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How powerful is Brunei in history? Why did it decline?

If Brunei in Southeast Asia is said, it may be a small country that is almost ignored in everyone's impression. From the current map of the world, Brunei is even small enough to be seen with a magnifying glass. So how small is it? Its area is only 5,765 square miles, which is smaller than Shanghai in China. In addition to being small, the location is extremely embarrassing. The territory was cut in half by Sarawak, Malaysia, like two enclaves.

However, although Brunei is only a tiny place and its position is extremely embarrassing, its territory is not small in history, and it is not an exaggeration for us to call it the overlord of Southeast Asia. Historically, Borneo has been unified, that is to say, all the land in kalimantan island where it is now located, and large areas in the south-central Philippines were once Brunei's territory. From the map, we can clearly understand how powerful Brunei was in Southeast Asia.

Little records in history books are often an important basis for seeing whether a country is strong or not. Next, we can feel the strength of Brunei more intuitively by reading historical materials.

Brunei is called Boni Country and Glass Country in the history of China. The earliest record of Boli country can be traced back to 502 AD, when the King of Brunei sent envoys to China (China was in the Southern and Northern Dynasties) to meet the rulers of the Liang Dynasty and inform the Emperor of the Liang Dynasty about the current situation of Boli country, such as? They have an area of 136, and the emperor's seats are all made of gold? .

Biography of Liang Shu and Hainan recorded:? People in his country are as proud of him as those in northern Hebei. Wang Nai is dressed in silk, wearing a garland, and wearing a gold crown more than a foot high on his head, shaped like a dragon. He wears Qibao and holds Jin Jian, sitting in a golden position, supported by a silver pedal. Maids are decorated with golden flowers and miscellaneous treasures, or hold glistening flowers and peacock fans. When the king comes out, he drives the mountains and rivers with elephants, and the mountains and rivers use mixed incense. He put a feather on it, covered it with a bead curtain, and played the snail and drummed to guide it. ?

From the magnificent description of Brunei's customs in historical materials, we can also see how rich Brunei is. However, because the two countries were far apart at that time and the navigation technology was underdeveloped, although Emperor Liang knew that Brunei was rich and powerful, he did not have much contact with Brunei, and the two sides only maintained ordinary diplomatic relations.

In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Brunei began to have a close relationship with the Central Plains Dynasty, and the king even sent envoys to visit China with gifts. Because the gifts are extravagant, we can still judge that Brunei is still very rich at this time. But in? Sui and Tang rulers? At this time, Brunei is not only a rich country, but also a very powerful country.

Sui Shu? Biography of Nan Man:? (Brunei) China people are good at throwing wheel knives, which are as big as mirrors, with holes in the middle and saws outside, and can throw people far away, without exception. The rest of the weapons are similar to those of China. Custom is real wax, and the product is the same as Linyi. ?

It can be observed from historical data that Brunei people are powerful and powerful, and their weapons are no different from those of the Central Plains. With such a nation equipped with advanced weapons, the military strength of this country should not be underestimated.

But this is not the peak of the kingdom of Brunei. The heyday of Brunei Kingdom was mainly in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. "Yuan Shi" records:? The Yuan Dynasty sent 20,000 soldiers on an expedition to Java, but they finally lost. Soldiers are ashamed to return to China and choose to settle here, becoming one of the ancestors of Chinese in Brunei. ? In fact, we can not only know that Chinese arrived in Brunei in the Yuan Dynasty, but also know that the strength of Brunei's army at that time was so strong that even the Mongolian army that swept across Eurasia suffered greatly.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the influence of the Ming army once influenced Malaysia now. However, the kingdom of Brunei began to show signs of decline. At that time, the Brunei royal family was controlled by the power groups in Java. However, King Mahimosa of Boni and General Huang Senping of Ming Dynasty organized forces to form a new power group in kalimantan island, which ended the unrest and established a new Brunei. At this time, Brunei began to attach importance to commerce and develop overseas trade because of its good foundation, rich products and the help of the Ming army (they brought not only military strength, but also advanced means of production and productivity). Therefore, the strength did not fall, but rose, and it reached its peak.

Some people may wonder why Brunei is so powerful at this time and why it should pay tribute like the Ming Dynasty. There is a person to talk about here, and that is the yellow flat mentioned above.

After Brunei became powerful, Huang Sen Ping, the leader of China who helped Brunei at that time, naturally became one of its founding fathers and even became king. However, after becoming king, Huang Ping did not forget his motherland Daming. He visited Ming Chengzu in the capacity of King of Brunei on 1402. However, at that time, Huang Sen's screen age was too high for him to stand the fatigue of traveling. After returning home, the villagers warmly welcomed him, which made him too excited.

It is worth mentioning here that the yellow flat is even put forward? Do you know that this area belongs to the employer? The land in the Boni and Duanshou River basins was included in the Chinese territory, but the idea was not realized and it died unfortunately.

