Language/Malay-individual-language/Culture/Cocos-(Keeling)-Islands

From Polyglot Club WIKI
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This lesson can still be improved. EDIT IT NOW! & become VIP
Rate this lesson:
5.00
(one vote)
Historical Timeline for Cocos (Keeling) Islands - A chronology of key events
Cocos-Islands-Timeline-PolyglotClub.png

Located in the Indian Ocean, the Cocos Islands (formerly Keeling Islands) remained out of human history until the early 17th century, when they attracted Europeans. First a territory of the British Empire, the latter transferred its authority over the archipelago to Australia in the middle of the twentieth century.

Don't hesitate to look into these other pages after completing this lesson: Malaysia Timeline, Count to 10, Pop Culture and Entertainment & Malay Cuisine.

The discovery[edit | edit source]

In 1609, Captain William Keeling was the first European to see the islands, during his service with the East India Company. It gives its name to the islands although this name is rather reserved for the English language1. The islands remained uninhabited until the 19th century.

First installations[edit | edit source]

In 1814, Captain John Clunies-Ross, a Scottish sailor and merchant, stopped briefly on the islands during his trip to India; he nails a United Kingdom Flag (Union Jack) to it and plans to return and settle on the islands with his family.

However, a wealthy Englishman named Alexander Hare forms similar plans and hires a captain who, coincidentally, happens to be Clunies-Ross's brother. The latter must transport Alexander Hare and a harem of forty Malaysian women to the islands, where Alexander Hare hopes to create his own private residence. Hare had previously served as governor of a colony in Borneo and concluded that "he could not limit himself to the docile life that civilization offers".

When John Clunies-Ross returns two years later with his wife, children and stepmother, he finds Hare already established on the island, where he lives with his private harem. A quarrel instantly arises between the two men.

After a while, the women of Hare began to abandon him and take husbands among the sailors of Clunies-Ross2. Discouraged, Hare leaves the island. He died in Bencoolen in 18343. Clunies-Ross remains the sole owner on the island, he established coconut groves there. Workers at Clunies-Ross are paid in a currency called the Cocos Rupee, a currency struck by Clunies John-Ross himself and which could only be used at the company's store. The abundance of coconut palms gave the islands its current name; however, in English, the name of the islands is systematically accompanied by the mention Keeling, the name of the discoverer.

A distinguished visitor[edit | edit source]

On April 1, 1836, HMS Beagle, piloted by Captain Robert FitzRoy, came to carry out soundings with a view to establishing the profile of the atoll, as part of the Beagle expedition. For the young naturalist Charles Darwin, who was on board the ship, the results confirm a theory he had developed on how atolls form, a theory published in The structure and distribution of coral reefs. He studies the natural history of the islands and the specimens collected6. Darwin's assistant, Syms Covington, notes that “an Englishman” and his family, along with about sixty or seventy mulattoes from the Cape of Good Hope, live on one of the islands. Captain Ross, the governor, is absent as he is in Cape Town.

Annexation by the British Empire[edit | edit source]

The islands were annexed by the British Empire in 1857. This annexation was carried out by Captain Stephen Grenville Fremantle at the head of HMS Juno. Fremantle claims the islands on behalf of the British Empire and appoints John George Clunies-Ross as superintendent. In 1867, the administration was placed under the direction of the Straits Settlements, which included Penang, Malacca and Singapore. Queen Victoria granted the Clunies-Ross family the islands in perpetuity in 1886.

World War I[edit | edit source]

Landing operation of the Imperial German Navy on Direction Island. On the morning of November 9, 1914, the islands became the site of the Battle of Cocos, one of the first naval battles of the First World War. A disembarkation operation by the German cruiser SMS Emden resulted in the capture and deactivation of the communications cable and its station on Direction Island, but not before it was able to transmit a distress call. A convoy of Allied troops was passing nearby, and the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney was detached from the escort to investigate.

