cholera before his father.