Borneo#World War II

When the sixteenth-century Portuguese explorer Jorge de Menezes made contact with the indigenous people of Borneo, they referred to their island as Pulu K'lemantang, which became the name for modern-day Indonesian Borneo.{{cite book |author1=Christoph Friedrich von Ammon |author2=Leonhard Bertholdt |title=Kritisches Journal der neuesten theologischen Literatur, Volume 6 |date=1817 |publisher=Nabu Press |isbn=9781273327414}}{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_UOb9lAFNBPEC|title=Le Moniteur des Indes-Orientales et Occidentales|publisher=Belinfant Brothers|year=1847|location=The Hague, Netherlands|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_UOb9lAFNBPEC/page/n190 164]|language=fr|trans-title=The Monitor of the East and West Indies|chapter=Notice historique du royaume Banjarmasin (Bornéo) par M. le Baron T. Van Capellen, lieutenant d'artillerie , aide-de-camp de S. Exc. le gouverneur-général des indes néerlandaises|trans-chapter=Historical record of the Banjarmasin Kingdom (Borneo) by Baron T. Van Capellen, lieutenant of artillery, aide-de-camp of His Excellency, the Governor General of the Dutch Indies}}{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B48EAAAAQAAJ&q=Pulu+K%27lemantan+&pg=PA21|title=Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap, der Kunsten en Wetenschappen|publisher=A. H. Hubbard|year=1814|volume=7|location=Batavia, Dutch East Indies|pages=21|trans-title=Treatises of the Society of Arts and Sciences in Batavia|chapter=A Discourse Delivered at a Meeting of the Society of Arts and Sciences in Batavia, on the Twenty-fourth day of April 1813, being the Anniversary of the Institution, by the Honorable Thomas Stamford Raffles, President.}} The term kelamantan is used in Sarawak to refer to a group of people who consume sago in the northern part of the island.{{cite book |author=Marine Science |title=The Facts on File dictionary of marine science |date=8 October 2023 |publisher=Charton, Barbara (2008). |isbn=978-0-8160-6383-3 |edition=2}}

According to Crowfurd, the word kelamantan is the name of a type of mango (Mangifera), though he adds that the word is fanciful and unpopular.{{cite book |title=Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Island (1856)}} The local mango, called klemantan, is still widely found in rural Ketapang and surrounding areas of West Kalimantan.{{cite book |title=Mangifera pajang Kosterm, 1965 |chapter=Mangifera pajangKosterm., 1965 |date=2018 |doi=10.1002/9783527678518.ehg2017006 |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1002/9783527678518.ehg2017006 |last1=Mojiol |first1=Andy Russel |last2=Sompud |first2=Jephte |last3=Lintangah |first3=Walter |pages=1–10 |isbn=9783527678518 }}

Internationally, it is known as Borneo, a name derived from European contact with the Brunei kingdom in the 16th century, during the Age of Exploration. On a map from around 1601, Brunei city is referred to as Borneo, and the whole island is also labelled Borneo.{{Cite web|url=https://i.pinimg.com/originals/14/9f/6e/149f6e24326484c7f2004c1dc50cc6b2.jpg|title=Kaart van het eiland Borneo, 1601, Benjamin Wright|accessdate=27 September 2022}}{{Cite web|url=https://bartelegallery.com/product/antique-map-borneo-by-de-bry-c-1602/|title=Antique Map Borneo by De Bry (c.1602)|website=bartelegallery.com|accessdate=27 September 2022}} The name may derive from the Sanskrit word {{transliteration|sa|váruṇa}} ({{lang|sa|वरुण}}), meaning either "water" or Varuna, the Hindu god of rain.{{Cite web|last=Media|first=Kompas Cyber|title=Hari Nusantara, Kenali Nama Lawas 5 Pulau Besar di Indonesia Halaman all|url=https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2018/12/13/18543791/hari-nusantara-kenali-nama-lawas-5-pulau-besar-di-indonesia|access-date=3 August 2020|website=KOMPAS.com|date=13 December 2018|language=id}}

Another source states that it derives from the Sanskrit word kalamanthana, meaning "burning weather", possibly to describe the island's hot and humid tropical weather.{{cite book|author=Eugene Linden|title=The Ragged Edge of the World: Encounters at the Frontier Where Modernity, Wildlands and Indigenous Peoples Meet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h_x9e3LtUfYC&pg=PT30|date=17 March 2011|publisher=Penguin Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-101-47613-0|pages=30–}} In the Indianized Malay era{{Clarify|date=February 2025|reason=It should be clarified what is meant by "Indianized Malay era"}} the name Kalamanthana was derived from the Sanskrit terms kala (time or season) and manthana (churning, kindling, or creating fire by friction),{{Cite web|title=Sanskrit Dictionary|url=https://sanskritdictionary.com/?iencoding=iast&q=manthana&lang=sans&action=Search|access-date=3 August 2020|website=sanskritdictionary.com}} which possibly describes the hot weather.{{Cite book|last=Muljana|first=Slamet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R-UBAAAAMAAJ&q=Kalimantan+Kala+Manthana|title=Sriwidjaja|date=1960|publisher=Pertjetakan Arnoldus|pages=78–79|language=id}}

In 977, Chinese records began to use the term Bo-ni to refer to Borneo. In 1225, it was also mentioned by the Chinese official Chau Ju-Kua (趙汝适).{{cite web|url=http://apb.ubd.edu.bn/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Tradition-and-Identity-Construction.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://apb.ubd.edu.bn/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Tradition-and-Identity-Construction.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live|title=Traditional Woven Textiles: Tradition and Identity Construction in the 'New State' of Brunei Darussalam|author=Siti Norkhalbi Haji Wahsalfelah|publisher=Universiti Brunei Darussalam|year=2005|access-date=24 May 2017|pages=48/29}} The Javanese manuscript Nagarakretagama, written by Majapahit court poet Mpu Prapanca in 1365, mentions the island as Nusa Tanjungnagara, which means the "island of the Tanjungpura Kingdom".{{cite web|url=http://kelembagaan.pnri.go.id/Digital_Docs/homepage_folders/activities/highlight/naskah_nagara_kretagama/isi.htm|title=Naskah Nagarakretagama|author=Suyatno|language=id|publisher=National Library of Indonesia|access-date=13 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170523163555/http://kelembagaan.pnri.go.id/Digital_Docs/homepage_folders/activities/highlight/naskah_nagara_kretagama/isi.htm|archive-date=23 May 2017|url-status=dead}}

{{see also|Geological history of Borneo}}

File:Regional map of SE Asia with Borneo Highlighted.svg.]]

Borneo was formed through Mesozoic accretion of microcontinental fragments, ophiolite terranes and island arc crust onto a Paleozoic continental core. At the beginning of the Cenozoic Borneo formed a promontory of Sundaland which partly separated from Asian mainland by the proto-South China Sea.{{cite journal|url=https://gsm.org.my/products/702001-100637-PDF.pdf|title=The origin of the 'circular basins' of Sabah, Malaysia|author1=Allagu Balaguru|author2=Gary Nichols|author3=Robert Hall|journal=Bulletin of the Geological Society of Malaysia, Royal Holloway University of London|via=Geological Society of Malaysia|year=2003|access-date=24 May 2019|page=337|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190524033404/https://gsm.org.my/products/702001-100637-PDF.pdf|archive-date=24 May 2019|url-status=dead}} The oceanic part of the proto-South China Sea was subducted during the Paleogene period and a large accretionary complex formed along the northwestern of the island of Borneo. In the early Miocene uplift of the accretionary complex occurred as a result of underthrusting of thinned continental crust in northwest. The uplift may have also resulted from shortening due to the counter-clockwise rotation of Borneo between 20 and 10 mega-annum (Ma) as a consequence of Australia-Southeast Asia collision. Large volumes of sediment were shed into basins, which scattered offshore to the west, north and east of Borneo as well into a Neogene basin which is currently exposed in large areas of eastern and southern Sabah. In southeast Sabah, the Miocene to recent island arc terranes of the Sulu Archipelago extend onshore into Borneo with the older volcanic arc was the result of southeast dipping subduction while the younger volcanics are likely resulted from northwest dipping subduction the Celebes Sea.

File:Jack fish and reef sharks.jpg

Before sea levels rose at the end of the last ice age, Borneo was part of the mainland of Asia, forming, with Java and Sumatra, the upland regions of a peninsula that extended east from present day Indochina. The South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand now submerge the former low-lying areas of the peninsula. Deeper waters separating Borneo from neighbouring Sulawesi prevented a land connection to that island, creating the divide known as Wallace's Line between Asian and Australia-New Guinea biological regions.{{cite book|author=James Allan Taylor|title=Biogeography: Recent Advances and Future Directions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xz9dWjh_CAsC&pg=PA178|year=1984|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-389-20507-4|pages=178–}}{{cite web|url=http://www.starfish.ch/dive/Wallacea.html|title=Wallacea|author=Teresa Zubi|publisher=Starfish|date=25 October 2015|access-date=26 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525180130/http://www.starfish.ch/dive/Wallacea.html|archive-date=25 May 2017|url-status=dead}} The island today is surrounded by the South China Sea to the north and northwest, the Sulu Sea to the northeast, the Celebes Sea and the Makassar Strait to the east, and the Java Sea and Karimata Strait to the south. To the west of Borneo are the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. To the south and east are islands of Indonesia: Java and Sulawesi, respectively. To the northeast are the Philippine Islands. With an area of {{convert|743330|km2|sqmi}}, it is the third-largest island in the world, and is the largest island of Asia (the largest continent). Its highest point is Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia, with an elevation of {{convert|4095|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}.

