Sarawak
Brooke attempted to trade in the Far East, but was not successful. In 1833, He inherited £30,000, which he used as capital to purchase a 142-ton schooner, The Royalist. Setting sail for Borneo in 1838, he arrived in Kuching in August to find the settlement facing an Iban and Bidayuh uprising against the Sultan of Brunei. Greatly impressed with the Malay Archipelago, in Sarawak he met Pangeran Muda Hashim, to whom he gave assistance in crushing the rebellion, thereby winning the allegiance of the Sultan, who in 1841 offered Brooke the governorship of Sarawak in return for his help.
Raja Brooke was highly successful in suppressing the widespread piracy of the region. However some Malay nobles in Brunei, unhappy over Brooke's measures against piracy, arranged for the murder of Muda Hashim and his followers. Brooke, with assistance from a unit of Britain's China squadron, took over Brunei and restored its sultan to the throne. In return the sultan ceded complete sovereignty of Sarawak to Brooke, who in 1846 presented the island of Labuan to the British government.
He was granted the title of Rajah of Sarawak on 24 September 1841, partly attributed to his relationship with a daughter of the Sultan, although the official declaration was not made until 18 August 1842.
Brooke began to establish and cement his rule over Sarawak: reforming the administration, codifying laws and fighting piracy, which proved to be an ongoing issue throughout his rule. Brooke returned temporarily to England in 1847, where he was given the Freedom of the City of London, appointed governor and commander-in-chief of Labuan, British consul-general in Borneo and was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB).
Brooke became the centre of controversy in 1851 when accusations against him of excessive use of force against natives, under the guise of anti-piracy operations, ultimately led to the appointment of a royal commission in Singapore in 1854: its investigation did not confirm the charges, but the accusations continued to haunt him.
During his rule, Brooke faced threats from Sarawak warriors like Sharif Masahor and Rentap, and an uprising by Chinese miners in 1857, but remained in power.
Having no legitimate children, in 1861 he named Captain John Brooke Johnson-Brooke, his sister's eldest son, as his successor. Two years later, while John was in England, James deposed and banished John from Sarawak because John had criticised him. He later named another son of the same sister, Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke, who did indeed succeed him.
In November 1862, Captain Brooke rescued several civilians from the Moro Pirates after a pitched naval battle off the coast of Mukah. During the fighting, Brooke's steamer named Rainbow sank four prahus and damaged one other with cannon fire. Over 100 pirates were killed or wounded in the engagement while Brooke, and his Sarawakian followers, were mostly unscathed.
Brooke ruled Sarawak until his death in 1868, following three strokes over a period of ten years.
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