History of Kuala Lumpur
The Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society states that Raja Abdullah (who was involved in the Klang War) founded Kuala Lumpur, aside from also opening up tin-mines up river and had introduced the Chinese into the region.
Two traders from Lukut, Hiu Siew and Yap Ah Sze, then arrived in Kuala Lumpur where they set up shops to sell provisions to the miners.
[5] The town, spurred on by tin-mining, started to develop beside the confluence of the Gombak and Klang rivers with the Old Market Square (Medan Pasar) its commercial centre.
Kapitan Yap was involved in all aspects of commercial activities of early Kuala Lumpur, including the main market, as well as licensing of brothels, casinos and drinking saloons.
Tengku Kudin's men including European mercenaries attempted to escape, but were caught in Petaling and were killed.
In 1880, the state capital of Selangor was moved from Klang to the more strategically advantageous Kuala Lumpur by the colonial administration, and the then British Resident William Bloomfield Douglas decided that the government buildings and living quarters should be located to the west of the river, separate from the Chinese and Malay settlements along the east bank of the Klang River.
[12] The government offices were later moved from Bukit Aman to a more conveniently located Sultan Abdul Samad Building facing the Padang, now known as Merdeka Square, which became the centre of the British colonial administration.
[13][14] Frank Swettenham, who was appointed the Resident in 1882, has been credited with its rapid growth and development and its transformation into a major urban center.
[16] Kapitan Yap Ah Loy bought a sprawling piece of real estate to set up a brick industry for the rebuilding of Kuala Lumpur; this place is the eponymous Brickfields.
As most of central KL grew in an organic fashion originally without significant planning in the early years, so the streets in the older parts of town are narrow, winding and congested.
[20] The development of the rubber industry in Selangor fueled by the demand for car tyres in the early 20th century led to a boom of the town, with the population of Kuala Lumpur increasing from 30,000 in 1900 to 80,000 in 1920,[21] and over 110,000 by 1931.
A channel (part of which runs beside the present Jalan Syed Putra) with flood retention banks was dug to divert the river and it was completed in 1932.
On the other hand, the ethnic Malays were treated well with promise of independence after the war so that they would co-operate in order for the Japanese to continue administering Kuala Lumpur.
United States Army Air Forces heavy bombers bombed the Central Railroad Repair Shops in Kuala Lumpur on 18 February and 10 March 1945.
[26] Another ceremony was held on 22 February 1946 in Kuala Lumpur for the formal surrender by the commander in chief of the Japanese Seventh Area Army in Singapore and Malaysia, Seishirō Itagaki, to the British administration After the Japanese surrendered, the British Military Administration returned to Kuala Lumpur.
On 1 April 1946, the British officially declared the Malayan Union in King's House (now known as Carcosa Seri Negara).
During the Malayan Emergency, when the colonial government of Malaya was preoccupied with the Communist insurgency, New Villages were established on the outskirts of the city in the 1950s in an attempt to control covert support for the guerrillas.
[27] Kuala Lumpur gained historical significance again in 1957 when the first Malayan flag was raised on the grounds of the cricket field, Merdeka Square, to mark the country's independence from British rule.
Kuala Lumpur came of age in 1974, when it was formally detached from its mother state of Selangor and made into a unit of its own called the Federal Territory.
On 5 August 1975, The terrorist organisation named Japanese Red Army, took more than 50 hostages at the AIA building, which housed several embassies.
The organisation carried out many attacks and assassinations in the 1970s, including the Lod Airport massacre in Tel Aviv three years earlier.
Under the initiative the Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad at globalisation, major urban developments in the Klang Valley has resulted in an extended Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan Area.
[34] Skyscrapers have shot up and Kuala Lumpur, formerly a languid colonial outpost, has become one of the most lively, advanced and vibrant cities in South East Asia.
The white Police Headquarters located atop Bukit Aman (literally "Peace Hill") also faces the Dataran.
While preservation of landmarks such as the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, Kuala Lumpur Railway Station, Carcosa Seri Negara and Central Market, as well as a handful of shophouses and homes, are active, a fraction of pre-independence buildings in the area have been poorly maintained, misused, neglected, razed in fires or demolished through the 1990s and 2000s (decade).
