Chapter 12 The Colonial Period 459ing communities and served British firms as compradors as they did in China.
The composition of towns averaged 70 percent Chinese.
When the East India Company monopoly was abolished, private mer-
chants and planters flocked to the region. Rubber became commercially impor-
tant for shoes and clothes in the late nineteenth century and then became even
more important when the automobile industry emerged in the twentieth cen-
tury. But rubber was not native to Malaya. Early efforts to transport rubber
Map 12.2 Colonial acquisitions in Southeast Asia.PHILIPPINESPHILIPPINESLUZONLUZON
15701570MINDANAOMINDANAO
15961596CELEBESCELEBES
19071907CELEBESCELEBES
190719071859
to
1907INDOCHINABALIBALI
19081908MALACCAMALACCAMALAYAMALAYASIAMSIAMBORNEOBORNEO
19071907BRUNEIBRUNEINORTHNORTH
BORNEOBORNEOSARAWAKSARAWAK18881888JAVAJAVA18881888
18501850
19001900
19071907 1884188418781878183418341824182418191819
1831183118551855Scale in Miles
0 250 500L E G E N D
British
French
Dutch
Spanish
( U.S. after1898 )BURMABURMA
18261826
toto
1890s 1890 sSUMATRASUM
ATR
A