[Forum Game] - World in Revolution: 1920 Mk. II

[Groogy]

The Outstations of the Brooke Administration​

When the first White Rajah of Sarawak took the reigns of this great and vast nation of resources, the administration were in poor condition and relied on the inefficient and ancient model of the Bruneian Empire. Sir James Brooke made great changes to this area and massive reforms of the hierarchy of the nation. He setup the Sarawakan Service, a civil service which focused on recruiting Europeans into its ranks, valued for their modern knowledge in the area of state.

These servicemen became the extension of the Rajah and represented him in all matters where these were stationed, which were mainly "Outstation" forts placed nearby large settlements and important rivers for transportation. These forts were built by ironwood in square shapes with watch towers in each corner. As at the time the biggest threat to the servicemen were only headhunters with a few poisoned spear, the wooden palisades were more than enough to keep them at bay and cases of fatality was extremely rare.

Even though the European servicemen were to represent the White Rajah, he made it a very important that the natives of Sarawak, the real populace of his kingdom, that their culture remained untouched and that their methods were to adapt to the people. The Malayan's of Sarawak was known for their acceptance of the European rule as the Europeans had come to know their culture and accept it in return. And over time the methods in how the servicemen practiced law, tax collection and the rest of their duties became more and more efficient as the two fundamentally different societies started to merge together. The current Rajah's aim is to now make this new society that has blossomed in this paradise of Borneo and propel it forward to the future while still remaining true to James Brooke's ideals.

At the reign of the second Rajah the servicemen became accompanied by the Sarawak Rangers who were tasked with manning the forts of the Outstations, the Border forts and protection the life of their dear Rajah and his Astana. These Rangers were mainly composed of Malayan's and were the first what you could truly call modern soldiers of Sarawak. They excelled in Jungle combat and were equipped with modern weaponry.

The original officers of the Rangers that were lead by Sir William Henry Rodway​

These Outstations is what made the basis and core of the Brooke Administration, and where one of these forts were is where the law of the Rajah reached. The Kingdom was large and wide, as such the interior and deep jungle of the Kingdom housed large Dayar tribes who practiced headhunting, since long outlawed by the Rajah's and an ever lasting thorn in the Royal decree's of the Astana. However over the years more and more Dayar tribes accepted the rule of the Brooke's administration and they settled nearby important trading routes along the rivers and joined in on the prosperity of the realm.

With the current Rajah's rule, and the ever more maturing administration of the Kingdom, the people, His Highness and even Britain, expect great things from the Brooke Kingdom, that little paradise in the far east corner of the world.

Berharap Selagi Bernafas
Dum Spiro Spero​

 

[Groogy]

Dekri diraja dari Astana
Royal Decree from the Astana​

His Highness, Charles Vyner Brooke has declared that for every man in his service that the following shall be enforced and preparations for it to be made. Provinces of the realm shall be enacted and drawn up and their capital shall be made up of the larger forts in the region. This fort and its commander shall henceforth be responsible to represent the Rajah and carry out his law to the land that is assigned to him and of the delegation of laws and responsibility to the Outstations that belongs to him

This decree does not abolish the annual ceremony of the chieftains meeting with His Highness and swearing allegiance, this decree only concerns the internal structure of His Highness administration.

The division shall be as follow and uses this map as reference:

Spoiler

Full size: http://i.imgur.com/z4ZUxUd.png

Kutching Province - Fort Kutching
- The Landmark of Tanjong Datu
- Gold mines of Bau
- Outstation of Rsadong
- Outstation of Semunjan, including the coal mine of Semunjan
- Kuching, Capital of Sarawak
- And everything in-between

Lupar Province - Fort Simanggang
- Outstation of Selantik, including the coal fields o Selantik
- Mount Tandong
- Outstation of Lobok Anta
- Outstation of Seratok
- Village of Kabong
- And everything in-between

Sibu Province - Fort Sibu
- Rejang River
- Lighthouse of Sirika
- Egan River and the village at the mouth of the river
- Town of Sibu
- Outstation of Kanowit, including the Fort of Kanowit
- Outstation of Song, including the fort of Song
- And everything in-between

