Editing Sabah (section)

=== British North Borneo ===
{{main|North Borneo Chartered Company|North Borneo|Madrid Protocol of 1885}}
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| image1            = Concession of Sabah (Brunei) 1877.jpg
| width1            = 160
| caption1          = The first concession treaty was signed by Sultan [[Abdul Momin]] of Brunei on 29 December 1877<ref name="century"/>
| image2            = Concession of Sabah (Sulu) 1878.jpg
| width2            = 160
| caption2          = The second concession treaty was signed by Sultan [[Jamal ul-Azam]] of Sulu on 22 January 1878<ref name="ssc"/>
| caption_align     = center
| header            = Concession of Sabah
}}
In 1761, [[Alexander Dalrymple]], an officer of the British [[East India Company]], concluded an agreement with the Sultan of Sulu to allow him to set up a trading post in northern Borneo, although this was to prove a failure.<ref>{{cite book |author= Howard T. Fry |title=Alexander Dalrymple (1737–1808) and the Expansion of British Trade |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=flfYsDjH_M4C&pg=PA72 |access-date=25 May 2013 |year=1970 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-7146-2594-2 |page=68–| via= Google Books}}</ref> Following the [[British occupation of Manila]] in 1763, the British freed Sultan [[Azim ud-Din I of Sulu|Alimuddin]] of Sulu from the Spanish and allowed him to return to his throne;<ref name="Sulu Archipelago">{{cite web |url= https://archive.org/stream/ahz9503.0001.001.umich.edu#page/29/mode/1up/search/British |title=The Sulu Archipelago and its people |author= Sixto Y. Orosa |publisher=Yonkers on Hudson, N. Y., World Book Company, [[University of Michigan]]| via= Internet Archive |year=1931 |access-date=26 August 2016 |page=29}}</ref> this was welcomed by the Sulu people and by 1765, Dalrymple managed to obtain [[Balambangan Island]] off the north coast of Borneo, having concluded a Treaty of Alliance and Commerce with the Sultan Alimuddin as a sign of gratitude for the British aid.<ref name="Brunei history"/><ref name="Sulu Archipelago"/> A small British factory was then established in 1773 on the island.<ref name= "Brunei history"/> The British saw the island as a suitable location to control the trade route in the East, capable of diverting trade from the Spanish port of [[Manila]] and the Dutch port of [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]] especially with its strategic location between the [[South China Sea]] and [[Sulu Sea]].<ref name="Brunei history"/> But the British abandoned the island two years later when [[Piracy in the Sulu Sea|Sulu pirates]] began attacking.<ref name="sabah edu"/> This forced the British to seek refuge in Brunei in 1774, and to temporarily abandon their attempts to find alternative sites for the factory.<ref name="Brunei history"/> Although an attempt was made in 1803 to turn Balambangan into a military station,<ref name="sabah edu"/> the British did not re-establish any further trading posts in the region until [[Stamford Raffles]] [[Founding years of modern Singapore|founded Singapore]] in 1819.<ref name="Brunei history"/>

In 1846, the Sultan of Brunei ceded the island of [[Labuan]] on the west coast of Sabah to Britain through the [[Treaty of Labuan]], and in 1848 it became a [[Crown Colony of Labuan|British Crown Colony]].<ref name="sabah edu"/> Seeing the presence of British in Labuan, the American consul in Brunei, Claude Lee Moses, obtained a ten-year lease in 1865 for a piece of land in northern Borneo. Moses then passed the land to the [[American Trading Company of Borneo]], owned by [[Joseph William Torrey]], [[Thomas Bradley Harris]] and Chinese investors.<ref name="sabah edu"/><ref name="Fitzgerald2016">{{cite book |author=Robert Fitzgerald |title=The Rise of the Global Company: Multinationals and the Making of the Modern World |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=rTkACwAAQBAJ&pg=PA75 |date= 2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-84974-6 |page=75| via= Google Books}}</ref> The company choose [[Kimanis]] (which they renamed "Ellena") as a site for a settlement. Requests for financial backing from the US government proved futile and the settlement was later abandoned. Before he left, Torrey managed to sell all his rights to the Austrian Consul in Hong Kong, [[Gustav Overbeck|Gustav von Overbeck]]. Overbeck then went to Brunei, where he met the [[Temenggong]] to renew the [[Concession (territory)|concession]].<ref name="Fitzgerald2016"/> Brunei agreed to cede all territory in northern Borneo under its control, with the Sultan receiving an annual payment of 12,000 [[Spanish dollar]]s, while the Temenggong received a sum of 3,000.<ref name="Brunei history"/>

