Quote:
Originally Posted by Ridwan
The strongest Peninsular polity in history, Malacca Sultanate, did subjugated Riau, but never went beyond that. Aceh however, later totally encircled Malaccan coreland in Peninsula itself, before Malacca itself was conquered by Portuguese. And let's not get into Srivijaya....
Before Malaysia, there was never any Peninsular polity that once established any foothold on Borneo. Brunei actually remained strong enough to maintain independence, even from Europeans, until 19th century.
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Exactly, military considerations from the gunpowder and pre-gunpowder ages mean very little in the modern era, when controlling a territory depends a lot less on force projection and a lot more on politics and diplomacy.
If by some quirk of history it had been great Britain that had acquired Aceh rather then the Netherlands, it would have probably ended up within Malaysia. And politically there would have been few issues, as the people there, like on the peninsula, are "Malay", whereas in comparison, those people would have less in common with the people from Java(Indonesia's center of power).