North Borneo Status Dispute

In ancient times, the Sultanate of Sulu received the northeast coast of Kalimantan as a gift from the rulers of Brunei for helping to fight the enemies. In 1865, the US Consul in Brunei, Claude Lee Moses, purchased from the Sultan of Brunei a ten-year lease on the territory of North Borneo . The United States, which had just completed the civil war, showed no interest in finding Asian colonies, so Moses had to sell the concession of the Hong Kong private American Trading Company of Borneo , which founded a small settlement of Ellen ( Kimanis ) there.

Due to financial difficulties, ATC, in turn, in January 1875 resold the rights to North Borneo to the consul of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Hong Kong to baron Gustav von Overbeck ( German: Gustavus Baron Von Overbeck ). January 22, 1878 the Sultan of Sulu Muedzul Lyle Tan Kiram signed with the consul von Overbeck and his British partner Alfred Dent agreement granting them a lease owned by Sulu coast of Kalimantan for the time that they need. In return, von Overbeck provided the Sultan with firearms to protect against the Spaniards, and promised to pay the Sultan or his heirs $ 5,000 a year.

On April 22, 1903, Sultan Jamalul Kiram signed the “Confirmation of the transfer of individual islands”, according to which he leased additional islands off the coast of Kalimantan to the British North Borneo Company - from Banggi Island to Sibuku Bay; instead, the annual payments to the Sultan of Sulu were increased from 5,000 to 5,300 dollars.

Soon the Sultanate of Sulu came under Spanish control, and the Sultan was forced to sign a document, according to which all of his property in Palawan and Sulu (but not in North Borneo) was transferred to Spain. In 1885, Spain signed the Madrid Protocol, in accordance with which it renounced all claims against Kalimantan in favor of Great Britain.

After victory in the Spanish-American war of 1898, control over the Philippines passed from Spain to the United States. In 1906 and 1923, the United States reminded Great Britain that North Borneo was not part of the lands of the British Crown and belonged to the Sultanate of Sulu. The Constitution of the Philippines in 1941 proclaimed that the territory of the Philippines are, among other things, “all land belonging to the Philippines on the basis of historical rights or legitimate claims”. However, in 1946, Britain transformed the British North Borneo into a crown colony.

After the formation of Malaysia in 1963, Sabah was included in its composition, and the Philippines broke off diplomatic relations with Malaysia. At the meeting in Manila, representatives of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines signed the Manila Agreement , which stipulated the conditions for Sabah’s self-determination, but it was subsequently ignored by all signatories. Diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Malaysia were restored in 1989, but the dispute over the status of North Borneo still remains unresolved.