In 1872, the Sultanate of Sulu granted use of an area of land in the Sandakan Bay to William Frederick Schuck, a former agent of the German consular service who had lived on the Sulu island of [[Jolo]] since 1864. The arrival of German warship {{SMS|Nymphe|1863|6}} at the Sulu Sea in 1872 to investigate the [[Spanish–Moro conflict|Sulu-Spanish conflict]] made the sultanate believe Schuck was connected with the [[Government of Germany|German government]].<ref>{{cite book |author= Leigh R. Wright |title=The Origins of British Borneo |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=9SzxAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA134 |date= 1988 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |isbn=978-962-209-213-6 |page=134| via= Google Books}}</ref> The sultanate authorised Schuck to establish a trading port to monopolise the [[rattan]] trade in the northeast coast, where Schuck could operate freely, without the Spanish blockade.<ref>{{cite book |author= James Francis Warren |title=The Sulu Zone, 1768–1898: The Dynamics of External Trade, Slavery, and Ethnicity in the Transformation of a Southeast Asian Maritime State |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=_UyVI5IxcjIC&pg=PA114 |year=1981 |publisher=NUS Press |isbn=978-9971-69-004-5 |pages=114–122| via= Google Books}}</ref> He continued this operation until this land also was ceded to Overbeck, with the Sultan receiving an annual payment of $5,000, by a treaty signed in 1878.<ref name="Brunei history"/>

After a series of transfers, Overbeck tried to sell the territory to [[German Empire|Germany]], [[Austria-Hungary]] and [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]] but they rejected his offer.<ref name="Fitzgerald2016"/> Overbeck then co-operated with the British Dent brothers ([[Alfred Dent]] and Edward Dent) for financial backing to develop the land, with the Dent company persuading him that any investors would need guarantees of British military and diplomatic support.<ref name="Fitzgerald2016"/> Overbeck agreed to this co-operation, especially with regard to the counterclaims of the Sultan of Sulu, part of whose territory in the Sulu Archipelago had been occupied by Spain.<ref name="Fitzgerald2016"/> Overbeck, however, withdrew in 1879 and his treaty rights were transferred to Alfred Dent, who in 1881 formed the North Borneo Provisional Association Ltd to administer the territory.<ref>{{cite book |author=Charles Alfred Fisher |title= South-East Asia: A Social, Economic and Political Geography |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=dHsOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA147 |access-date=26 May 2013 |year=1966 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |page= 147 |id=GGKEY:NTL3Y9S0ACC| via= Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=J. M. Gullick |title=Malaysia and Its Neighbours |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ykM9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA148 |year= 1967 |publisher=Routledge & K. Paul |isbn=978-0-7100-4141-8 |pages= 148–149| via= Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Keat Gin Ooi |title=Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to Timor. R–Z. volume three |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=QKgraWbb7yoC&pg=PA251 |access-date=26 May 2013 |year=2004 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-57607-770-2 |page=251| via= Google Books}}</ref> In the following year, [[Kudat]] was made its capital but due to frequent pirate attacks, the capital was moved to [[Sandakan]] in 1884.<ref name="Hutton2000"/> To prevent further disputes over intervention, the governments of the United Kingdom, Spain and Germany signed the [[Madrid Protocol of 1885]], recognising the sovereignty of the [[King of Spain]] over the Sulu Archipelago in return for the relinquishment of all Spanish claims over northern Borneo.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lawnet.sabah.gov.my/Lawnet/SabahLaws/Treaties/Protocol%28Madrid%29.pdf |title=British North Borneo Treaties. (British North Borneo, 1885) |author=British Government | work= lawnet.sabah.gov.my |publisher= Sabah State Government (State Attorney-General's Chambers) |year= 1885 |access-date=24 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029195606/http://www.lawnet.sabah.gov.my/Lawnet/SabahLaws/Treaties/Protocol%28Madrid%29.pdf |archive-date=29 October 2013 }}</ref> The arrival of the company brought prosperity to the residents of northern Borneo, with the company allowing indigenous communities to continue their traditional lifestyles, but imposing laws against [[headhunting]], [[ethnic conflict|ethnic feuds]], [[History of slavery|slave trade]], and piracy.<ref name="Skutsch2013">{{cite book |author=Carl Skutsch |title=Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yXYKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA679 |date= 2013 |publisher= Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-19388-1 |page=679| via= Google Books}}</ref><ref name="bnbm">{{cite web |url=http://web.usm.my/km/KM%20XIX,2-2001/THE%20LEGEND%20BY%20SUE%20HARRIS.pdf |title=The Legend by Sue Harris: A Critique of the Rundum Rebellion and a Counter Argument of the Rebellion |author=Callistus Fernandez |work=Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore |language=ms, en |publisher=[[Universiti Sains Malaysia]] |year=2001 |access-date=2 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602154850/http://web.usm.my/km/KM%20XIX,2-2001/THE%20LEGEND%20BY%20SUE%20HARRIS.pdf |archive-date=2 June 2016 }}</ref> North Borneo then became a [[protectorate]] of the United Kingdom in 1888 despite facing local resistance from 1894 to 1900 by [[Mat Salleh Rebellion|Mat Salleh]] and [[Antanum]] in 1915.<ref name="sabah edu"/><ref name="bnbm"/>