Muka Province - Fort Bakong
- River of Oya, all the way down to the mountain
- River of Tatau, all the way down to the mountain
- And everything in-between

Rejang Province - Fort Kapit
- Rejang River
- Outstation of Belaga
- Raleh River
- And everything in-between

Breaker Bay Province - Fort Kidorong
- Outstation of Kidorong
- Outstation of Tubau
- Mountain G. Kalalung
- Outstation of Niah
- And everything in-between

Miri Province - Fort Claudetown
- Landmark of Lobong Point
- Landmark of Barram Point
- Outstation of Claudetown
- And everything in-between

Everything not covered in these provinces are deemed to be under the jurisdiction of the Astana. Few examples are the populated areas of Talang Island, Satang Island or the border regions of the nation and the forts covering the borders.

Signed by His Higness, Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak

​

 

[Groogy]

OOC: On Shynka's request the map on my IC has been updated with a full size version that includes also the potential borders from the royal decree, just thought I would let people know if they are interested.

 

[Groogy]

A cup of tea in the far east
The Rajah on the ongoing crisis developing in Hungary

From right to left: His Highness, Vyner Brooke of Sarawak, his spouse Sylvia the Renee of Sarawak, the Rajah Mudah Bertram Brooke with their close friend Gerard MacBryan of Borneo Company Limited​

As most of the Rajah's time was needed to be spent in the Kingdom to manage it, the news from the old world was scarce and most of his information came from friends or officials that frequented the other parts of the British Empire. One of those were his dear friend Gerard MacBryan, one of the nice Scotsmen at the Borneo Company Limited that operated in Sarawak under the Rajah's supervision.

- "So the Great War ended just for the world to spiral down into chaos and barbarism?" His Highness asked

Mr. MacBryan affirmed what the Rajah had asked before taking a sip from his tea. The Rajah shook his head and put his hand to his face as he thought before gesturing his Butler Sibu to come closer.

- "At least we should send a letter of congratulations to His Apostolic Majesty, Mátyás III and wish that his rule shall see some stability in the region to the very least."
- "Your Highness..." Gerard said "The Romanians put forth an ultimatum to the Hungarians that His Apostolic Majesty had to abdicate and it looked like the Hungarian government was going to accept it when I left"

Vyner sighed and waved away his butler, Sibu bowed and returned to his position and left the dining party in peace to discuss the matters of the old world.

- "Its at time as these that I'm so happy that my wife and my daughters are safely tucked away here in the east, the old continent is such a powder keg that can explode at any time." His Rajah picked up the subject again.
- "At least we now have the League of Nations to prevent such disasters to ever happen again..." Bertram, the heir apparent said.
- "BAH! The League" The Rajah said with distaste "Their efforts are what we want and what we need, but tyrants will always find a way."

From his porch that they were having their tea you could see the growing city of Kutching on the other side of the river.

- "The world is the so called, Great Powers, playing ground" he made a gesture towards the city "And all we can hope is that they forget our little paradise here."
- "Our forefather James founded this, and did his best to protect the land from foreign hand, so did my father and so shall I as well do." The Rajah took a sip from his tea before continuing. "I hope for our people's sake that there is something left for you to protect Anthony when its your turn..."

 

[Groogy]

Letter from the White Rajah
To His Royal Majesty Administration​

I want to personally make it known to His Majesty that even though this has not been stated in the terms of our Treaty of Protection, but I in my power as the ruler of Sarawak want to emphasis our full support of his Majesty's position in the recent events going on in Europe.

I want to stress how thankful I am to have the United Kingdom of Great Britain to guarantee the sovereignty of this Kingdom in the east, however not many other states have that luxury. As evident, the sovereignty of much more influential and important nations for world stability have had their hands tied to their back and now what has been guaranteed to them in the treaties following the great war is being in danger of becoming a broken promise.

I want to thank and emphasis how grateful I am to have His Royal Majesty and His administration with his wisdom and his empathy for the people suffering in Europe. The line of the White Rajah shall always support the house of Windsor and we have faith in that of His Majesty's actions in the ongoing crises.

Signed by His Higness, Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak

 

[Groogy]

Dekri diraja dari Astana
Royal Decree from the Astana​

Dear Tom Blanket, Governor of Miri.