File:Lahan basah Taman Nasional Danau Sentarum, Kalimantan Barat.jpg, Kapuas Hulu Regency, West Kalimantan]]

The largest river system is the Kapuas in West Kalimantan, with a length of {{convert|1143|km|mi|abbr=on}}. Other major rivers include the Mahakam in East Kalimantan ({{convert|980|km|mi|abbr=on}} long),{{cite book|author=Tomas Tomascik|title=The Ecology of the Indonesian Seas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Kc80Hd2HagC&pg=PP54|year=1997|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-850186-2|pages=54–}} the Barito, Kahayan, and Mendawai in South Kalimantan ({{convert|1090|km|mi|abbr=on}}, {{convert|658|km|mi|abbr=on}}, and {{convert|616|km|mi|abbr=on}} long respectively),{{cite book|author1=Khee Giap Tan|author2=Mulya Amri|author3=Linda Low|author4=Kong Yam Tan|title=Competitiveness Analysis and Development Strategies for 33 Indonesian Provinces|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q526CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA338|year=2013|publisher=World Scientific|isbn=978-981-4504-86-7|pages=338–}} Rajang in Sarawak ({{convert|565|km|mi|abbr=on}} long){{cite book|title=Tropical River Fisheries Valuation: Background Papers to a Global Synthesis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mmrmRVVSiIYC&pg=PT218|year=2008|publisher=WorldFish|isbn=978-983-2346-61-6|pages=218–}} and Kinabatangan in Sabah ({{convert|560|km|mi|abbr=on}} long).{{cite book|author1=Uwe Tietze|author2=Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations|title=Credit and Microfinance Needs in Inland Capture Fisheries Development and Conservation in Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ihTrWUKDvLUC&pg=PA131|year=2007|publisher=Food & Agriculture Org.|isbn=978-92-5-105756-8|pages=131–}} Borneo has significant cave systems. In Sarawak, the Clearwater Cave has one of the world's longest underground rivers while Deer Cave is home to over three million bats, with guano accumulated to over {{convert|100|m}} deep.{{cite web|url=http://www.sarawak.gov.my/ebook/Sarawak_Tourism/Visitor_Guide/files/basic-html/page100.html|title=Sarawak Visitors Guide|publisher=Sarawak State Government|access-date=26 May 2017|page=100}} The Gomantong Caves in Sabah has been dubbed as the "Cockroach Cave" due to the presence of millions of cockroaches inside the cave.{{cite web|url=http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/29/billions-of-bugs-feast-on-flesh-and-dung-in-borneo/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151030152107/http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/29/billions-of-bugs-feast-on-flesh-and-dung-in-borneo/|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 October 2015|title=WATCH: Billions of Bugs Feast on Flesh and Dung in Borneo|author=Nora Rappaport|publisher=National Geographic|date=29 October 2015|access-date=26 May 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/cockroach-cave-where-billions-bugs-feed-dead-animals-dung-video-1526507|title=Cockroach cave: Where billions of bugs feed on dead animals and dung [Video]|author=Sean Martin|publisher=International Business Times (UK)|date=31 October 2015|access-date=26 May 2017}} The Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak and Sangkulirang-Mangkalihat Karst in East Kalimantan which particularly a karst areas contains thousands of smaller caves.{{cite book|author1=Quentin Phillipps|author2=Karen Phillipps|title=Phillipps' Field Guide to the Mammals of Borneo and Their Ecology: Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, and Kalimantan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0SxzCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA31|date=10 May 2016|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-16941-5|pages=31–}}

{{see also|Biodiversity of Borneo|Fauna of Borneo|Flora of Borneo|List of endemic birds of Borneo|List of mammals of Borneo}}

File:Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), Tanjung Putting National Park 01.jpg Bornean orangutan, a great ape endemic to Borneo]]

The Borneo rainforest is estimated to be around 140 million years old, making it one of the oldest rainforests in the world.{{cite book|author1=Andy Leeder|author2=Alan Brown|author3=Gregg Coleman|author4=Bob Digby|author5=Glyn Owen|author6=Val Davis|title=WJEC GCSE Geography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rDjEDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA199-IA444|date=22 August 2016|publisher=Hodder Education|isbn=978-1-4718-6130-7|pages=199–}} The current dominant tree group, the dipterocarps, has dominated the Borneo lowland rain forests for millions of years.{{cite news |title=A prehistoric forest grows in Brunei |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220428104015.htm |work=ScienceDaily |date=28 April 2022}} It is the centre of the evolution and distribution of many endemic species of plants and animals, and the rainforest is one of the few remaining natural habitats for the endangered Bornean orangutan. It is an important refuge for many endemic forest species, including the Borneo elephant, the eastern Sumatran rhinoceros, the Bornean clouded leopard, the Bornean rock frog, the hose's palm civet and the dayak fruit bat.{{cite web|url=http://wwf.panda.org/index.cfm?uNewsID=89620|title=Scientists find dozens of new species in Borneo rainforests|publisher=World Wide Fund for Nature|date=19 December 2006|access-date=26 May 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/borneo_forests/about_borneo_forests/borneo_animals/|title=Borneo wildlife|publisher=World Wide Fund for Nature|access-date=26 May 2017}}

File:Borneo 19 May 2002.jpg satellite image of Borneo on 19 May 2002]]

Peat swamp forests occupy the entire coastline of Borneo.{{cite book|author1=Kathy MacKinnon|author2=Gusti Hatta|title=Ecology of Kalimantan: Indonesian Borneo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FFXRAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT148|date=5 February 2013|publisher=Tuttle Publishing|isbn=978-1-4629-0505-8|pages=148–}} The soil of the peat swamp is comparatively infertile, while it is known to be the home of various bird species such as the hook-billed bulbul, helmeted hornbill and rhinoceros hornbill. There are about 15,000 species of flowering plants with 3,000 species of trees (267 species are dipterocarps), 221 species of terrestrial mammals and 420 species of resident birds in Borneo.{{cite book|last=MacKinnon, K|title=The Ecology of Kalimantan|year=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=London|display-authors=etal}} There are about 440 freshwater fish species in Borneo (about the same as Sumatra and Java combined).Nguyen, T.T.T., and S. S. De Silva (2006). "Freshwater Finfish Biodiversity and Conservation: An Asian Perspective", Biodiversity & Conservation 15(11): 3543–3568 The Borneo river shark is known only from the Kinabatangan River.{{cite journal |last1=Li |first1=C. |last2=Corrigan |first2=S. |last3=Yang |first3=L. |last4=Straube |first4=N. |last5=Harris |first5=M. |last6=Hofreiter |first6=M. |last7=White |first7=W.T. |last8=Naylor |first8=G.J.P. |title=DNA capture reveals transoceanic gene flow in endangered river sharks |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |year=2015 |volume=112 |issue=43 |pages=13302–13307|doi=10.1073/pnas.1508735112 |pmid=26460025 |pmc=4629339|bibcode=2015PNAS..11213302L |doi-access=free }} In 2010, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) stated that 123 species have been discovered in Borneo since the "Heart of Borneo" agreement was signed in 2007.{{cite web|url=https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/scientists-discover-new-species-heart-borneo|title=Scientists discover new species in Heart of Borneo|publisher=World Wide Fund for Nature|date=22 April 2010|access-date=26 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200228162702/https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/scientists-discover-new-species-heart-borneo|archive-date=28 February 2020|url-status=dead}}

File:Logging road East Kalimantan 2005.jpg, Indonesia]]

The WWF has classified the island into seven distinct ecoregions. Most are lowland regions:{{cite web|url=http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/ecoregions/borneo_lowland_forests.cfm|title=Borneo Lowland & Montane Forests – A Global Ecoregion|publisher=World Wide Fund for Nature|access-date=26 May 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170715021114/http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/ecoregions/borneo_lowland_forests.cfm|archive-date=15 July 2017}}{{cite web|url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/im0104|title=Southeastern Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei|author=Colby Loucks|publisher=World Wide Fund for Nature|access-date=26 May 2017}}{{cite web|url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/im0161|title=Sundaland heath forests|publisher=World Wide Fund for Nature|access-date=26 May 2017}}

• Borneo lowland rain forests cover most of the island, with an area of {{convert|427500|km2}}.
• Borneo peat swamp forests
• Kerangas or Sundaland heath forests
• Southwest Borneo freshwater swamp forests are found in the island's western and southern lowlands
• Sunda Shelf mangroves
• The Borneo montane rain forests lie in the central highlands of the island, above the {{convert|1000|m}} elevation.
• The highest elevations of Mount Kinabalu are home to the Kinabalu montane alpine meadows, a subalpine and alpine shrubland notable for its numerous endemic species, including many orchids.

According to analysis of data from Global Forest Watch,{{cite web|url=https://www.globalforestwatch.org|title=Global Forest Watch|publisher=World Resources Institute|access-date=14 August 2020}} the Indonesian portion of Borneo lost {{convert|10.7|e6ha|abbr=off}} of tree cover between 2002 and 2019, of which {{convert|4|e6ha|abbr=off}} was primary forest, compared with Malaysian Borneo's {{convert|4.4|e6ha|abbr=off}} of tree cover loss and {{convert|1.9|e6ha|abbr=off}} of primary forest cover loss. As of 2020, Indonesian Borneo accounts for 72% of the island's tree cover, Malaysian Borneo 27%, and Brunei 1%. Primary forest in Indonesia accounts for 44% of Borneo's overall tree cover.{{cite web|url=https://rainforests.mongabay.com/borneo/|title=Borneo|publisher=Mongabay.com|access-date=14 August 2020}}

{{see also|Deforestation in Borneo|1997 Indonesian forest fires|1997 Southeast Asian haze|2006 Southeast Asian haze|2013 Southeast Asian haze|2015 Southeast Asian haze|2016 Southeast Asian haze|2019 Southeast Asian haze}}

File:Logging in Borneo (3540116932).jpg. Borneo has lost more than half of its rainforests in the past half century.{{cite news |title=What Causes Deforestation in Borneo and How Do We Stop It? |url=https://earth.org/deforestation-in-borneo/ |work=Earth.org |date=2 March 2023}}]]

The island historically had extensive rainforest cover, but the area was reduced due to heavy logging by the Indonesian and Malaysian wood industry, especially with the large demands of raw materials from industrial countries along with the conversion of forest lands for large-scale agricultural purposes. Half of the annual global tropical timber acquisition comes from Borneo. Palm oil plantations have been widely developed and are rapidly encroaching on the last remnants of primary rainforest.{{cite web|url=http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/borneo_forests/borneo_deforestation/|title=Threats to Borneo forests|publisher=World Wide Fund for Nature|access-date=26 May 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160525051215/http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/borneo_forests/borneo_deforestation/|archive-date=25 May 2016}} Forest fires since 1997, started by the locals to clear the forests for plantations were exacerbated by an exceptionally dry El Niño season, worsening the annual shrinkage of the rainforest.{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-great-haze-explainer-20151021-htmlstory.html|title=Fires in Southeast Asia may be emitting more greenhouse gases than the entire U.S.|author=Jonathan Kaiman|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=21 October 2015|access-date=27 May 2017}} During these fires, hotspots were visible on satellite images and the resulting haze frequently affected Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia. The haze could also reach southern Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines as evidenced on the 2015 Southeast Asian haze.{{cite web|url=http://www.eria.org/ERIA-DP-2015-82.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.eria.org/ERIA-DP-2015-82.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live|title=Transboundary Haze Pollution Problem in Southeast Asia: Reframing ASEAN's Response|author=Apichal Sunchindah|publisher=Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia|date=December 2015|access-date=27 May 2017}}

A study in 2018 found that Bornean orangutans declined by 148,500 individuals from 1999 to 2015.{{cite news |last1=Solly |first1=Meilan |title=Borneo's Orangutan Population Plummeted by Half in 16 Years |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/borneos-orangutan-population-plummeted-half-16-years-180968189/ |work=Smithsonian |date=16 February 2018}}

