The first time a ‘westerner’ is reported to have visited Borneo is when Magellan’s fleet landed in Brunei in 1521. At this time the leaders of Brunei had control over the area but in 1764 ‘North Borneo’ was handed over to the British East India Company. In 1882 the British North Borneo Chartered Company was formed with a royal charter and Sandakan became the first capital of British North Borneo. A small British settlement on the island of Pulau Gaya moved to the mainland in 1897, after a local rebel Mat Salleh and his followers fought and burned the island settlement. This new settlement was at a fishing village called Kampong Gantisan but was renamed Jesselton (after Sir Charles Jessel, one of the directors of the North Borneo Company) in 1899 and flourished as a trading centre on the Trans Borneo Railway.

This is how the area remained until the Second World War and the Japanese Invasion. Allied forces destroyed Sandakan and Jesselton whilst trying to defeat the invading Japanese and after the war it was decided to move the capital to Jesselton. Unfortunately the North Borneo Company could not afford to rebuild the country after the war so the area became a British Crown Colony.

With the independence of Malaysia in 1963 North Borneo became the 13th Malaysian State and reverted to it’s original name of Sabah and in 1967 the capital was renamed Kota Kinabalu.

If you would like to read some more about the history of the area please check out the recommendations on our 'research' page . . . . More

Return to previous page Click Here

Making your dreams come true in Borneo.

Borneo Dream Travel & Tours SDN. BHD., Registered Office - 4th Floor, Lot 12, Block A,

Warisan Square, PO Box 10018, 88800 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Contact Us

[ Home ]  [ Site Map ]  [ About Sabah ]  [ About Us ]  [ About You ]

[ Book@BorneoDream ]  [ Dive@BorneoDream ]  [ Explore@BorneoDream ]  [ Stay@BorneoDream ]