Then it is not surprising that Brunei was once the vast territory and maritime hegemon of Southeast Asia. Why did it decline to this point? This is mainly related to modern colonial expansion.

Modern European countries benefited from the opening of new air routes and began to colonize and expand Zhang Zhilu. At this time, they invented many advanced scientific products, improved the quality of gunpowder and produced more advanced firearms. Armed with these powerful weapons, they began to plunder wealth all over the world. The Kingdom of Brunei is famous for its rich gold and jewels, and naturally it is also the coveted object of European countries. So it's only a matter of time before the colonists get their hands on it.

Although Brunei is still the overlord of Southeast Asia at this time, its strength is strong, but it is also relatively speaking. After all, there are many cold weapons, and European colonists with modern weapons are no opponents at all. At that time, China was in the middle of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the Ming Dynasty was in danger, so it was too busy to ask Brunei and let it develop freely.

By the time the Qing Dynasty pacified three times, Brunei's land area had collapsed. For example, at that time, the territories of the Philippines, Malaysia and other places had been occupied by the Spanish. In addition, the Netherlands, Portugal and France have also formed their own spheres of influence in Southeast Asia.

Later, in order to avoid losing territory again, Brunei began to learn the closed-door policy of the Qing Dynasty. But as we all know, this can really protect the territory from loss in a short time, but in the long run, it will only make itself more backward, which means it is a wrong move. Since then, Brunei, like China at that time, failed to catch up with the upsurge of industrial revolution and fell behind the world together.

Brunei's total weakness occurred six years after the Opium War in China, when the armies of Britain and Brunei countries clashed. Then Britain declared war on Bonaire. 1846, British troops invaded Bonaire, the capital of Brunei. At that time, the king of Brunei had to sign a treaty with Britain, cede territory and make peace, which caused Brunei to lose a large area of land again.

At this time, although Brunei and Britain stopped fighting, Britain did not directly withdraw its troops from Brunei, but waited for the follow-up big move. Sure enough, 1847, forced by British arrogance, Brunei signed a treaty with Britain again in 1847, which basically cut off all the territory of Brunei.

At this time, the area actually controlled by the Kingdom of Brunei is probably the national territory of Brunei, and other areas have become British colonies.

At this time, it is not difficult to find that Brunei has become a fish on the chopping block of Britain, so in 1888, Britain and Brunei signed another British Brunei Treaty. Since then, Brunei has completely become a British colony, and even the royal family has been completely controlled by Britain. This state lasted until 194 1 year when Japan invaded Brunei and Brunei became a Japanese colony.

At this time, Brunei was attracted to Japan mainly because of its natural geographical location and resources. With it, Japan has oil and sea, and its rule in Southeast Asia and China is more stable.

After that, Brunei finally let Japan declare defeat and began to demand independence. But unexpectedly, the British came again. At that time, the British army quickly reoccupied the whole territory of Brunei, killing the idea of Brunei independence in the cradle. However, at that time, the Kingdom of Brunei was unwilling to accept the jurisdiction of Britain, so it called on the masses to start a large-scale independence movement, which led to constant local armed conflicts.

After the founding of New China, Brunei was influenced by China and established corresponding political parties. The desire for independence is even more urgent, but it is still ruthlessly suppressed by the British authorities. After 10 years of struggle in Brunei, under the pressure of the situation, Britain finally made some concessions in 1959, allowing some areas of Brunei to achieve autonomy and supporting local administrative reforms in line with national conditions. However, Brunei countries still have military and diplomatic security power.

At this time, in order to curb Brunei's desire for further independence, Britain thought of a good way to transfer contradictions. 1962 Brunei began to consider joining Malaysia, but the problem of uneven distribution of interests between the two sides was not discussed. Subsequently, the local revolutionary armed forces in Brunei had a large-scale armed conflict with the British and decided to leave the colony by armed means. However, due to the disparity between the local revolutionary armed forces and the British military forces, the armed uprising was quickly suppressed and a large number of Brunei people were massacred.

It was not until 197 1 that Britain relaxed its military control over Brunei. 1978, Brunei negotiated with Britain with the support of international forces. At that time, the Queen of England finally relented after negotiations and agreed to British land in Brunei? Rent? It ended in 1984, so Brunei officially became an independent country in 1984 1.

However, although Brunei achieved independence at this time, the territory could not be restored to the past. From this, we can also know that the great powers, especially Britain, are the chief culprits of Brunei's weakness and even shrinking to the present level.

However, although the territory is no longer vast, fortunately, after independence, Brunei, relying on unique natural gas and oil resources, has gradually made the country richer and richer. Now their per capita GDP has reached 3 1.6 million yuan, ranking the top 20 in the world. In other words, Brunei is still the richest country in Southeast Asia with the highest national happiness index. To some extent, it is still the overlord of Southeast Asia.