Sydney spotted the island and Emden at 9:15 am, with two ships ready for battle. The cruiser was able to fire first, but the German ship was unable to inflict significant damage on Australian cruiser Sydney before it got out of range and in turn opened fire with its more powerful main guns. At 11At 20 hrs, the heavily damaged Emden ran aground on North Keeling Island. The Australian warship ceases the pursuit; meanwhile the Emden scuttles itself. The Australian cruiser returned to the area at 4:00 p.m. The Emden temporarily maintained its battle sign raised, a sign of the continuation of the fight. Without a response from the Germans, the Australians fire two bursts; the Germans lower their flag and wave the white flag in surrender. The Sydney was ordered to check the condition of the transmitting station, but returned the next day to provide medical assistance to the Germans.

Second World War[edit | edit source]

During World War II, the cable station was once again a lifeline. Allied war advisers noted that the islands could be taken to serve as an airstrip by Nazi Germany who wished to conduct raids against cruisers operating in the Indian Ocean. As the Empire of Japan entered the war, Japanese forces occupied all of the neighboring islands. To avoid drawing their attention to the Cocos cable station and its garrison, the mooring point of the seaplane providing the link between Direction Island and Horsburgh is no longer used. Radio transmitters were also silent, except in emergencies.

After the fall of Singapore in 1942, the islands were administered from Ceylon; West Island and Direction Island are placed under Allied military administration. The archipelago garrison was initially a platoon of British King's African Rifles, located on Horsburgh Island, with two 6 inch (152.4 mm) guns to cover the anchorage. The locals all lived on Home Island. Despite the importance of these islands as a center of communication, the Japanese made no attempt to attack or occupy them, and only sent a reconnaissance plane about once a month.

Transfer to Australia[edit | edit source]

On 23 November 1955, the administration of the islands was transferred to Australia under the Cocos (Keeling) Act of 1955 (an Australian law) following on from the Cocos Islands Act of 1955 (a British law) 11. H. J. Hull is appointed first official representative (the title is now Administrator) of the new territory. He had been a lieutenant commander in the Royal Australian Navy and was released from this post for this purpose. Pursuant to Commonwealth Cabinet Decision 1573 dated September 9, 1958, Mr. Hull's appointment terminates and John William Stokes is appointed, on secondment from the Northern Territory Police. A press release from the Minister of Territories, Mr.Hasluck, at the end of October 1958, congratulated Mr. Hull on his three years of service to the Cocos Islands.

In the 1970s, the dissatisfaction of the Australian government increased with the feudal mode of government of the Clunies-Ross. In 1978 Australia forced the family to sell islands for AU $ 6,250,000, using the threat of forced acquisition. By convention, the family retains ownership of Oceania House, their home on the island. However, in 1983, the Australian government reneged on this agreement and told John Clunies-Ross that he had to leave the Cocos. The following year, the High Court of Australia ruled that the takeover of Oceania House was illegal, but the Australian government ordered that no state-owned companies do business with the Clunies-Ross shipping company, which helped to the bankruptcy of the company. John Clunies-Ross now lives in Perth, Western Australia. However, some members of the Clunies-Ross family still live on the Cocos.

Extensive preparations have been made by the Australian government to prepare Coco Malaysians to vote in the self-determination referendum. Discussions began in 1982, with a goal of holding a referendum, under United Nations supervision, in mid-1983. According to guidelines developed by the United Nations Decolonization Committee, residents were to be offered three choices: full independence, free association or integration with Australia. The latter proposal was preferred by both islanders and the Australian government. However, a change of government in Canberra following the Australian election in March 1983 delayed the vote for a year. While the Home Island Council indicated a preference for a vote according to the island's custom, the UN insisted on a secret ballot. The vote took place on April 6, 1984 with the participation of the 261 inhabitants of the island with the right to vote, including the Clunies-Ross family. 229 voted for integration, 21 for free association, 9 for independence and 2 failed to indicate a preference12.

The 2004 earthquake and tsunami, epicenter off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, raised concern over the Cocos Islands, but no casualties were reported (see 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean).

Sources[edit | edit source]

World Timelines[edit source]

Other Lessons[edit | edit source]

Contributors

Maintenance script

Create a new Lesson

Retrieved from "https://polyglotclub.com/wiki/index.php?title=Language/Malay-individual-language/Culture/Cocos-(Keeling)-Islands&oldid=201131"