File:MountKinabalu from CheSuiKhorPagodaKK-01.jpg in Malaysia, the highest summit of the island{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/edens/borneo/awesome.html|title=An Awesome Island|work=Borneo: Island in the Clouds|publisher=PBS|access-date=11 November 2012}}]]

List of highest peaks in Borneo by elevation:

• Mount Kinabalu {{convert|13,435|ft|m|abbr=on}}
• Mount Trusmadi {{convert|8,668|ft|abbr=on}}
• Raya Hill {{convert|7,474|ft|abbr=on}}
• Muruk Miau {{convert|6,837|ft|abbr=on}}
• Mount Wakid {{convert|6,778|ft|abbr=on}}
• Monkobo Hill {{convert|5,866|ft|abbr=on}}
• Mount Lotung {{convert|5,843|ft|abbr=on}}
• Mount Magdalena {{convert|4,288|ft|abbr=on}}
• Talibu Hill {{convert|4,144|ft|abbr=on}}

File:Scenery around Kapuas River.jpg in Indonesia. At {{convert|1000|km|mi|abbr=on}} in length, it is the longest river in Borneo.{{cite book|author1=Khee Giap Tan|author2=Nurina Merdikawati|author3=Mulya Amri|author4=Blake Harley Berger|title=2014 Annual Competitiveness Analysis and Development Strategies for Indonesian Provinces|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G1gGCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA286|date=8 September 2015|publisher=World Scientific|isbn=978-981-4730-43-3|pages=286–}}]]

List of rivers in Borneo by length:

• Kapuas River {{convert|1,143|km|abbr=on}}
• Barito River {{cvt|1,090|km|abbr=on}}
• Mahakam River {{convert|980|km|abbr=on}}
• Kahayan River {{cvt|658|km|abbr=on}}
• Mendawai River {{convert|616|km|abbr=on}}
• Kayan River {{convert|576|km|abbr=on}}
• Rajang River {{convert|565|km|mi|abbr=on}}
• Kinabatangan River {{convert|560|km|abbr=on}}
• Baram River {{convert|400|km|abbr=on}}
• Sembakung River {{convert|352|km|abbr=on}}
• Sesayap River {{convert|279|km|abbr=on}}
• Pawan River {{convert|197|km|abbr=on}}

File:Dayaks in their war dress.jpg, the main indigenous people of the island, were feared for their headhunting practices.]]

In November 2018, scientists reported the discovery of the oldest known figurative art painting, over 40,000 (perhaps as old as 52,000) years old, of an unknown animal, in the cave of Lubang Jeriji Saléh on the island of Borneo.{{cite news |last=Zimmer |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Zimmer |title=In Cave in Borneo Jungle, Scientists Find Oldest Figurative Painting in the World - A cave drawing in Borneo is at least 40,000 years old, raising intriguing questions about creativity in ancient societies. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/science/oldest-cave-art-borneo.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/science/oldest-cave-art-borneo.html |archive-date=1 January 2022 |url-access=limited |date=7 November 2018 |work=The New York Times |access-date=8 November 2018 }}{{cbignore}}{{cite journal |author=Aubert, M.|display-authors=et al |title=Palaeolithic cave art in Borneo |date=7 November 2018 |journal=Nature |volume=564 |issue=7735 |pages=254–257 |doi=10.1038/s41586-018-0679-9 |pmid=30405242 |bibcode=2018Natur.564..254A |s2cid=53208538 }} It has been proposed, based on house construction styles, linguistic and genetic evidence, that Madagascar may have been first populated from southern Borneo.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

According to ancient Chinese (977),{{cite book|last=Cœdès|first=George|author-link=George Coedès|title=The Indianized States of South-East Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iDyJBFTdiwoC|year=1968|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-0368-1}}{{rp|129}} Indian and Japanese manuscripts, western coastal cities of Borneo had become trading ports by the first millennium AD.{{cite journal|title=The Trade in Lakawood Products Between South China and the Malay World from the Twelfth to Fifteenth Centuries AD|author=Derek Heng Thiam Soon|journal=Journal of Southeast Asian Studies|volume=32|issue=2|pages=133–149|date=June 2001|doi=10.1017/S0022463401000066|s2cid=162474082}} In Chinese manuscripts, gold, camphor, tortoise shells, hornbill ivory, rhinoceros horn, crane crest, beeswax, lakawood (a scented heartwood and root wood of a thick liana, Dalbergia parviflora), dragon's blood, rattan, edible bird's nests and various spices were described as among the most valuable items from Borneo.{{cite journal|title=Place Names in 16th and 17th Century Borneo|author=Jan O. M. Broek|journal=Imago Mundi|volume=16|year=1962|pages=129–148|jstor=1150309|doi=10.1080/03085696208592208}} The Indians named Borneo Suvarnabhumi (the land of gold) and also Karpuradvipa (Camphor Island). The Javanese named Borneo Puradvipa, or Diamond Island. Archaeological findings in the Sarawak river delta reveal that the area was a thriving centre of trade between India and China from the 6th century until about 1300.

File:Brunei territorial lose (1400–1890).gif of the Sultanate of Brunei from 1400 to 1890 due to the beginning of Western imperialism]]

Stone pillars bearing inscriptions in the Pallava script, found in Kutai along the Mahakam River in East Kalimantan and dating to around the second half of the 4th century, constitute some of the oldest evidence of Hindu influence in Southeast Asia.{{Cite book|title=The Austronesians: Historical and Comparative Perspectives|publisher=E Press, The Australian National University|chapter=(Chapter 15) The Earliest Indic State: Kutai|url=http://epress.anu.edu.au/austronesians/austronesians/mobile_devices/ch15s02.html|year=2006|access-date=1 October 2009|isbn=978-1-920942-85-4|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131225113933/http://epress.anu.edu.au/austronesians/austronesians/mobile_devices/ch15s02.html|archive-date=25 December 2013|url-status=dead}} By the 14th century, Borneo became a vassal state of Majapahit (in present-day Indonesia),{{cite book|author=Peter SkalnÃk|title=Outwitting the State|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ddj7FIkxFu0C&pg=PA41|date=1 January 1989|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-4128-3041-6|pages=41–}}{{cite book |author1=Ooi |first=Keat Gin |author-link=Keat Gin Ooi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NjqvCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA90 |title=Early Modern Southeast Asia, 1350–1800 |author2=Hoang Anh Tuan |date=8 October 2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-55919-1 |pages=90–}} later changing its allegiance to the Ming dynasty of China.{{cite web|url=http://nccur.lib.nccu.edu.tw/bitstream/140.119/68001/1/015101.pdf|title=Malaysia-Philippines Territorial Dispute: The Sabah Case|author1=Mohammad Al-Mahdi Tan Kho|author2=Hurng-yu Chen|publisher=NCCU Institutional Repository|work=National Chengchi University|date=July 2014|access-date=23 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160509133532/http://nccur.lib.nccu.edu.tw/bitstream/140.119/68001/1/015101.pdf |archive-date=9 May 2016|url-status=dead}} Pre-Islamic Sulu, then known locally as Lupah Sug, stretched from Palawan and the Sulu archipelago at the Philippines; to Sabah, Eastern, and Northern Kalimantan in Borneo.[https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/228735802.pdf Reading Song-Ming Records on the Pre-colonial History of the Philippines] By Wang Zhenping Page 258. The Sulu empire rose as a rebellion and reaction against former Majapahit Imperialism against Sulu which Majapahit briefly occupied. The religion of Islam entered the island in the 10th century,{{cite news|url=http://www.theborneopost.com/2014/08/25/islam-arrived-in-sabah-in-10th-century/|title=Islam arrived in Sabah in 10th century|author=Mariah Doksil|newspaper=The Borneo Post|date=25 August 2014|access-date=11 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160711125321/http://www.theborneopost.com/2014/08/25/islam-arrived-in-sabah-in-10th-century/ |archive-date=11 July 2016|url-status=dead}} following the arrival of Muslim traders who later converted many indigenous peoples in the coastal areas.{{cite web|title=Islam In Indonesia. A resource of Islam in the archipelago|url=https://islaminindonesia.com/life-style/|access-date=1 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707075222/https://islaminindonesia.com/life-style/|archive-date=7 July 2017|url-status=dead}}

The Sultanate of Brunei declared independence from Majapahit following the death of the Majapahit emperor in the mid-14th century. During its golden age under Bolkiah from the 15th to the 17th century, the Bruneian sultanate ruled almost the entire coastal area of Borneo (lending its name to the island due to its influence in the region) and several islands in the Philippines. During the 1450s, Shari'ful Hashem Syed Abu Bakr, an Arab born in Johor,{{cite book|author1=K. S. Nathan|author2=Mohammad Hashim Kamali|title=Islam in Southeast Asia: Political, Social and Strategic Challenges for the 21st Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O8d6BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA62|date=January 2005|publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies|isbn=978-981-230-282-3|pages=62–}} arrived in Sulu from Malacca. In 1457, he founded the Sultanate of Sulu; he titled himself as "Paduka Maulana Mahasari Sharif Sultan Hashem Abu Bakr".{{cite book|author=Shinzō Hayase|title=Mindanao Ethnohistory Beyond Nations: Maguindanao, Sangir, and Bagobo Societies in East Maritime Southeast Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HEGBAAAAMAAJ|year=2007|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-971-550-511-6}} Following its independence in 1578 from Brunei's influence,{{cite book|first1=Trudy|last1=Ring|first2=Robert M|last2=Salkin|first3=Sharon|last3=La Boda|title=International Dictionary of Historic Places: Asia and Oceania|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vWLRxJEU49EC&pg=PA160|date=January 1996|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-884964-04-6|pages=160–}} Sulu began to expand its thalassocracy to parts of the northern Borneo.{{cite book|author=Bachamiya Abdul Hussainmiya|title=Brunei: revival of 1906 : a popular history|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q7UuAQAAIAAJ|year=2006|publisher=Brunei Press|isbn=978-99917-32-15-2}} Both the sultanates who ruled northern Borneo had traditionally engaged in trade with China by means of the frequently-arriving Chinese junks.{{cite book|author=Keat Gin Ooi|title=Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QKgraWbb7yoC&pg=PA271|year=2004|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-770-2|pages=271–}}{{cite book|author1=Eric Tagliacozzo|author2=Wen-chin Chang|title=Chinese Circulations: Capital, Commodities, and Networks in Southeast Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZkMLnmRa0zEC&pg=PA236|date=13 April 2011|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-4903-7|pages=236–}} Despite the thalassocracy of the sultanates, Borneo's interior region remained free from the rule of any kingdoms.{{cite book|author=Ranjit Singh|title=The Making of Sabah, 1865–1941: The Dynamics of Indigenous Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j9xuAAAAMAAJ|year=2000|publisher=University of Malaya Press|isbn=978-983-100-095-3}}

{{main|British Borneo|Dutch East Indies}}

File:Ceremony of Hoisting the British Flag on the island of Labuan, N. W. Coast of Borneo.jpg hoisted for the first time on the island of Labuan, on 24 December 1846.]]

