Paragraph: (History-Anthropology/oanc-HistoryMalaysia-5.txt)
Sent 1: The Dutch Take Over: Intent on capturing a piece of the Portuguese trade in pepper and other spices, the Java-based Dutch Ailied with the Malays in 1633 to blockade Melaka.
Sent 2: The trade blockade was to last eight years, and ended in a seven-month siege.
Sent 3: The Portuguese surrendered in 1641, wracked by malaria and dysentery and denied their usual reinforcements from Goa.
Sent 4: By then, the city had become a stagnant backwater.
Sent 5: Unlike the Portuguese, the Dutch decided to do business with the Malays of Johor, who controlled the southern half of the peninsula together with Singapore and the neighboring Riau islands.
Sent 6: A trade treaty gave the Dutch command of the spice trade but reserved Johor's rights in tin exports from Perak, Selangor, and Klang.
Sent 7: Without ever retrieving the supremacy of the old Melaka sultanate, Johor had become the strongest Asian power in the region.
Sent 8: For the Dutch, Johor provided a buffer against other Europeans.
Sent 9: Meanwhile, fresh blood came in with the migration into the southern interior of hardy Minangkabau farmers from Sumatra, while tough Bugis warriors from the east Indonesian Celebes (Sulawesi) roved the length and breadth of the peninsula.
Sent 10: The Minangkabau custom of freely electing their leaders provided the model for rulership elections in modern federal Malaysia.
Sent 11: Their confederation of States became today's Negeri Sembilan ("Nine States"), with Seremban as its capital.
Sent 12: The name Minangkabau itself means roughly "buffalo horns" and is reflected in the distinctive upward curving roof in museums and government offices built in the traditional Minangkabau style.
Sent 13: The Bugis were energetic merchants and great sailors.
Sent 14: With the Dutch concentrating once more on Java and the Moluccas in the 18th century, the Bugis took advantage of the vacuum by raiding Perak and Kedah, imposing their chieftains in Selangor and becoming the power behind the throne in Johor.
Sent 15: The Bugis in Johor's administration provided much of the spirit in that State's independent stand in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Sent 16: Throughout this period, the east coast states enjoyed a relatively tranquil prosperity, Terengganu notably thriving from its textile industry and trading in pepper and gold with the Thais, Cambodians, and Chinese.
Sent 17: The British, under the private auspices of the East India Company (EIC), were beginning to poke their noses into North Borneo.