Sarawak PoD 1949 - A TL
- Thread starter Woolly Mammoth
- Start date
In this time line I am using Sarawak and Eastern conflict to interfere with British political history and the decline of the empire, expect them to follow a much more independant foriegn policy. In addition the commonwealth is going to form a unified military alliance ITTL that will help Protect Sarawak.
I cant see Singapore joining Sarawak easily, they have little want to join a monarchy based quite a way from them, however Sabah is another matter.
EDIT - Sorry everyone by the way - been on holidayHopefully update soon.
Or you could have drop Sarawak's "future" claims on the Spratlys Islands, have a Sarawak-leaning referendum in Sabah and support the Philippines' claim on Spratlys against the communist Vietnam and PRC.
That way you could have the Philippine government drop its claims, I think.
Or you could support the Muslim insurgency in Mindanao in the future, in which you could easily force a referendum granting you the Muslim-majority island of Mindanao + the Sulu Archipelago chain. That makes the Philippine claim to Sabah null and void, as the Sultan of Sulu is now under your jurisdiction.
Indeed - Sarawak is still on the interim government and temporary Council Negri, I am going to have the introduce the 1953 constitution that will establish westminister parliamentary democracy. Could you suggest a nationalist but not anti-british leader for PM ?
Also in regards to the Spratleys, Sarawak is going to press claims on them but I have a more imaginative way to solve the dispute on them
Sulu is going to have problems but Sarawak is not going to gain it - that would risk annoying the USA and at the moment they are still under heavy british foriegn policy influence.
Also in regards to the Spratleys, Sarawak is going to press claims on them but I have a more imaginative way to solve the dispute on them
Does that involve the PRC never restructuring its economy?
Because I think, even if the whole world supports you and the PRC still goes on OTL, it would be very hard to obtain the Spratlys for any nation, save for the PRC.
And for the last, I will be following your TL. I'd like to see how Sarawak will face Indonesia/Suharto's early hungry years.
Nobody but China can realistically hope to keep the Spratleys but they can be kept differently to OTL - essentially they are going to become a joint colony of the surronding countries - mostly china though.
Thank you
Malaya is the current big issue along with extremism at home - communist in Sarawak
Foreign Affairs
The Federation of Malaya - Shown with Singapore although the latter remained a direct crown colony of the UK.
In many ways Malaya was similar to Sarawak, although nominally independant as the Federation of Malaya since 1948 it remained a collection of British protectorates and Straits settlements. Attlee was happy to keep it that way - Malaya was a profitable colony that provided rubber and resources to the UK and acted as a sheild for the main eastern port of Singapore. The Second world war had both damaged the colony's economy and left many experinced local fighters.
Unrest had been growing, Malay unhappiness had already forced the reformation of the previous Malayan Union and returned the rights to the local rulers, although the Federation was under the rule of a British High Commisioner it was clear that nationalism would force eventual british withdrawal. Part of the issue was the eventual status of Singapore - they thought is was too small to exist independantly but it was worried that its ethnic chinese population would destablise the balance in Malaya. Proposals to include Sabah in a Federation were quashed by both the colonial government and Sarawakian interferance.
The Chinese were unhappy with this development because they feared that a new Malayan state would descriminate against them and deny them equal rights, communism was increasingly popular amoungst them and this scared the British who attempted to stamp it out with arrests and deportation.
Thus started the Malayan Emergency.
Insuregent captive under guard by Sarawak forces. 1952
The "Rumblings" in Sarawak and their eventual independance had several unexpected effects in Malaya. Firstly many chinese fleeing advancing communism in China had been unwilling to head for Sarawak [1] they thus moved into Singapore and Malaya. This ignited a powder-keg as ethnic chinese of different ideologies began to fight bitterly. By 1951 although British operations in the countryside had begun to have sucess the action in cities such as Penang had become a major embarrassment. This was blamed on Herbert Morrison - a dubious oppointment in 1951 who quickly erned the emnity of ever those within his own party.
The Labour victory in 1951 can however be attributed to the boost in popular opinion Attlee acheived over the Sarawak affair - although Labour did not gain many more seats, having a new majority of just 12 he remained PM. He needed a new foreign secretary and so appointed Aneurin Bevan [2].
Nye Beven - Foreign Secretary
This was a deeply divicive decision, the Bevenites within Labour would have complained had he not received an important post but this was not what they had expected. At the same time the right of the party were dismayed and three MPs including Gaitskill left the government to form the "Commonwealth Party".
[3]
_ _ _ _ _
[1] This influx IOTL went to Sarawak - This butterfly escalates the Emergency
[2] Herbert Morrison was somewhat of a disaster - if you look back a few updates you will see I mentioned Gaitskill had been humilaited over Sarawak - thus his changes that took Nye out the government never happened.
[3] Apologies that this update is not much about either Sarawak or Malaya
The Federation of Malaya - Shown with Singapore although the latter remained a direct crown colony of the UK.
In many ways Malaya was similar to Sarawak, although nominally independant as the Federation of Malaya since 1948 it remained a collection of British protectorates and Straits settlements. Attlee was happy to keep it that way - Malaya was a profitable colony that provided rubber and resources to the UK and acted as a sheild for the main eastern port of Singapore. The Second world war had both damaged the colony's economy and left many experinced local fighters.