After the fall of Malacca in 1511, Portuguese merchants traded regularly with Borneo, and especially with Brunei from 1530.{{cite book|author=Donald F. Lach|title=Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume I: The Century of Discovery.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0x1Io6VOuAIC&pg=PA580|date=16 April 1994|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-46732-0|pages=580–}} Having visited Brunei's capital, the Portuguese described the place as surrounded by a stone wall.{{cite book|author1=P. M. Holt|author2=Peter Malcolm Holt|author3=Ann K. S. Lambton|author4=Bernard Lewis|title=The Cambridge History of Islam: Volume 2A, The Indian Sub-Continent, South-East Asia, Africa and the Muslim West|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y99jTbxNbSAC&pg=PA129|date=21 April 1977|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-29137-8|pages=129–}} While Borneo was seen as rich, the Portuguese did not make any attempts to conquer it. The Spanish had sailed from Spanish America and conquered the Brunei's provinces in the Philippines and incorporated it into the Mexico-Centered Viceroyalty of New Spain. The Spanish visit to Brunei led to the Castilian War in 1578. The British began to trade with Sambas of southern Borneo in 1609, while the Dutch only began their trade in 1644: to Banjar and Martapura, also in the southern Borneo.{{cite book|title=The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australia|url=https://archive.org/details/asiaticjournala30unkngoog|year=1816|publisher=Parbury, Allen, and Company|pages=[https://archive.org/details/asiaticjournala30unkngoog/page/n568 561]–}} The Dutch tried to settle the island of Balambangan, north of Borneo, in the second half of the 18th century, but withdrew by 1797.{{cite web|url=http://www.san.beck.org/20-11-Indonesia1800-1950.html|title=Indonesia and the Dutch 1800–1950|author=Sanderson Beck|publisher=San.Beck|year=2007|access-date=24 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170524100635/http://www.san.beck.org/20-11-Indonesia1800-1950.html|archive-date=24 May 2017|url-status=dead}} In 1812, the sultan in southern Borneo ceded his forts to the British East India Company. The British, led by Stamford Raffles, then tried to establish an intervention in Sambas but failed. Although they managed to defeat the sultanate the next year and declared a blockade on all ports in Borneo except Brunei, Banjarmasin and Pontianak, the project was cancelled by the British governor-general Lord Minto in India as it was too expensive. At the beginning of British and Dutch exploration on the island, they described the island of Borneo as full of head hunters, with the indigenous in the interior practising cannibalism,{{cite web|url=http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1067&context=forum|title=British and Dutch Perceptions of Cannibalism in Borneo, 1882–1964|author=Adrienne Smith|publisher=California Polytechnic State University|year=2012|access-date=24 May 2017|page=5|format=PDF}} and the waters around the island infested with pirates, especially between the north eastern Borneo and the southern Philippines.{{cite book|author=Captain the Hon. Henry Keppel, R.N.|title=The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido for the Suppression of Piracy|url=https://archive.org/details/expeditiontobor04broogoog|year=1846|pages=[https://archive.org/details/expeditiontobor04broogoog/page/n238 214]–|publisher=Chapman and Hall}}{{cite book|author=P. Boomgaard|title=A World of Water: Rain, Rivers and Seas in Southeast Asian Histories|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1EEgIi8Mf-YC&pg=PA141|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610173855/https://books.google.com/books?id=1EEgIi8Mf-YC&pg=PA141|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 June 2020|date=January 2007|publisher=KITLV Press|isbn=978-90-6718-294-2|pages=141–}} The Malay and Sea Dayak pirates preyed on maritime shipping in the waters between Singapore and Hong Kong from their haven in Borneo,{{cite web|url=http://www.fullbooks.com/Wanderings-Among-South-Sea-Savages-And-in3.html|title=Wanderings Among South Sea Savages And in Borneo and the Philippines|author=H. Wilfrid Walker|publisher=Full Books|access-date=23 May 2017|pages=3/3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080609213932/http://www.fullbooks.com/Wanderings-Among-South-Sea-Savages-And-in3.html|archive-date=9 June 2008|url-status=live}} [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2564/2564-h/2564-h.htm Alt URL] along with the attacks by Illanuns of the Moro pirates from the southern Philippines, such as in the Battle off Mukah.{{cite web|url=http://anglicanhistory.org/asia/sarawak/sketches1882/16.html|title=Sketches of Our Life at Sarawak (Chapter XVI. Illanun Pirates)|author=Harriette McDougall|work=Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; E. & J. B. Young|location=London, New York|publisher=Project Canterbury, Anglican History|year=1882|access-date=23 May 2017}}

File:British and Dutch Borneo, 1898.png

The Dutch began to intervene in the southern part of the island upon resuming contact in 1815, posting residents to Banjarmasin, Pontianak and Sambas and assistant-residents to Landak and Mampawa.{{cite book|author=Robert Cribb|title=Historical Atlas of Indonesia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ki8COnr7H0MC&pg=PA129|date=1 February 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-78057-8|pages=129–}}{{cite book|author=J. R. V. Prescott|title=Political Frontiers and Boundaries (Routledge Library Editions: Political Geography)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CjyvBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA288|date=3 October 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-60199-9|pages=288–}} The Sultanate of Brunei in 1842 granted large parts of land in Sarawak to the British adventurer James Brooke, as a reward for his help in quelling a local rebellion. Brooke established the Raj of Sarawak and was recognised as its rajah after paying a fee to the sultanate. He established a monarchy, and the Brooke dynasty (through his nephew and great-nephew) ruled Sarawak for 100 years; the leaders were known as the White Rajahs.{{cite web|url=http://borneo.live.radicaldesigns.org/article.php?id=63 |title=Part 2 – The Brooke Era |work=The Borneo Project |publisher=Earth Island Institute |access-date=11 November 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524171139/https://borneo.live.radicaldesigns.org/article.php?id=63 |archive-date=24 May 2013 }}{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/flyingcarpet00hall |url-access=registration |last=Halliburton |first=Richard |date=1932 |publisher=The Bobbs-Merrill Company |location=Indianapolis, Indiana |title=The Flying Carpet |pages=297–312}} Brooke also acquired the island of Labuan for Great Britain in 1846 through the Treaty of Labuan with the sultan of Brunei, Omar Ali Saifuddin II on 18 December 1846.{{cite news|url=http://www.bt.com.bn/life/2008/09/07/loss_of_labuan_a_former_brunei_island|title=Loss of Labuan, a former Brunei island|author=Rozan Yunos|newspaper=The Brunei Times|date=7 September 2008|access-date=23 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140428182303/http://www.bt.com.bn/life/2008/09/07/loss_of_labuan_a_former_brunei_island|archive-date=28 April 2014 |url-status=dead}} The region of northern Borneo came under the administration of North Borneo Chartered Company following the acquisition of territory from the Sultanates of Brunei and Sulu by a German businessman and adventurer named Baron von Overbeck, before it was passed to the British Dent brothers (comprising Alfred Dent and Edward Dent).{{cite web|url=http://archiveshub.ac.uk/data/gb102-ms283792|title=British North Borneo Papers|work=School of Oriental and African Studies|publisher=Archives hub|access-date=23 May 2017}} Further expansion by the British continued into the Borneo interior.{{cite book|author=Jatswan S. Sidhu|title=Historical Dictionary of Brunei Darussalam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=msOhDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA51|date=20 December 2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-1-4422-6459-5|pages=51–}} This led the 26th sultan of Brunei, Hashim Jalilul Alam Aqamaddin to appeal the British to halt such efforts, and as a result a Treaty of Protection was signed in 1888, rendering Brunei a British protectorate.{{cite web|url=http://muslimmuseum.org.uk/treaty-of-protection-1888-brunei/|title=Treaty of Protection 1888 – Brunei|publisher=Muslim Museum Initiative|access-date=23 May 2017}}

Image:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Dayak tijdens het erau feest (een cultureel festival) in Tenggarong TMnr 10005749.jpg during an Erau ceremony in Tenggarong]]

Before the acquisition by the British, the Americans also managed to establish their temporary presence in northwestern Borneo after acquiring a parcel of land from the Sultanate of Brunei. A company known as American Trading Company of Borneo was formed by Joseph William Torrey, Thomas Bradley Harris and several Chinese investors, establishing a colony named "Ellena" in the Kimanis area.{{cite web|url=https://www.northborneohistory.com/ellena-americas-lost-colony-in-kimanis-of-north-borneo/|title=Ellena – America's Lost Colony in Kimanis of North Borneo|author=Richard Ker|publisher=North Borneo Historical Society|date=26 August 2012|access-date=23 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170521072223/https://www.northborneohistory.com/ellena-americas-lost-colony-in-kimanis-of-north-borneo/|archive-date=21 May 2017|url-status=dead}} The colony failed and was abandoned, due to denials of financial backing, especially by the US government, and to diseases and riots among the workers.{{cite book|author=James W. Gould|title=The United States and Malaysia|url=https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesmala0000goul|url-access=registration|year=1969|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-92615-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesmala0000goul/page/63 63]–}} Before Torrey left, he managed to sell the land to the German businessman, Overbeck.{{cite journal|title=American Activity in North Borneo, 1865–1881|journal=Pacific Historical Review|author=K. G. Tregonning|volume=23|issue=4|date=November 1954|pages=357–372|doi=10.2307/3634654|jstor=3634654}} Meanwhile, the Germans under William Frederick Schuck were awarded a parcel of land in northeastern Borneo of the Sandakan Bay from the Sultanate of Sulu where he conducted business and exported large quantities of arms, opium, textiles and tobacco to Sulu before the land was also passed to Overbeck by the sultanate.{{cite book|author=James Francis Warren|title=The Sulu Zone, 1768-1898: The Dynamics of External Trade, Slavery, and Ethnicity in the Transformation of a Southeast Asian Maritime State|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_UyVI5IxcjIC&pg=PA114|year=1981|publisher=NUS Press|isbn=978-9971-69-004-5|pages=114–}}{{cite book|author=Emrys Chew|title=Arming the Periphery: The Arms Trade in the Indian Ocean During the Age of Global Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rnSVPcnreBsC&pg=PA205|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211219163513/https://books.google.com/books?id=rnSVPcnreBsC&pg=PA205|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 December 2021|date=12 June 2012|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-230-35485-2|pages=205–}}

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Ontvangst bij de sultan van Pontianak West-Borneo TMnr 10001596.jpg in 1930]]

