Also close to the Strait of Malacca, why is the economic gap between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula so large?
The Strait of Malacca is the choke point between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, with a navigable history of more than 2,000 years. It is an important sea route between the coastal countries of Asia, Africa, Australia and Europe, and many developed countries import oil and strategic materials from foreign countries must be shipped out of here. Due to the busy shipping and unique geographical location, the Strait of Malacca is known as the "Crossroads of the Sea".
The Indonesian island of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula occupied by the new four countries of Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia are located on both sides of the Strait of Malacca, and compared with the economic prosperity of the Malay Peninsula in the north, the southern island of Sumatra is undoubtedly extremely deserted and lonely.
Interestingly, Sumatra was known as the "Golden Island" in ancient times due to its rich gold production and the economic benefits brought about by its special geographical location, while the Malay Peninsula on the opposite coast was called the "Golden Peninsula" on the Ptolemaic map issued in 1482.
In fact, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula were also integrated, in the middle of the 7th century AD, the Fallen Kingdom of Srivijaya in the area of Borinblan (present-day Palembang) began to rise, and then through centuries of trade exchanges and military attacks, it finally reached its peak around the 11th century AD, and its sphere of influence included Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, western Borneo and other territories. In the Song Dynasty, the Quanzhou City Commandery raised Zhao Rushi, and in the "ZhuFan Zhi" written in the first year of the Southern Song Dynasty Baoqing (1225 AD), he specifically described the death of Sri Buddha in detail. Since then, the region has been ruled by the Javanese majapahitate, Sumatra and Aceh emirates.
The Mongol invasion of Europe and later the Mamluks and Venetian monopolies on the spice trade in Egypt led to the traditional overland trade routes being controlled by a small number of interest groups. The countries of Western Europe are afraid of the urgent need for spices and other materials, and are facing a situation of wanton price increases that exceed demand at any time. Moreover, at that time, there was an economic crisis in Europe due to the decline of precious metals, which made it more urgent for Western European countries to find new trade routes to obtain and control the spice trade.
The Mongol Empire and the Ottoman Empire brought fear to Europeans, but also brought a large amount of technical and geographical literature to Europe, and the Europeans also improved sailing technology and gained the first deep understanding of Africa and Asia.
The Portuguese kingdom that opened the age of great navigation was finally successful in building the famous Caravelle ocean sailing ship because of the acquisition of Arab dhow technology. Without such a sailboat, Columbus would not have been able to return to Lisbon, but would have remained on the island of Haiti after the hurricane.
As the Age of Discovery continued, and after largely completing his exploration of North and South America, the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Diaz discovered the southernmost point of the African continent ( which was later renamed the Cape of Good Hope ) , meaning that the route from Europe to the Indian Ocean had been discovered , and finally in 1498 , with the help of a Muslim navigator familiar with the laws of the western Indian Ocean monsoon , Vasco da Gama arrived in Calicut , southwestern India , and Vasco da Gama was appointed Governor of India.
Decades after the new maritime trade routes were opened, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain and other countries joined in and competed fiercely to monopolize the spice trade. At that time, near the Strait of Malacca, portugal quickly seized the area as the Ming Dynasty abandoned maritime trade. However, ocean trade did not improve the natural disadvantage of the Portuguese people, and the Strait of Malacca was soon divided between the Dutch and the British, who successively traded and fought with the principalities along the coast of Sumatra, and built several fortresses here.
At first, the British focused on expanding their power in India and did not touch the Dutch interests in the Malay Islands. However, as British rule in India stabilized and wanted a share of the Malay Archipelago, Britain's move undoubtedly violated the Dutch demand for exclusive possession of the Malay Archipelago, and naturally a conflict broke out between the two sides. Until the Dutch came to power and became king of England, the two sides reached an alliance agreement, and due to the strength of the British navy, the Netherlands reduced its navy and turned to concentrate on Dealing with France from land. On 17 March 1824, Britain and the Netherlands signed the Anglo-Dutch Treaty in London, which stipulated that the Malay Peninsula belonged to the British sphere of influence and Sumatra to dutch interests.
