A punitive expedition by the "White Rajah" James Brooke in 1845 only succeeded in weakening the power of the Sultanate of Sulu in the region for a short time, despite naval support from Sir Thomas Cochrane.

[3] Shortly after his appointment, William Hood Treacher, the first governor of North Borneo under the North Borneo Chartered Company, moved the company's headquarters to a small bay in Marudu Bay that had just been discovered by Alfred Hart Everett.

[4] In 1887, Count Geldes d'Elslov acquired extensive areas of land on Marudu Bay and began growing tobacco.

[5] In 1892, the Filipino national hero José Rizal, together with like-minded people, planned to found an agricultural settlement at the mouth of Bengkoka River in Marudu Bay in order to escape the repression of the Spanish government.

[6] In 1904, the British Borneo Exploration Syndicate Company Limited acquired the monopoly to exploit the mineral resources in the Marudu Bay area and began mining manganese.