Prior to the recognition of Spanish presence in the Philippine archipelago, a protocol known as the Madrid Protocol of 1885 was signed between the governments of the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain in Madrid to cement Spanish influence and recognise their sovereignty over the Sultanate of Sulu—in return for Spain's relinquishing its claim to the former possessions of the sultanate in northern Borneo.{{cite web|url=http://www.lawnet.sabah.gov.my/Lawnet/SabahLaws/Treaties/Protocol%28Madrid%29.pdf|title=British North Borneo Treaties. (British North Borneo, 1885)|author=British Government|publisher=Sabah State Government (State Attorney-General's Chambers)|year=1885|access-date=23 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029195606/http://www.lawnet.sabah.gov.my/Lawnet/SabahLaws/Treaties/Protocol%28Madrid%29.pdf|archive-date=29 October 2013|url-status=dead}}{{cite book|author1=Paul J. Carnegie|author2=Victor T. King|author3=Zawawi Ibrahim|title=Human Insecurities in Southeast Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fZ3vDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA74|date=21 September 2016|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-981-10-2245-6|pages=74–}} The British administration then established the first railway network in northern Borneo, known as the North Borneo Railway.{{cite web|url=http://searail.malayanrailways.com/Borneo/NBR2013.htm|title=North Borneo Chartered Company: North Borneo Railway; The first train in North Borneo|author=Dr. Johnstone; A. J. West (Officers of the Company)|work=British North Borneo Chartered Company: Views of British North Borneo, Printed by W. Brown & co., limited, London, 1899|publisher=Malayan Railways|date=3 February 1898|access-date=23 May 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/borneo.htm|title=The North Borneo Railway Project|author=Rob Dickinson|publisher=The International Steam Pages|access-date=23 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130328052920/http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/borneo.htm|archive-date=28 March 2013|url-status=dead}} During this time, the British sponsored a large number of Chinese workers to migrate to northern Borneo to work in European plantation and mines,{{cite journal|title=Chinese Migration to Sabah Before the Second World War|journal=Archipel|author=Danny Wong Tze Ken|year=1999|volume=58|issue=3|pages=131–158|doi=10.3406/arch.1999.3538}} and the Dutch followed suit to increase their economic production.{{cite book|author=Geert Oostindie|title=Dutch Colonialism, Migration and Cultural Heritage: Past and Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KfFjAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA292|date=1 January 2008|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-25388-9|pages=292–}} By 1888, North Borneo, Sarawak and Brunei in northern Borneo had become British protectorate.{{cite book|author1=Victor Prescott|author2=Gillian D. Triggs|title=International Frontiers and Boundaries: Law, Politics and Geography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HW-wCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA380|date=25 June 2008|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-474-3364-4|pages=380–}} The area in southern Borneo was made Dutch protectorate in 1891. The Dutch who already claimed the whole Borneo were asked by Britain to delimit their boundaries between the two colonial territories to avoid further conflicts. The British and Dutch governments had signed the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 to exchange trading ports in Malay Peninsula and Sumatra that were under their controls and assert spheres of influence. This resulted in indirectly establishing British- and Dutch-controlled areas in the north (Malay Peninsula) and south (Sumatra and Riau Islands) respectively.{{cite web|url=http://muslimmuseum.org.uk/anglo-dutch-treaty-of-1824-malaysia-and-indonesia/|title=Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 – Malaysia and Indonesia|publisher=Muslim Museum Initiative|access-date=23 May 2017}}

In 1895, Marcus Samuel received a concession in the Kutei area of east Borneo, and based on oil seepages in the Mahakam River delta, Mark Abrahams struck oil in February 1897. This was the discovery of the Sanga Sanga Oil Field, a refinery was built in Balikpapan, and discovery of the Samboja Oil Field followed in 1909. In 1901, the Pamusian Oil Field was discovered on Tarakan, and the Bunyu Oil Field in 1929. Royal Dutch Shell discovered the Miri Oil Field in 1910, and the Seria oil field in 1929.{{cite book |last1=Yergin |first1=Daniel |title=The Prize, The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power |date=1991 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-0-671-79932-8 |pages=114–116}}{{cite web |last1=Sorkhabi |first1=Rasoul |title=Borneo's Petroleum Plays |url=https://www.geoexpro.com/articles/2012/12/borneo-s-petroleum-plays |website=Exploration Asia |publisher=GEO ExPro |access-date=23 July 2020 |date=2012 |archive-date=30 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210830054141/https://www.geoexpro.com/articles/2012/12/borneo-s-petroleum-plays |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |title=History of Shell in Indonesia |url=https://www.shell.co.id/en_id/about-us/who-we-are/history-of-shell-in-indonesia.html#vanity-aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2hlbGwuY28uaWQvZW4vYWJvdXRzaGVsbC93aG8td2UtYXJlL2hpc3RvcnkvY291bnRyeS5odG1s |publisher=Shell |access-date=17 July 2020}}

{{See also|Japanese occupation of British Borneo|Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies}}

File:Japanese Troops, Labuan (AWM 127908).JPG on 14 January 1942.]]

File:American Support Craft (AWM 108818).jpg moving towards Victoria and Brown beach to assist the landing of members of the Australian 24th Infantry Brigade on the island during Operation Oboe Six, 10 June 1945.]]

During World War II, Japanese forces gained control and occupied most areas of Borneo from 1941 to 1945. In the first stage of the war, the British saw the Japanese advance to Borneo as motivated by political and territorial ambitions rather than economic factors.{{cite book|author=Takashi Shiraishi|title=The Japanese in Colonial Southeast Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6mfCzrbOn80C&pg=PA54|date=January 1993|publisher=SEAP Publications|isbn=978-0-87727-402-5|pages=54–}} The occupation drove many people in the coastal towns to the interior, searching for food and escaping the Japanese.{{cite book|author=Regina Lim|title=Federal-state Relations in Sabah, Malaysia: The Berjaya Administration, 1976–85|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bM4HifRARgYC&pg=PA36|year=2008|publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies|isbn=978-981-230-812-2|pages=36–84}} The Chinese residents in Borneo, especially with the Sino-Japanese War in Mainland China mostly resisted the Japanese occupation.{{cite book|author=Danny Tze-Ken Wong|title=The Transformation of an Immigrant Society: A Study of the Chinese of Sabah|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L81uAAAAMAAJ|year=1998|publisher=Asean Academic|isbn=978-1-901919-16-5}} Following the formation of resistance movements in northern Borneo such as the Jesselton Revolt, many innocent indigenous and Chinese people were executed by the Japanese for their alleged involvement.{{cite book|author1=Malcolm Joseph Thurman|author2=Christine Sherman|title=War Crimes: Japan's World War II Atrocities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E1D5wKKZDHoC&pg=PA123|year=2001|publisher=Turner Publishing Company|isbn=978-1-56311-728-2|pages=123–}}

In Kalimantan, the Japanese also killed many Malay intellectuals, executing all the Malay sultans of West Kalimantan in the Pontianak incidents, together with Chinese people who were already against the Japanese for suspecting them to be threats. Sultan Muhammad Ibrahim Shafi ud-din II of Sambas was executed in 1944. The sultanate was thereafter suspended and replaced by a Japanese council.{{cite book|author1=Syafaruddin Usman Mhd|author2=Isnawita Din|title=Peristiwa Mandor berdarah|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QDbFjJBQgm8C&pg=PA137|year=2009|language=id|publisher=Media Pressindo|isbn=978-979-788-109-2|pages=137–}} The Japanese also set-up Pusat Tenaga Rakjat (PUTERA){{cite book|author=Muhammad Abdul Aziz|title=Japan's Colonialism and Indonesia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-aFyBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA214|date=6 December 2012|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-94-011-9233-0|pages=214–}} in the Indonesian archipelago in 1943, although it was abolished the following year when it became too nationalistic.{{cite book|author=Milton W. Meyer|title=Asia: A Concise History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DbQcAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA305|date=1 January 2000|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-0-585-11423-1|pages=305–}} Some of the Indonesian nationalist like Sukarno and Hatta who had returned from Dutch exile began to co-operate with the Japanese. Shortly after his release, Sukarno became president of the Central Advisory Council, an advisory council for south Borneo, Celebes, and Lesser Sunda, set up in February 1945.

After the fall of Singapore, the Japanese sent several thousand of British and Australian prisoners of war to camps in Borneo such as Batu Lintang camp. From the Sandakan camp site, only six of some 2,500 prisoners survived after they were forced to march in an event known as the Sandakan Death March.{{cite book|author1=Philip Towle| author-link1 = Philip Towle |author2=Margaret Kosuge|author3=Yoichi Kibata|title=Japanese Prisoners of War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ktCv32ysz0AC&pg=PA47|year=2000|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-85285-192-7|pages=47–}} In addition, of the total of 17,488 Javanese labourers brought in by the Japanese during the occupation, only 1,500 survived mainly due to starvation, harsh working conditions and maltreatment. The Dayak and other indigenous people played a role in guerrilla warfare against the occupying forces, particularly in the Kapit Division. They temporarily revived headhunting of Japanese toward the end of the war,{{cite news|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/09/opinion/edheiman.php|title=Guests can succeed where occupiers fail|author=Judith M. Heimann|newspaper=International Herald Tribune|date=9 November 2007|access-date=26 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080621024405/http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/09/opinion/edheiman.php|archive-date=21 June 2008|url-status=dead}} with Allied Z Special Unit provided assistance to them.{{cite book|author=A. B. Feuer|title=Australian Commandos: Their Secret War Against the Japanese in World War II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sw--Ujt09cwC&pg=PA27|date=November 2005|publisher=Stackpole Books|isbn=978-0-8117-3294-9|pages=27–}} Australia contributed significantly to the liberation of Borneo.{{cite web|url=https://www.northborneohistory.com/brief-history-on-how-the-australians-liberated-borneo-during-wwii-video/|title=Brief History on How the Australians Liberated North Borneo during WWII [Video]|author=Richard Ker|publisher=North Borneo Historical Society|date=7 November 2013|access-date=23 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170523075019/https://www.northborneohistory.com/brief-history-on-how-the-australians-liberated-borneo-during-wwii-video/|archive-date=23 May 2017|url-status=dead}} The Australian Imperial Force was sent to Borneo to fight off the Japanese.{{cite web|url=http://searail.malayanrailways.com/Borneo/Australian%20invasion.htm|title=Australian invasion of Borneo in pictures.|publisher=Malayan Railways|access-date=23 May 2017}} Together with other Allies, the island was completely liberated in 1945.

File:Sukarno with adat people in West Kalimantan, Bung Karno Penjambung Lidah Rakjat 252.jpg visiting Pontianak, West Kalimantan, in 1963.]]