His Highness, Charles Vyner Brooke requests your presence at the annual meeting with the Rajah at the Astana in Kutching. His Highness together with His chieftains wants to know of the progress of your assigned province and discuss further plans of improvement. After the discussions the Chieftains will swear allegiance to His Highness, Charles Vyner Brooke and so shall also be required of you to do. When the ceremony is over a banquet shall be held at the Astana for all participants.

Signed by His Higness, Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak

​

 

[Groogy]

Dekri diraja dari Astana
Royal Decree from the Astana​

The Astana and the Brooke family want to reach out and humbly apologize to all of Sarawak for the horrible acts that were done upon you and I personally as your Rajah vow to never let such happen again. At the yearly summit when all of your Chieftains were summoned to the Astana justice were swiftly done, these criminal men apprehend and sentenced for their crimes. Their crimes were treason against the Crown, the State and the people of Sarawak. They were given the authority and task to make the land better, to improve upon the way of life that is the Malayan way, not destroy it or exploit it.

But we need to look forward, these acts of horrible men shall not hinder us from growing as a nation and as a people. However I will not let the Malayan or Dayak tribes be put trough horrors like this again and will thus be starting a project in Kutching that will lead to repair the damage that has been done and make us stronger. On the other side of the River in full view of the Astana we shall build and start the School of Royal Service in Kutching, here the young minds, the prodigies of the Chieftains and the future of our Kingdom shall be nourished and prepared to serve Sarawak and do what the white man couldn't.

Front view of the Astana​

His Highness, Bertram Brooke the Rajah Mudah of Sarawak shall be traveling along the rivers of our large nation and meet with each tribe and explain in detail to you what this means in detail for your Chieftain, for you and for all of us as a whole. Bertram will also interview your candidates for the Royal Service and bring them with him to the Capital. Its the belief of me and the Astana that this is our way to progress, not relying on the methods of the west but building our own way trough the Malayan way of life. Sarawak is strong, and its people is a noble race and we the Brooke serve to help and assist you on your path to greatness.

Artist depiction of Bertram Brooke, the Rajah Mudah of Sarawak interviewing a Chieftain and his son for admittance to the school.
Source: The Newsletter from Australia​

The students of the Royal Service shall be well taken care of and will have what will be the profession of everyone's desire and serve the Crown, The State, and its people to their fullest extent.
Dum Spiro Spero, While I breathe, I hope.

Signed by His Higness, Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak

​

 

[Groogy]

Dekri diraja dari Astana
Royal Decree from the Astana​

It is with a heavy heart that I speak to you my chieftains, the trust you and your ancestors have put into the Brooke family is something that I and my administration value greatly. Never have the White Rajah's ever betrayed the Malaysian people and my promise to you is that this shall remain so for as long as the Brooke's rules in the Astana. What happened the previous year was unforgiving and the worst crimes were committed by men appointed by me, but I had no reason to suspect that these men would betray the Malaysian people as they had been serving Sarawak for so many years without incident. However it proves that we can not trust any other than ourselves to lead us. This is why the School of Royal Service were created, to create the future starting with our children to lead us to greatness and progress. This is to be the beginnings of a new era for our Kingdom, our paradise on the island of Borneo.

For the children of Sarawak, we strive for the future​

Our children is our future, that much we all know to be true. We must make sure that we leave the possibility for them to make something better of our everyday, to live a better and easier life and not having to bother with the struggles that we have in this time. When we are long gone our descendants are going to be left with what we made, so let's work together to teach them the path to take and to make sure they are to the task of ruling their own destiny. Entrust me with the responsibility of their present, and I shall guarantee your children's future.

Signed by His Higness, Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak

​

 

[Groogy]

The School of Royal Service​

The Borneo Company Limited pushed to centralize trade and create hubs where the natives meet each other's tribes and the European officials of the Astana and the company, The Scotsmen at the Trade company showed their long experience and skill with handling the people of Sarawak showing great progress in motivating them to actually participate. Trust to the white man was starting to return to the Malayan and Dayak mind thanks to the recent progress, His Highness Vyner Brooke decided to yet again push the idea to his chieftains to have their young-lings be taught in the capital Kuching at the School of Royal Service.

