The Rundum Rebellion of 1915 Reconsidered.
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THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL |
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Title :
The Rundum Rebellion of 1915 Reconsidered. |
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Author :
Callistus Fernandez |
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Abstract:
The empire building process of the British in North Borneo began in 1877-1878 and concluded by the turn of the century. To the new colonial masters, their expansionist policy to North Borneo served two agenda, the first to further expand British held territories in Asia and to curb any other foreign powers from expanding their wings to Borneo. The second, being the profits that could be harvested from the new territories. To justify this,a colonial sense of morality needed to be enforced either by law or the use of force with the hope of civilizing the savage natives they encountered. Thus new territories were in essence a kind of Santa Claus who would provide the colonials with continuous bounties to enrich themselves. It is little wonder than the focus of development in the early stages of colonialism reiterated the two agenda. The expansion of the colonial economy took the form of simple extraction via the collection and exporting ofjungle produce, timber and minerals. This was necessary to pay for expenses incurred in expanding territorial boundaries. The next step was to further encourage foreign investments mainly in large-scale commodity productions such as tobacco cultivation in line with making North Borneo profitable to the London shareholders. To further enhance the expanding colonial economy. North Borneo was opened up to traders, merchants and planters. The tentacles of the colonial economy was far reaching and expanded swiftly even to the remotest regions of North Borneo, bringing about rapid change. This saw the enforcement of various laws encroachingon native way of life. The outlawing of various activities such as blood feuds, headhunting, slavery and piracy was intended to civilize the natives. More importantly they needed to be transformed into docile citizens who paid taxes and provided free labour whenever the colonials needed it.
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| DOI: XXXX |
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How to cite:
Callistus Fernandez. (1998). The Rundum Rebellion of 1915 Reconsidered. The Sarawak Museum Journal, LIII (74): 109-136 |
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References
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