In May 1945, officials in Tokyo suggested that whether northern Borneo should be included in the proposed new country of Indonesia should be separately determined based on the desires of its indigenous people and following the disposition of Malaya.{{cite book|author=Nicholas Tarling|title=A Sudden Rampage: The Japanese Occupation of Southeast Asia, 1941–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=udqp4PzvCLEC&pg=PA192|year=2001|publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers|isbn=978-1-85065-584-8|pages=192–}} Sukarno and Mohammad Yamin meanwhile continuously advocated for a Greater Indonesian republic.{{cite book|author=Adrian Vickers|title=A History of Modern Indonesia|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmoderni00adri|url-access=registration|date=3 November 2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-44761-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofmoderni00adri/page/150 150]–}} Towards the end of the war, Japan decided to give an early independence to a new proposed country of Indonesia on 17 July 1945, with an Independence Committee meeting scheduled for 19 August 1945. However, following the surrender of Japan to the Allied forces, the meeting was shelved. Sukarno and Hatta continued the plan by unilaterally declaring independence, although the Dutch tried to retake their colonial possession in Borneo.

The southern part of the island achieved its independence through the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence on 17 August 1945. The southern part saw guerrilla conflicts followed by Dutch blockades to cut supplies for nationalist within the region.Post-war Borneo, 1945-50: Nationalism, Empire and State-Building While nationalist guerrillas supporting the inclusion of southern Borneo in the new Indonesian republic were active in Ketapang, and to lesser extent in Sambas where they rallied with the red-white flag which became the flag of Indonesia, most of the Chinese residents in southern Borneo expected to be liberated by Chinese Nationalist troops from mainland China and to integrate their districts as an overseas province of China.{{cite book|author=Mary F. Somers Heidhues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4WK2s2ogHEAC&pg=PA211|title=Golddiggers, Farmers, and Traders in the "Chinese Districts" of West Kalimantan, Indonesia|publisher=SEAP Publications|year=2003|isbn=978-0-87727-733-0|pages=211–}} Meanwhile, Sarawak and Sabah in northern Borneo became separate British crown colonies in 1946.{{cite book|author=Vernon L. Porritt|title=British Colonial Rule in Sarawak, 1946–1963|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4pBwAAAAMAAJ|year=1997|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-983-56-0009-8|access-date=7 May 2016}}{{cite news |url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/95540217 |title=British North Borneo Becomes Crown Colony |pages=1 |work=Kalgoorlie Miner |publisher=Trove |date=18 July 1946 |access-date=17 May 2016}}

File:Queen's Own Highlanders searching for enemies during a patrol.jpg 1st Battalion conduct a patrol to search for enemy positions in the jungle of Brunei.]]

In 1961, Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman of the independent Federation of Malaya desired to unite Malaya, the British colonies of Sarawak, North Borneo, Singapore and the protectorate of Brunei under the proposed Federation of Malaysia.{{cite book|author1=Bosheng Chen|author2=Leong Sze Lee|title=A Retrospect on the Dust-laden History: The Past and Present of Tekong Island in Singapore|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iCRqDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA66|year=2012|publisher=World Scientific|isbn=978-981-4365-96-3|pages=66–}} The idea was heavily opposed by the governments in both Indonesia and the Philippines as well from communist sympathisers and nationalists in Borneo.{{cite book|author1=United States. Dept. of State. International Information Administration. Documentary Studies Section|author2=United States Information Agency. Special Materials Section|author3=United States. International Communication Agency|title=Problems of Communism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AY4qAQAAMAAJ|year=1964|publisher=Special Materials Section, United States Information Agency}}{{cite book|author=Ramses Amer|title=Conflict Management and Dispute Settlement in East Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eEg3DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA52|date=23 May 2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-16216-2|pages=52–}} Sukarno, as the president of the new republic, perceiving the British trying to maintain their presence in northern Borneo and the Malay Peninsula, decided to launch a military infiltration, later known as the confrontation, from 1962 to 1969.{{cite book|author1=Karl DeRouen, Jr.|author2=Uk Heo|title=Civil Wars of the World: Major Conflicts Since World War II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nrN077AEgzMC&pg=PA431|date=10 May 2007|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-919-1|pages=431–}} As a response to the growing opposition, the British deployed their armed forces to guard their colonies against Indonesian and communist revolts.{{cite book|author=Christopher Tuck|title=Confrontation, Strategy and War Termination: Britain's Conflict with Indonesia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nUg3DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA208|date=23 May 2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-16210-0|pages=208–}} Australia and New Zealand also participated in these measures.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19640907&id=MUBVAAAAIBAJ&pg=6843,1157289|title=Aggression Must be Deterred|newspaper=The Age|date=7 September 1964|access-date=23 May 2017}}{{cite web|url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/confrontation-in-borneo|title=Confrontation in Borneo|work=NZ History|publisher=Government of New Zealand|access-date=23 May 2017}}

The Philippines opposed the newly proposed federation, claiming the eastern part of North Borneo (today the Malaysian state of Sabah) as part of its territory as a former possession of the Sultanate of Sulu.{{cite web|url=https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1963/01/28/philippine-claim-to-north-borneo-vol-i-i-north-borneo-claim/|title=I. North Borneo Claim (Excerpt from President Diosdado Macapagal's State-of-the-Nation Message to the Congress of the Philippines)|work=Philippine Claim to North Borneo (Sabah), Vol. II|publisher=Government of the Philippines|date=28 January 1963|access-date=23 May 2017|archive-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308124634/https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1963/01/28/philippine-claim-to-north-borneo-vol-i-i-north-borneo-claim/|url-status=dead}} The Philippine government mostly based their claim on the Sultanate of Sulu's cession agreement with the British North Borneo Company, as by now the sultanate had come under the jurisdiction of the Philippine republican administration, which therefore should inherit the Sulu former territories. The Philippine government also claimed that the heirs of the sultanate had ceded all their territorial rights to the republic.{{cite web|url=https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1962/04/24/cession-and-transfer-of-the-territory-of-north-borneo-by-his-highness-sultan-mohammad-esmail-kiram-sultan-of-sulu-acting-with-the-consent-and-aprroval-of-the-ruma-bechara-in-council-assembled-to/|title=Cession and transfer of the territory of North Borneo by His Highness, Sultan Mohammad Esmail Kiram, Sultan of Sulu, acting with the consent and approval of the Ruma Bechara, in council assembled, to the Republic of the Philippines|publisher=Government of the Philippines|date=24 April 1962|access-date=23 May 2017|archive-date=10 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190810015148/https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1962/04/24/cession-and-transfer-of-the-territory-of-north-borneo-by-his-highness-sultan-mohammad-esmail-kiram-sultan-of-sulu-acting-with-the-consent-and-aprroval-of-the-ruma-bechara-in-council-assembled-to/|url-status=dead}}

File:Flag of the North Borneo Federation.svg, an attempt to establish a sovereign state by unifying North Borneo, Brunei, and Sarawak by A. M. Azahari]]

The Sultanate of Brunei at first welcomed the proposal of a new larger federation.{{cite book|author1=Mohd. Jamil Al-Sufri (Pehin Orang Kaya Amar Diraja Dato Seri Utama Haji Awang.)|author2=Mohd. Amin Hassan|title=Brunei Darussalam: The Road to Independence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=87cuAQAAIAAJ|year=1998|publisher=Brunei History Centre, Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports}} Meanwhile, the Brunei People's Party led by A.M. Azahari desired to reunify Brunei, Sarawak and North Borneo into one federation known as the North Borneo Federation ({{langx|ms|Kesatuan Negara Kalimantan Utara}}), where the sultan of Brunei would be the head of state for the federation—though Azahari had his own intention to abolish the Brunei monarchy, to make Brunei more democratic, and to integrate the territory and other former British colonies in Borneo into Indonesia, with the support from the latter government.{{cite journal|title=British counterinsurgency in Brunei and Sarawak, 1962–1963: developing best practices in the shadow of Malaya|journal = Small Wars & Insurgencies|volume = 27|issue = 4|pages = 702–725|author=Alexander Nicholas Shaw|date=19 June 2016|doi=10.1080/09592318.2016.1190052|s2cid = 147835844|url = http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/99950/3/ShawBritish%20Counterinsurgency%20in%20Brunei%20.pdf|doi-access = free}} This directly led to the Brunei Revolt, which thwarted Azahari's attempt and forced him to escape to Indonesia. Brunei withdrew from being part of the new Federation of Malaysia due to some disagreements on other issues while political leaders in Sarawak and North Borneo continued to favour inclusion in a larger federation.{{cite book|author=Karl Hack|title=Defence and Decolonisation in Southeast Asia: Britain, Malaya and Singapore, 1941–1968|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FUxWCLNxODMC&pg=PA278|year=2001|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-7007-1303-5|pages=278–}}

With the continuous opposition from Indonesia and the Philippines, the Cobbold Commission was established to discover the feeling of the native populations in northern Borneo; it found the people greatly in favour of federation, with various stipulations.{{cite web|url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C12304211|title=Report of the Commission of Enquiry, North Borneo and Sarawak, 1962 (Cobbold Commission)|publisher=The National Archives|date=January–December 1962|access-date=25 May 2017}}{{cite news|url=http://seeds.theborneopost.com/2014/09/16/the-cobbold-commission-giving-people-a-voice/|title=THE COBBOLD COMMISSION: Giving people a voice|author=Patricia Hului|newspaper=The Borneo Post|date=16 September 2014|access-date=25 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525105221/http://seeds.theborneopost.com/2014/09/16/the-cobbold-commission-giving-people-a-voice/|archive-date=25 May 2017|url-status=dead}} The federation was successfully achieved with the inclusion of northern Borneo through the Malaysia Agreement on 16 September 1963.{{cite book|author1=Great Britain. Colonial Office|author2=Malaysia|author3=Great Britain. Office of Commonwealth Relations|title=Malaysia: agreement concluded between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Federation of Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6gs-AQAAIAAJ|year=1963|publisher=H. M. Stationery Office}} To this day, the area in northern Borneo is still subjected to attacks by Moro pirates since the 18th century and militant from groups such as Abu Sayyaf since 2000 in the frequent cross border attacks. During the administration of Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos, Marcos made some attempts to destabilise the state of Sabah,{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2479&dat=20000402&id=P1M1AAAAIBAJ&pg=2032,892348&hl=en|title=Marcos order: Destabilize, take Sabah|newspaper=Philippine Daily Inquirer|date=2 April 2000|access-date=25 May 2017}} although his plan failed and resulted in the Jabidah massacre and later the insurgency in the southern Philippines.{{cite web|url=http://corregidor.org/heritage_battalion/jabidah.html|title=The Corregidor Massacre - 1968|author=Paul F. Whitman|publisher=Corregidor Historic Society|year=2002|access-date=5 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150913012739/http://corregidor.org/heritage_battalion/jabidah.html|archive-date=13 September 2015|url-status=dead}}{{cite book|author=Rommel Banlaoi|title=Philippine Security in the Age of Terror: National, Regional, and Global Challenges in the Post-9/11 World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hi_NBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA49|date=13 October 2009|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=978-1-4398-1551-9|pages=49–}}