The "Royal Service" was a term coined by Vyner's brother Bertram in order to differentiate the students of the school from the already in place civil service men all over the country. The name's point was also to show that these student served the crown and the crown first in order to assist their king in improving the life of his subjects and enacting his laws and the royal decree's. The British civil servicemen had shown to not have this in mind but rather focused on profitability and did not shy away from any means upon achieving improved results. In the eyes of the Brooke's this was highly undesirable and something their family had been fighting to keep away from Sarawak and thus the natural step for them were to have the native people eventually take over with the ideals to serve the crown and Kingdom.

Front of the School of Royal Service​

The School was primarily made up by westerners who had lived most of their life in the Orient and who had some kind of experience within civil service or were just plainly teachers in English and similar basic subjects. The material taught to the young minds were planned to make them prepared to work with westerners and to give them a basis of knowledge to work with for their coming profession. However what His Highness looked the most forward to was the proximity the school had to the Astana. The presence of the Rajah would be quite common on the school and Vyner and Bertram had hopes that this would make the future governors of the provinces having closer relationship to the Rajah. These students as well would also take part in the ceremony of swearing allegiance to the Rajah as the Chieftains did however at the start of school every trimester instead of only yearly.

The core topics to be taught was to be the following:

• Manglish from Singapore, the Creole English of Malaysian people
• Simple applied mathematics
• Political science
• History
• Law
• Ethics
• Simple economics such as budgeting and statistics
• Human management

But besides these topics, the students would also be taught on how to handle modern firearms.

Hopefully these halls of the School will start to shape the future of Sarawak for the better of its people.

 

[Groogy]

Borneo Company Limited
Its development during the 1920's​

Ever since the foundation of Sarawak was laid by James Brooke in the year 1842 the company has had a huge influence on the Kingdom. Mostly because of Rajah James Brooke was a close friend to one of the founding directors of the Borneo Company Limited. John Charles Templer besides with his associations with the Brooke family also reached the position as Master at the Court of Exchequer Chamber. Since the start of the company they've had a monopoly on working in Sarawak and had a close relationship with the Brooke dynasty while operating in Borneo. The office manager placed in Sarawak was the danish merchant Ludvig Verner Helms who served until a lawsuit saw to his termination.

However as Rajah Vyner Brooke in the 1920's aimed to reform the Kingdom and slowly move towards a more modern society without discriminating the Dayak and Malayan customs of his subjects. After the horrendous acts after the Royal Decree of 1920 and the administration blood bath shortly followed in 1921 where several British officers employed by the Sarawak Service were charged with treason to the crown and given the capital punishment in response to their actions. The years to come were very much a healing time where the Rajah did his best to mend the wounds that had been caused and the key to the process were the Borneo Company Limited

Lupar Province natives forced into labor by corrupt governor of the new provincial system enacted in 1920 by the Rajah​

Borneo Company Limited did their best to assist the Rajah and the first project were the Trade hubs of Sarawak, giving the company centralized place to perform commerce with the natives and trade for wares to make a profit for themselves. But the most important part was the companies experience with the natives and strengthening the trust between the natives and the white man again to not have the land collapse. With the initial successes His Highness Charles Vyner decides that the cooperation between the Astana and Borneo Company Limited were to increase and become more indistinguishable and actually let the company participate in administration missions to improve the economy of Sarawak.

Year 1925 and 1926 the Rajah and Gerard MacBryan, the replacement of Ludvig, were in discussions together with the administration staff of the Astana in how to improve the economical situation and potentially deal with the growing debt that Sarawak had accrued. Gerard and his associates were given quite free reigns as Sarawak was effectively an absolute monarchy giving the Rajah the final say in all matters regarding state or law.

From right to left: His Highness, Vyner Brooke of Sarawak, his spouse Sylvia the Renee of Sarawak, the Rajah Mudah Bertram Brooke with their close friend Gerard MacBryan of Borneo Company Limited​

Right now the focus of the company is to further make trade and production in the land more efficient by similar methods like before where things can be centralized or somehow encouraged. For instance Gerard is considering setting up production of resources such as Palm Oil in Sarawak and introduce more formalized laws regarding enterprises to the land giving them rights to setup plantations and the ability to hire manpower in order to work the fields. The whole concept of working for someone else and produce something that you yourself does not need is however quite alien to the people of Sarawak.

