Yu.[20] The term 'Melayu' is thought to have developed into an ethnonym • Water (%) 0.

3
with the advent of Malacca Sultanate, based in the Malay peninsula, as a Population
regional power in the 15th century. Islamisation established an • Q1 2020 32,730,000[7]
ethnoreligious identity in Malacca with the term 'Melayu' then, begins to estimate (43rd)
appear as interchangeable with Malaccans, especially in describing the • 2010 census 28,334,135[8]
cultural preferences of the Malaccans as against the foreigners.[20] • Density 92/km2
(238.3/sq mi)
Before the onset of European colonisation, the Malay Peninsula was known (116th)
natively as "Tanah Melayu" ("Malay Land").[26][27] Under a racial GDP (PPP) 2020 estimate
classification created by a German scholar Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, • Total $1.148
the natives of maritime Southeast Asia were grouped into a single category, trillion[9] (25th)
the Malay race.[28][29] Following the expedition of French navigator Jules • Per capita $34,567[9]
Dumont d'Urville to Oceania in 1826, he later proposed the terms of (45th)
"Malaysia", "Micronesia" and "Melanesia" to the Société de Géographie in GDP (nominal) 2020 estimate
1831, distinguishing these Pacific cultures and island groups from the • Total $381.523
existing term "Polynesia". Dumont d'Urville described Malaysia as "an area billion [9] (33rd)
commonly known as the East Indies".[30] In 1850, the English ethnologist • Per capita $11,484[9]
George Samuel Windsor Earl, writing in the Journal of the Indian (62nd)
Archipelago and Eastern Asia, proposed naming the islands of Southeast
Gini (2015) 41[10]
Asia as "Melayunesia" or "Indunesia", favouring the former.[31] In modern medium
terminology, "Malay" remains the name of an ethnoreligious group of
Austronesian people predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula and HDI (2018) 0.804[11]
portions of the adjacent islands of Southeast Asia, including the east coast very high · 61st
of Sumatra, the coast of Borneo, and smaller islands that lie between these Currency Ringgit (RM)
areas.[32] (MYR)
Time zone UTC+8 (MST)
The state that gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1957 took
the name the "Federation of Malaya", chosen in preference to other Date format dd-mm-yyyy
potential names such as "Langkasuka", after the historic kingdom located at Driving side left
the upper section of the Malay Peninsula in the first millennium CE.[33][34]
The name "Malaysia" was adopted in 1963 when the existing states of the Calling code +60
Federation of Malaya, plus Singapore, North Borneo and Sarawak formed a ISO 3166 code MY
new federation.[35] One theory posits the name was chosen so that "si"
Internet TLD .my
represented the inclusion of Singapore, North Borneo, and Sarawak to
Malaya in 1963.[35] Politicians in the Philippines contemplated renaming
their state "Malaysia" before the modern country took the name.[36]

History
Evidence of modern human habitation in Malaysia dates back 40,000 years.[37] In
the Malay Peninsula, the first inhabitants are thought to be Negritos.[38] Traders
and settlers from India and China arrived as early as the first century AD,
establishing trading ports and coastal towns in the second and third centuries.
Their presence resulted in strong Indian and Chinese influences on the local
cultures, and the people of the Malay Peninsula adopted the religions of Hinduism
and Buddhism. Sanskrit inscriptions appear as early as the fourth or fifth
century.[39] The Kingdom of Langkasuka arose around the second century in the
northern area of the Malay Peninsula, lasting until about the 15th century.[33]
Between the 7th and 13th centuries, much of the southern Malay Peninsula was
The Malacca Sultanate part of the maritime Srivijayan empire. By the 13th and the 14th century, the
played a major role in Majapahit empire had successfully wrested control over most of the peninsula and
spreading Islam throughout the Malay Archipelago from Srivijaya.[40] Islam began to spread among Malays in
the Malay Archipelago. the 14th century.[41] In the early 15th century, Parameswara, a runaway king of the