In August 2019, Indonesian president Joko Widodo announced a plan to move the capital of Indonesia from Jakarta to a newly established location in the East Kalimantan province in Borneo.{{Cite news|last=Lyons|first=Kate|date=27 August 2019|title=Why is Indonesia moving its capital city? Everything you need to know|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/27/why-is-indonesia-moving-its-capital-city-everything-you-need-to-know|access-date=13 September 2020|issn=0261-3077}}

The demonym for Borneo is Bornean.{{cite book|author1=Christine Padoch|author2=Nancy Lee Peluso|title=Borneo in Transition: People, Forests, Conservation, and Development|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s78sAQAAMAAJ|year=1996|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-967-65-3110-0}}

Borneo had 23,053,723 inhabitants (in 2020 Censuses), a population density of {{convert|30.8|PD/sqkm|abbr=off}}. Most of the population lives in coastal cities, although the hinterland has small towns and villages along the rivers.

class="sortable wikitable"
Country !Population !Area !Density !Province/state !Population !Area !Density !Capital !Time zone
{{flag|Brunei}}{{note label|en|a}}{{note label|en|b}}	460,345{{Cite web|url=http://www.depd.gov.bn/SitePages/Population.aspx|title=Department of Economic Planning and Development - Population|website=www.depd.gov.bn|language=en-US|access-date=12 December 2017|archive-date=20 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320011146/http://www.depd.gov.bn/SitePages/Population.aspx|url-status=dead}} (2% of the population)	5,765 km2 (0.8% of the land area)	72.11/km2	colspan="4" | |Bandar Seri Begawan	UTC+8
rowspan="5" |{{flag|Indonesia}} (Kalimantan){{note label|en|a}}	rowspan="5" |16,544,696Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021. (72% of the population)	rowspan="5" |539,238 km2 (72.5% of the land area)	rowspan="5" |30.8/km2	{{flag|North Kalimantan}}	713,622 (3% of the population)	72,275 km2 (9.7% of the land area)	9.7/km2	Tanjung Selor	UTC+8
{{flag|East Kalimantan}}	3,849,842 (16.8% of the population)	127,347 km2 (17.1% of the land area)	29.6/km2	Samarinda	UTC+8
{{flag|South Kalimantan}}	3,808,235 (16.6% of the population)	38,744 km2 (5.2% of the land area)	105.1/km2	Banjarbaru	UTC+8
{{flag|Central Kalimantan}}	2,702,200 (11.8% of the population)	153,565 km2 (20.6% of the land area)	17.4/km2	Palangka Raya	UTC+7
{{flag|West Kalimantan}}	5,470,797 (23.8% of the population)	147,307 km2 (19.8% of the land area)	36.8/km2	Pontianak	UTC+7
rowspan="3" |{{flag|Malaysia}} (East Malaysia){{note label|en|a}}	rowspan="3" |5,967,582 (26% of the population)	rowspan="3" |198,447 km2 (26.7% of the land area)	rowspan="3" |30.7/km2	{{flag|Sabah}}	3,418,785 (14.9% of the population)	73,904 km2 (9.9% of the land area)	46/km2	Kota Kinabalu	UTC+8
{{flag|Sarawak}}	2,453,677 (10.7% of the population)	124,450 km2 (16.7% of the land area)	22/km2	Kuching	UTC+8
{{flag|Labuan}}	95,120 (0.4% of the population)	92 km2 (0.1% of the land area)	1,000/km2	Victoria	UTC+8
Total	22,972,623	743,450 km2	30.9~/km2

{{note label|en|a}}May includes the offshore islands and its populations

{{note label|en|b}}Due to its size, Brunei is further subdivided into 4 districts (mukim), which is similar to the size of smaller administrative units in Indonesia (kecamatan) and Malaysia (daerah)

File:Major cities in towns of borneo.png

File:Samarinda landscape 2.png, the most populous and largest city on the island of Borneo]]

File:2018-12-04 Balikpapan cropped.jpg, the second most populous and largest city on Borneo]]

• {{legend|#cfecec|Provincial/state capital|border=solid 1px #AAAAAA}}
• {{legend|#ccff99|National capital|border=solid 1px #AAAAAA}}

class="sortable wikitable" ! Rank !! City !! Population{{cite web |url= https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-10-largest-cities-in-borneo.html |title =The 10 Largest Cities In Borneo |year=2019 |access-date=1 April 2023 |work=World Atlas}} !! Country !! Province/state
style="text-align:center;"|1	style="text-align:left;background-color:#cfecec"|Samarinda	style="text-align:right;" | 861,878	{{IDN}}	{{flag|East Kalimantan}}
style="text-align:center;"|2	style="text-align:left;"|Balikpapan	style="text-align:right;" | 738,532	{{IDN}}	{{flag|East Kalimantan}}
style="text-align:center;"|3	style="text-align:left;background-color:#cfecec"|Pontianak	style="text-align:right;" | 679,818	{{IDN}}	{{flag|West Kalimantan}}
style="text-align:center;"|4	style="text-align:left;"|Banjarmasin	style="text-align:right;" | 678,243	{{IDN}}	{{flag|South Kalimantan}}
style="text-align:center;"|5	style="text-align:left;background-color:#cfecec"|Kota Kinabalu	style="text-align:right;" | 500,425	{{flag|Malaysia}}	{{flag|Sabah}}
style="text-align:center;"|6	style="text-align:left;"|Sandakan	style="text-align:right;" | 439,050	{{flag|Malaysia}}	{{flag|Sabah}}
style="text-align:center;"|7	style="text-align:left;"|Tawau	style="text-align:right;" | 420,806	{{flag|Malaysia}}	{{flag|Sabah}}
style="text-align:center;"|8	style="text-align:left;background-color:#cfecec"|Kuching	style="text-align:right;" | 402,738	{{flag|Malaysia}}	{{flag|Sarawak}}
style="text-align:center;"|9	style="text-align:left;" |Miri	style="text-align:right;" | 356,900	{{flag|Malaysia}}	{{flag|Sarawak}}
style="text-align:center;"|10	style="text-align:left;background-color:#ccff99"" |Bandar Seri Begawan	style="text-align:right;" | 318,530	scope="col" colspan="2"| {{flag|Brunei}}
style="text-align:center;|11	style="text-align:left;background-color:#cfecec" |Palangkaraya	style="text-align:right;" | 305,797	{{flag|Indonesia}}	{{flag|Central Kalimantan}}
style="text-align:center;"|12	style="text-align:left;background-color:#cfecec" |Banjarbaru	style="text-align:right;" | 272,763	{{flag|Indonesia}}	{{flag|South Kalimantan}}
style="text-align:center;"|13	style="text-align:left;" |Tarakan	style="text-align:right;" | 249,960	{{flag|Indonesia}}	{{flag|North Kalimantan}}
style="text-align:center;"|14	style="text-align:left;" |Singkawang	style="text-align:right;" | 246,112	{{flag|Indonesia}}	{{flag|West Kalimantan}}
style="text-align:center;"|15	style="text-align:left;" |Bontang	style="text-align:right;" | 189,968	{{flag|Indonesia}}	{{flag|East Kalimantan}}
style="text-align:center;"|16	style="text-align:left;" |Sampit	style="text-align:right;" | 166,773	{{flag|Indonesia}}	{{flag|Central Kalimantan}}
style="text-align:center;"|17	style="text-align:left;" |Sibu	style="text-align:right;" | 162,676	{{flag|Malaysia}}	{{flag|Sarawak}}
style="text-align:center;"|18	style="text-align:left;" |Bintulu	style="text-align:right;" | 114,058	{{flag|Malaysia}}	{{flag|Sarawak}}
style="text-align:center;"|19	style="text-align:left;" |Tenggarong	style="text-align:right;" | 106,669	{{flag|Indonesia}}	{{flag|East Kalimantan}}
style="text-align:center;"|20	style="text-align:left;" |Pangkalan Bun	style="text-align:right;" | 105,514	{{flag|Indonesia}}	{{flag|Central Kalimantan}}

File:Sarawak River.jpg, one of the largest cities on the island of Borneo]]

class="wikitable sortable"
rowspan="2" |Country !rowspan="2" |Province/state !colspan="2" |Urban–rural population (%)
style="background-color:#" data-sort-type="number"|Urban !style="background-color:#" data-sort-type="number"|Rural
{{flag|Brunei}}{{cite web|url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/761109/share-of-urban-population-brunei/|title =Share of the urban population in Brunei from 2012 to 2021|year=2023|access-date=15 April 2023|work=World Atlas}}{{cite web|url=https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/BRN/brunei/urban-population|title =Brunei Urban Population 1960-2023 |year=|access-date=15 April 2023|work=Macrotrends}}		style="text-align:right;" | 78.3%	style="text-align:right;" | 21.8%
rowspan="4" |{{flag|Indonesia}} (Kalimantan){{cite web|url=https://www.bps.go.id/statictable/2014/02/18/1276/persentase-penduduk-daerah-perkotaan-hasil-proyeksi-penduduk-menurut-provinsi-2015---2035.html|title =Persentase Penduduk Daerah Perkotaan menurut Provinsi, 2010-2035|year=2020|access-date=15 April 2023|work=Badan Pusat Statistik}}	{{flag|East Kalimantan}} {{flag|North Kalimantan}}{{note label|en|c}}	style="text-align:right;" | 68.9%	style="text-align:right;" | 31.1%
{{flag|South Kalimantan}}	style="text-align:right;" | 48.4%	style="text-align:right;" | 51.6%
{{flag|Central Kalimantan}}	style="text-align:right;" | 40.2%	style="text-align:right;" | 59.8%
{{flag|West Kalimantan}}	style="text-align:right;" | 36.2%	style="text-align:right;" | 63.8%
rowspan="3" |{{flag|Malaysia}} (East Malaysia){{cite web|url=https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/cthemeByCat&cat=509&bul_id=ZFRzTG9ubTkveFR4YUY2OXdNNk1GZz09&menu_id=L0pheU43NWJwRWVSZklWdzQ4TlhUUT09#:~:text=Meanwhile%2C%20Sabah%20registered%20the%20highest,112%20(2010%3A%20109)|title =Key Findings of Population and Housing Census of Malaysia 2020: Urban and Rural|year=2020|access-date=15 April 2023|work=Department of Statistics Malaysia Official Portal}}{{cite web|url=https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/cthemeByCat&cat=117&bul_id=MDMxdHZjWTk1SjFzTzNkRXYzcVZjdz09&menu_id=L0pheU43NWJwRWVSZklWdzQ4TlhUUT09|title =Population Distribution and Basic Demographic Characteristic Report 2010 (Updated: 05/08/2011)|year=2011|access-date=15 April 2023|work=Department of Statistics Malaysia Official Portal}}	{{flag|Sabah}}	style="text-align:right;" | 54.7%	style="text-align:right;" | 45.3%
{{flag|Sarawak}}	style="text-align:right;" | 57.0%	style="text-align:right;" | 43.0%
{{flag|Labuan}}	style="text-align:right;" | 88.9%	style="text-align:right;" | 11.1%

