Sultanate of Brunei
From obscure beginnings, the Malay Sultanate of Brunei on the northern coast of Borneo emerged from the Javanese Majapahit empire as a regional power in its own right around the 15th century. It expanded after the Portuguese took Malacca in 1511. By the time Magellan's expedition anchored off Brunei ten years later, the sultan controlled practically all of northern Borneo's coast, the Sulu Archipelago, and neighbouring islands in the southern Philippines.
Internal strife over royal succession, the rise of the sultanate in nearby Sulu, piracy and the colonial expansion of European powers —the Spanish in the Philippines, the Dutch in southern Borneo and the British in Labuan, Sarawak and North Borneo saw Brunei lose much of its territory through the 9th century. It became a British protectorate in 1888, stayed out of the Malaysian Federation in 1963 and regained its independence in 1984.
