Johor History, Malaysia

The word Johor is derived from the word Jauhar which is actually a gem or a precious stone. Initially this same area was earlier called as Ujung Tanah which actually means end of land. It was called so as this land is located on the south most point of the Asian Continent.

It was the early years of the 16th century when the modern history of Johor actually started to take shape. It was the last known sultan of Malacca Sultan Mahmud Shah’s son who was responsible for laying the foundation of Sultanate of Johor. The state of Johor was actually the part of this Malaccan Sultanate till the Portuguese rulers took total control of this region by the year 1511.

Regions around this state of Johor were under the control of Aceh when the Portuguese were invading the state of Johor. As Portuguese invaders were Christians the Muslim inhabitants and rulers started to favor the Aceh Empire thus strengthening them. Aceh took advantage of the fight which was going on between Portuguese and the Malacca Empire to attack both these armies in order to gain control of the region all by themselves.

To fight against the Aceh, the Portuguese and Malaccan Empire signed a truce under which they together fought against the Aceh Empire. The truce worked wonders and the Aceh Empire suffered heavy losses. With the Aceh army leaving the area, the fight between the Malaccan and the Portuguese Empire again started to take shape.

It was during the year 1641 when the joint armies of Dutch and Malaccan won fierce battle against the Portuguese empire thus taking the control of Johor.

In the following years, the state of Johor Empire faced triangular war in which the Jambis emerged as the strongest political and economical winners. Jambi Empire fought severe wars against the Johor army so as to break free from the clutches of this state and these heavy wars broke the capital of Johor totally. Although the Jambi Empire fought well against the Johor for almost 10 years, it couldn’t keep pace with the army of Johor and lost the final war by 1679.

Since then the Johor Empire tried to grow this state economically even though they were continuously conquered by many different armies like that of the British.