{{note label|en|c}}Data based on the projection in the former territories in East Kalimantan Province (prior to the separation of North Kalimantan in 2012)

File:Young Dayak dancers, Samarinda, Indonesia.jpg dancers in their traditional clothes, Pampang Cultural Village, Samarinda, East Kalimantan, Indonesia]]

File:Baju Melayu.jpgan men in Baju Melayu; the ethnic Malays of Borneo primarily inhabit the coastal areas of the island.]]

class="wikitable"
rowspan="2" |Country ! rowspan="2" |Province/state ! colspan="2" |Major ethnic groups{{note label|en|d}}
Indigenous ! Non-indigenous
{{flag|Brunei}}		Bisaya, Dusun, Kedayan, Malay |Chinese
rowspan="5" |{{flag|Indonesia}} (Kalimantan)	{{flag|North Kalimantan}}	Bajau, Bulungan, Dayak, Tidung | Bugis, Javanese
{{flag|East Kalimantan}}	Banjarese, Berau, Dayak, Kutai, Paser | Bugis, Javanese
{{flag|South Kalimantan}}	Banjarese, Dayak |Bugis, Javanese, Madurese
{{flag|Central Kalimantan}}	Banjarese, Dayak, Malay |Javanese, Madurese
{{flag|West Kalimantan}}	Dayak, Malay |Chinese, Javanese, Madurese
rowspan="3" |{{flag|Malaysia}} (East Malaysia)	{{flag|Sabah}}	Bajau, Kadazan-Dusun, Malay, Murut, Rungus, Suluk |Bugis, Chinese
{{flag|Sarawak}}	Bidayuh, Iban, Malay, Melanau, Orang Ulu |Chinese
{{flag|Labuan}}	Bajau, Kadazan-Dusun, Kedayan, Malay, Murut |Chinese

{{note label|en|d}}Based on alphabetical order

The island of Borneo is divided administratively by three countries.

• The independent sultanate of Brunei (main part and eastern exclave of Temburong)
• The Indonesian provinces of East, South, West, North and Central Kalimantan, in Kalimantan
• The East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, as well as the Federal Territory of Labuan (on offshore islands nearby)

File:Borneo2 map english names.svg

File:Seria Oil Refinery.jpg

Borneo's economy depends mainly on agriculture, logging and mining, oil and gas, and ecotourism.{{cite web|url=https://www.borneo.com/v/economy/|title=Borneo » City Info » Economy|publisher=Borneo.com|access-date=28 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170527235225/https://www.borneo.com/v/economy/|archive-date=27 May 2017|url-status=dead}} Brunei's economy is highly dependent on the oil and gas production sector, and the country has become one of the largest oil producers in Southeast Asia. The Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak are both top exporters of timber. Sabah is also known as the agricultural producer of rubber, cacao, and vegetables, and for its fisheries, while Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan export liquefied natural gas (LNG) and petroleum. The Indonesian provinces of Kalimantan are mostly dependent on mining sectors despite also being involved in logging and oil and gas explorations.

{{Further|List of Indonesian provinces by GDP|List of Indonesian provinces by GRP per capita|List of Malaysian states by GDP}}

class="wikitable sortable" !rowspan="2" |Country !rowspan="2" |Province/state !style="background-color:#" data-sort-type="number"|GDP nominal billion !style="background-color:#" data-sort-type="number"|Territorial GDP !style="background-color:#" data-sort-type="number"|GDP/GRP per capita !style="background-color:#" data-sort-type="number"|Territorial per capita
colspan="2" |{{flag|Brunei}}	colspan="2" style="text-align:right;" | US$ 15.126	colspan="2" style="text-align:right;" | US$ 33,576
rowspan="5" |{{flag|Indonesia}} (Kalimantan)	{{flag|North Kalimantan}}	style="text-align:right;" | US$ 9.662	rowspan="5" style="text-align:right;" | US$ 114.383	style="text-align:right;" | US$ 13,236	rowspan="5" style="text-align:right;" | US$ 6,627
{{flag|East Kalimantan}}	style="text-align:right;" | US$ 55.344	style="text-align:right;" | US$ 14,155
{{flag|South Kalimantan}}	style="text-align:right;" | US$ 17.668	style="text-align:right;" | US$ 4,184
{{flag|Central Kalimantan}}	style="text-align:right;" | US$ 13.702	style="text-align:right;" | US$ 4,940
{{flag|West Kalimantan}}	style="text-align:right;" | US$ 18.007	style="text-align:right;" | US$ 3,202
rowspan="3" |{{flag|Malaysia}} (East Malaysia)	{{flag|Sabah}}	style="text-align:right;" | US$ 24.534	rowspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | US$ 57.565	style="text-align:right;" | US$ 6,828	rowspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | US$ 8,649
{{flag|Sarawak}}	style="text-align:right;" | US$ 31.209	style="text-align:right;" | US$ 15,875
{{flag|Labuan}}	style="text-align:right;" | US$ 1.822	style="text-align:right;" | US$ 18,327

{{Further|List of Indonesian provinces by Human Development Index|List of Malaysian states by Human Development Index}}

HDI is a statistic of combined indicators that takes into account life expectancy, health, education and per-capita income.

class="wikitable sortable"
Country !Province/state !|HDI score !Country comparison
{{flag|Brunei}}		align=center bgcolor="#00C400" | 0.829 (2022)	{{flag|Kuwait}} (0.831)
rowspan="5" |{{flag|Indonesia}} (Kalimantan)	{{flag|North Kalimantan}}	align=center bgcolor="#D3FF00" | 0.729 (2023)	{{flag|Paraguay}} (0.717)
{{flag|East Kalimantan}}	align=center bgcolor="#00F900" | 0.782 (2023)	{{flag|Iran}} (0.774)
{{flag|South Kalimantan}}	align=center bgcolor="#D3FF00" | 0.747 (2023)	{{flag|Paraguay}} (0.717)
{{flag|Central Kalimantan}}	align=center bgcolor="#D3FF00" | 0.737 (2023)	{{flag|Paraguay}} (0.717)
{{flag|West Kalimantan}}	align=center bgcolor="#D3FF00" | 0.705 (2023)	{{flag|Iraq}} (0.686)
rowspan="3" |{{flag|Malaysia}} (East Malaysia)	{{flag|Sabah}}	align=center bgcolor="#00F900" | 0.772 (2022)	{{flag|Iran}} (0.774)
{{flag|Sarawak}}	align=center bgcolor="#00C400" | 0.824 (2022)	{{flag|Russia}} (0.822)
{{flag|Labuan}}	align=center bgcolor="#00C400" | 0.839 (2022)	{{flag|Turkey}} (0.838)

{{portal|Islands}}

• Hikayat Banjar
• Kutai basin
• List of islands of Indonesia
• List of islands of Malaysia
• Maphilindo
• List of bats of Borneo

{{Portal bar|Indonesia|Malaysia|Islands}}

{{Reflist|30em|refs=

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• {{cite web|url=http://www.ums.edu.my/fksw/images/files/IsuPemilikanWilayahPantaiTimurSabahSatuPenelusurandaripadaSudutSumberSejarah.pdf|title=Isu Pemilikan Wilayah Pantai Timur Sabah: Satu Penulusuran daripada Sumber Sejarah|author=Eko Prayitno Joko|language=ms, en|publisher=Universiti Malaysia Sabah|access-date=23 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160519044519/http://www.ums.edu.my/fksw/images/files/IsuPemilikanWilayahPantaiTimurSabahSatuPenelusurandaripadaSudutSumberSejarah.pdf |archive-date=19 May 2016|url-status=dead}}
• {{cite news|url=http://www.bt.com.bn/2013/03/07/sabah-and-sulu-claims|title=Sabah and the Sulu claims|author=Rozan Yunos|newspaper=The Brunei Times|date=7 March 2013|access-date=23 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140617035533/http://www.bt.com.bn/2013/03/07/sabah-and-sulu-claims|archive-date=17 June 2014|url-status=dead}}

* {{cite book|author=M.C. Ricklefs|title=A History of Modern Indonesia Since C.1200|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0AAdBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA239|date=11 September 2008|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-137-05201-8|pages=239–}}{{Dead link|date=April 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

• {{cite book|author=Yew-Foong Hui|title=Strangers at Home: History and Subjectivity among the Chinese Communities of West Kalimantan, Indonesia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Es6wCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA43|date=9 September 2011|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-474-2686-8|pages=43–}}
• {{cite book|author=Taufiq Tanasaldy|title=Regime Change and Ethnic Politics in Indonesia: Dayak Politics of West Kalimantan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PbFiAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA74|year=2012|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-25348-3|pages=74–}}

}}

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• {{citation

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}}

• {{cite book

| author = Redmond O'Hanlon

| year = 1984

| title = Into the Heart of Borneo: An Account of a Journey Made in 1983 to the Mountains of Batu Tiban with James Fenton

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| year = 1988

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• {{cite book

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| author2 = Chew Lun Chan

| year = 1997

| title = Mount Kinabalu: Borneo's Magic Mountain: An Introduction to the Natural History of One of the World's Great Natural Monuments

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| year = 2001

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• {{citation

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| author2 = Greg Richards

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| author = G. W. H. Davison

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• {{citation

| title = Hose's Civet: Borneo's mysterious carnivore

| author = John Mathai

| series = Nature Watch 18/4: 2–8

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}}

• {{citation

| title = Small carnivores in a logging concession in the Upper Baram, Sarawak, Borneo

| author1 = John Mathai

| author2 = Jason Hon

| author3 = Ngumbang Juat

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{{refend}}

• {{Wikivoyage inline}}
• {{Commons category-inline|Borneo}}
• [http://www.mongabay.com/borneo.html Environmental Profile of Borneo] – Background on Borneo, including natural and social history, deforestation statistics, and conservation news.

{{Borneo}}

{{World's largest islands}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Greater Sunda Islands

Category:International islands

Category:Islands of Brunei

Category:Islands of Malaysia

Category:Maritime Southeast Asia