In contrast to the British, who focused on the development of colonies, the Dutch were only concerned with how to maximize the value of the colonies and carry out barbaric resource plunder, and did not care about the future of the colonies. Britain's colonial policy has long maintained a colonial "self-government" policy, allowing local nobles and related interest groups to join the British colonial government, hoping to reduce friction between each other and maximize British interests.
The Netherlands, on the other hand, often used force to forcibly replace local rulers, and the Netherlands was one of the last countries in Europe to abolish the slave trade. And it was precisely because of the different measures taken by both sides towards the colonies that the Malay Peninsula became more and more prosperous under British governance. The island of Sumatra, on the other hand, did not stabilize until the demise of the Emirate of Aceh in 1905. Centuries of war further hampered dutch construction and development of Sumatra, especially the Aceh War, which cost the Dutch dearly and made the natives of Sumatra hate the Dutch even more.
After the end of World War II, the colonies of the former European powers have embarked on the road to independence, because the British Government in London allowed the colonies to become independent and could join the British Commonwealth through peaceful means, so Malaysia and Singapore maintained the British economic development policy, and some Britain still chose to stay in the local area and coexist peacefully with the locals, and the native British community was also formed during this period.
The Republic of Indonesia, which holds sovereignty over sumatra, declared its independence three months after Japan's surrender. The Dutch response to colonial independence was the use of force to suppress it. Indonesia and the Netherlands fought three wars in two years, which ended with Dutch military victories and Indonesian political victories. It was precisely because of the hostile measures taken by the Netherlands that Indonesia completely rejected all Dutch policies after independence, and the Dutch who had originally remained in the area all left Indonesia and returned to the Netherlands. Long-standing antagonisms and erroneous colonial policies are also the main reasons why Sumatra's economy is weaker than that of the Malay Peninsula.
The harsh natural conditions of Sumatra are also an important factor in the backwardness of Sumatra. Sumatra is made up of three geographical environments, namely the Barisan Mountains in the west, bordering the Indian Ocean, the wetland swamp plains in the east and north, and the narrow plains along the western coast. Not only that, but there are more than 90 volcanoes in the Northwest-Southeast Barisan Mountains, and the volcanic ash they bring has considerable agricultural value. However, in the age of great navigation, the excellent ports and spices were undoubtedly more remarkable than agriculture, and the harsh swampy environment in the east not only made Europeans lack interest in exploring, but even locally established countries such as Srivijaya had little interest in it.
Although Sumatra's coastline is very long, due to the dense volcanic terrain in the west, the rugged terrain and the perennial "Indian Ocean lapping waves" on the northwest side of the island, the western part of Sumatra lacks a natural harbor. The east coast, which has good ports such as Pa Ling Pan and Banda Aceh, is also inferior in terms of trade with the Malay Peninsula due to its hot and humid climate, swamps everywhere, dense rainforests and high incidence of tropical infectious diseases.
In modern times, with the prosperity of Singapore and Malacca, it has attracted the attention of more commercial and trade groups, and since there is already a stable and perfect Singapore with excellent comprehensive strength, the Strait of Malacca, which tends to be saturated, will inevitably lack future development potential. And indonesia's economic strength has not been particularly good for a long time, and even though Sumatra is rich in palm oil and oil resources, the Indonesian government lacks sufficient funds to develop it.
In addition to economic constraints, the Indonesian government itself has a more urgent problem to solve, that is, the relocation of the capital. As of 2020, the population of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, will exceed 10 million, not including the population of many satellite cities nearby, the concentration of a large number of people, the aging of urban infrastructure and over-exploitation of groundwater, etc., so that Jakarta has lost its former glory, and now Jakarta has declined at an average annual rate of 17 centimeters, becoming the fastest sinking rate among today's capitals. According to a study by the United Nations International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in more than a decade, the gates of indonesia's presidential palace are likely to be not land but oceans.