The Astana and the Rajah however hopes that the company will succeed in their efforts and will later be able to tap in to the ideas of Gerard MacBryan to help reform the economical and juridical situation of Sarawak to something more modern.

 

[Groogy]

Progress Agreement of British Borneo​

In light of recent progress of Sarawak and its heightening to the status of a model colony his Majesty's government has decided to fund and encourage this trend of the developing nation situated in North Borneo.

1. The United Kingdoms shall transfer $200 000 000 to the Kingdom of Sarawak.
2. The Kingdom of Sarawak pledges to invest $200 000 000 pounds into repaying their debts.
3. The Kingdom of Sarawak pledges to invest majority of its budget into financial growth for the next coming 5 years.

[] Signed by British representation
[X] Signed by Sarawak representation

Signed by His Higness, Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak

 

[Groogy]

(( Join the IRC Channel, instructions on first page ))

 

[Groogy]

Dekri diraja dari Astana
Royal Decree from the Astana​

His Higness, Rajah of Sarawak has decided in his wisdom to create the policy of Sungai Raja, The King's Rivers. One of the defining landscape features of Sarawak has always been its extensive network of rivers. And for the Dayak and Malayan tribes living in the Kingdom they use them as their preferred way to travel as they reach everywhere and its easier than walking. The Rajah with his new policy decree's that the state shall adopt this as the primary way of transportation of the Kingdom and shall put considerable efforts into promoting it.

While in the more developed and flatter lands of Europe they lay roads and travel by automobiles, some still with horse and carriage. Vyner has decided to adopt the land of Sarawak and utilize the transportation network that already exists however improve on it where need be. The rivers are all naturally made and as such some of them are dangerous or right out impossible to traverse safely. Some are slower to traverse because of streams or the dangers of the landscape. As such His Highness and the Astana shall invest a lot of effort and investments into improving the major rivers in use and the smaller ones that leads to important settlements of the Kingdom. The policy of Sungai Raja has as its aim to connect together the Kingdom of Sarawak and the distant goal of that "Kutching shall be no longer than a day away" for any subject of the Rajah.

With improving upon rivers includes also building smaller docks at every settlement making transportation of goods produced by local tribes easier to get on their boats and transport to the nearest outstation for trading. However the major cost will be landscaping of the area near the rivers to create new shorter paths and the creation of Cara Raja, The King's Path. A series of passages shall be dug out between the rivers that flow out to the coast. Using these passages a smaller boat will be capable of traversing all the way to Kutching from as far away as Miri making it essentially possible to travel to any point in the Kingdom without risking the perils of going out to sea.

The King's Path(Click for full size)​

The King's Path shall go all the way from Claudetown and Miri, pass by Niah and continue to the river of Breaker's Bay. From there to Fort Keppel passing by the Lighthouse of Kedurong Point. Continuing up the Bintulu River and crossing over to Kakus River to eventually reach the town of Belaga. Pass trough the great rivers of Balui and Rejang down to Fort Emma, Fort Brooke and the city of Sibu. It will divert of to Kanowit River passing Mount. Sadok and with a new passage to Sekrang River reach Fort Alice and the settlement of Simanggang. From there it travels down towards the sea but turn at the Outpost of Lingga to continue its path inland again. It will pass the Selantik Coalfields and the Semunjan Coalmine before it eaches Kuching.

Luckily most of these rivers are already in heavy use and in order to not be overambitious the Astana tries to follow the already established routes as much as possible as they build new improvements and passages along the Cara Raja.

