Labuan

Labuan , island (1991 pop. 54,307), 38 sq mi (98 sq km), a federal territory of Malaysia, off Sabah, N Borneo, in the South China Sea. Coconuts, rubber, and rice are the main products. Victoria, the chief town, has a fine harbor and an airport and is the shipping center for much of N Borneo. Labuan was ceded to Great Britain by the sultan of Brunei in 1846 and became a crown colony in 1848. It was included in the Straits Settlements in 1906 and in 1946 was joined to British North Borneo, which became Sabah in 1963. It was at Labuan that the Japanese surrendered to Australia in 1945.

Borneo, North Although the Spanish touched the region in the 16th cent., it was not until Alexander Dalrymple's expedition of 1759 that it was connected to the outside world. The East India Company opened several settlements and, in 1846, Labuan was occupied as a crown colony. In 1877 the British North Borneo Company began to establish a government. The Japanese invasion of 1941–2 eventually led to crown colony status in 1946. Representative government and membership of the Malaysian Federation followed in 1963.