Unrest had been growing, Malay unhappiness had already forced the reformation of the previous Malayan Union and returned the rights to the local rulers, although the Federation was under the rule of a British High Commisioner it was clear that nationalism would force eventual british withdrawal. Part of the issue was the eventual status of Singapore - they thought is was too small to exist independantly but it was worried that its ethnic chinese population would destablise the balance in Malaya. Proposals to include Sabah in a Federation were quashed by both the colonial government and Sarawakian interferance.
The Chinese were unhappy with this development because they feared that a new Malayan state would descriminate against them and deny them equal rights, communism was increasingly popular amoungst them and this scared the British who attempted to stamp it out with arrests and deportation.
Thus started the Malayan Emergency.
Insuregent captive under guard by Sarawak forces. 1952
The "Rumblings" in Sarawak and their eventual independance had several unexpected effects in Malaya. Firstly many chinese fleeing advancing communism in China had been unwilling to head for Sarawak [1] they thus moved into Singapore and Malaya. This ignited a powder-keg as ethnic chinese of different ideologies began to fight bitterly. By 1951 although British operations in the countryside had begun to have sucess the action in cities such as Penang had become a major embarrassment. This was blamed on Herbert Morrison - a dubious oppointment in 1951 who quickly erned the emnity of ever those within his own party.
The Labour victory in 1951 can however be attributed to the boost in popular opinion Attlee acheived over the Sarawak affair - although Labour did not gain many more seats, having a new majority of just 12 he remained PM. He needed a new foreign secretary and so appointed Aneurin Bevan [2].
Nye Beven - Foreign Secretary
This was a deeply divicive decision, the Bevenites within Labour would have complained had he not received an important post but this was not what they had expected. At the same time the right of the party were dismayed and three MPs including Gaitskill left the government to form the "Commonwealth Party".
[3]
_ _ _ _ _
[1] This influx IOTL went to Sarawak - This butterfly escalates the Emergency
[2] Herbert Morrison was somewhat of a disaster - if you look back a few updates you will see I mentioned Gaitskill had been humilaited over Sarawak - thus his changes that took Nye out the government never happened.
[3] Apologies that this update is not much about either Sarawak or Malaya
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Sandin?
Benedict Sandin was a good candidate...
He will have a very large Dayak support base, mainly due to his ancestors was practically a God, he was also experienced administrator(though being a museum curator was good enough), and had no problem working with the Brits...
Indeed - Sarawak is still on the interim government and temporary Council Negri, I am going to have the introduce the 1953 constitution that will establish westminister parliamentary democracy. Could you suggest a nationalist but not anti-british leader for PM ?
Also in regards to the Spratleys, Sarawak is going to press claims on them but I have a more imaginative way to solve the dispute on them
Sulu is going to have problems but Sarawak is not going to gain it - that would risk annoying the USA and at the moment they are still under heavy british foriegn policy influence.
Benedict Sandin was a good candidate...
He will have a very large Dayak support base, mainly due to his ancestors was practically a God, he was also experienced administrator(though being a museum curator was good enough), and had no problem working with the Brits...
Benedict Sandin was a good candidate...
He will have a very large Dayak support base, mainly due to his ancestors was practically a God, he was also experienced administrator(though being a museum curator was good enough), and had no problem working with the Brits...
Thank you. Really useful
Apologies
I am going to restart and reboot this TL after christmas and hopefully by then have better writing style, research, planning and organisation. Aware this is probably the shortest failure of a TL around but hopefully the re-boot will be better.
Xhavnak
I am going to restart and reboot this TL after christmas and hopefully by then have better writing style, research, planning and organisation. Aware this is probably the shortest failure of a TL around but hopefully the re-boot will be better.
Xhavnak
Sarawak Post-Spratly War, according to the author...
As a Sarawakian, it's a pity though...
Actually I have been considering restarting this TL somewhen at least as a more condensed from briefly establishing the situation as a redux and then perhaps expanding from there - thinking of moving the PoD further back into the Second World War though - if I could perhaps have help or a co-author with expertise then it might all be possible - equally if anyone wishes to take this over and do their own TL I'm fine with that
Wasn't my work but rather someone's idea as to how it might look - quite like it myself but didn't ever think it would be plausible
So would a Redux of this be a popular suggestion ? The initial thoughts I am working off is to somehow kill off Charles Brooke in around 1930 [suggestions welcome
] making Anthony Brooke into the Fourth Rajah thus hopefully giving me an excuse to develop Sarawak prior to the war and improve both the infrastructure and possibilities available when it comes to the Second World War - also nicely prevents any hint of the Colonial period without causing the trouble I went through at the start of this TL. Might be able to play with an early Sarawak Air Force with some Gloster Gladiators ...Also given that IOTL the Japanese invasion of Borneo took place with only around 5,000 troops and was mostly reliant on mopping up the under armed and equipped forces of the British, Sarawakians and Dutch a small change could make quite a difference. For instance increasing the Sarawak Armed Forces from the OTL 1,515 to say around 2,500 or even 4,000 [Not all that implausible expansion with a population of 500,000] and purchasing some modern equipment might either disrupt the Japanese timetabling significantly or even lead to an interesting Borneo Campaign.
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