Signed by His Higness, Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak

​

 

[Groogy]

(( Where's my update? I double checked to be sure but yes I have sent in my orders to the correct person. I even made a nice IC with handmade reference resources for the order that I also link to in the order ))

 

[Groogy]

The Brunei Incursion​

Sarawak was part of the realm of Brunei until 1841 when James Brooke was granted a sizable area of land in the southwest area of Brunei from the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin II, around the city of Sarawak (now Kuching, the capital of Sarawak) and the nearby mining region of Bau. With western knowledge of both military and administration James took the position as Rajah of the newly formed Kingdom of Sarawak and it quickly became the dominant power in the region. Over the years Sarawak continued to expand on the expense of the Brunei Sultanate. The subsequent Sultans would regret the decisions of Omar Ali Saifuddin II but there wasn't much they could do against the growing economy in Sarawak with several chieftains shifting allegiance or simply just the Sarawak military moving in on Brunei territory and put up forts to lay claim to the land. The finances of Brunei was also quite poor and they were several times forced to lease or even sell out land to the White Rajah.

Sultan Hashim Jalilul Alam Aqamaddin appealed to the British to stop further encroachment by the Sarawak Rajah. A treaty was negotiated together with Sir Hugh Low and signed into effect in the year of 1888. The treaty said that the sultan "could not cede or lease any territory to foreign powers without British consent"; This treaty effectively made Brunei a British protectorate. However the Kingdom of Sarawak annexed Brunei's Pandaruan region in 1890 splitting the sultanate in the middle. As the Sultan hoped for British intervention, His Majesty's government decided to do nothing. They stated to the Sultan that they did not regard either Brunei or the Kingdom of Sarawak as 'foreign'. This annexation was done by the current Rajah's predecessor, his father the late Rajah Charles Brooke. The Pandaruan area annexation was enforced by the Sarawak Rangers which had been formed by Rajah Charles Brooke.

With the discovery of oil in Brunei around the year 1929, Rajah Vyner of Sarawak decided to go in his fathers footsteps and finish where he left off but he would take it one step further. The Sarawak Rangers were ordered to escort Royal Servicemen to the Palace of Brunei and seize it from the Sultan. Bringing all the remnants of the declining Sultanates finally into the hands of the White Rajah's. Brunei would be made into a province, governed by the accompanying administrators and the Rajah's law would be enforced.

 

[Groogy]

His Highness address to the Muslim community​

I am fully aware of the worry that the integration of the city known as Bandar Seri Begawan into Sarawak is a hostile move against the Muslim community, however during the almost hundred years that the Brooke's have ruled in Borneo we have been the strongest friends and protectors of the Muslim and native communities, going so far to even ban Christian missionaries from our land. As Rajah I represent the Christian, Muslim and Pagan people of Sarawak and the responsibility to protect their right rests on my shoulders and is something I weight very heavily.

During this last century more and more of the Muslim population has on their own will aligned themselves with my family instead of relying themselves on the decaying remnants of the long forgotten Bruneian Empire. This last act of integration was an unnecessary violent one but indeed one long overdue to restore and unite a people of a nation long dead.

The Sultan demands actions to be taken, to put Muslim people back into a poor state of living yet again while now we have given them the opportunity to take part in the riches of Sarawak and the ever growing prosperity that it has given. The People of Sarawak are more united with their own identity than ever before and the trade flows freely along our rich rivers and a Sarawakian man is no longer confined to the security of his tribe but with the infrastructure built by the Astana and the security enforced by the Sarawak Rangers he can travel freely throughout his nation and he can feel his family is safe for all foreseeable future.

In the past state of the Sultanate however I'm afraid I can't say the same, every year thousands upon thousands of faithful Muslims are pirated, headhunted and exploited by Tribes that does not acknowledge the Sultans rule and he has either not had the resources to protect his people or just turned a blind eye to it. However the Brooke's throughout their reign has never seen this as acceptable and have made the life for our faithful safe.

So as Rajah of the Kingdom of Sarawak and the city of Bandar Seri Begawan I ask to the Muslim League to open a dialogue with me and my administration to resolve this for your Muslim brothers sake. Your words are important to Sarawak as a big part of the Kingdom is member of the large and global spanning Muslim community.

Signed by His Higness, Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak

​

OOC: Also sorry about forgetting to send in an order

 

[Groogy]

Thanks for the amazing game Fry, I know in my heart Indonesia probably existed after the 40s right? Right? :x

No after Anthony Brooke's ascension to the throne the Kingdom organized the tribes into military encampements and made the nation highly militarized and formation of a military-industrial complex. This led eventually to the conquest of the inevitable Malayan Archipelago.