Background and causes of the Malayan Emergency

In 1948, the Communists and the British colonial government in Malaya entered a period of guerrilla fighting which has become known to history as the Malayan Emergency.

The name derives from the state of emergency declared by the colonial administration in June 1948 to extend the powers of the police and military. The state of emergency was officially lifted in July 1960.

In the broadest context, the events leading to the emergency include the following:

• The establishment of British hegemony over Malaya in the 19th century.
• The importation of large numbers of Chinese and Indians as labourers for colonial industry, primarily tin mining and rubber planting.
• The formation of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) in the 1930s.
• The rout by the Japanese of the British in the early part of World War II. For many Malayans this dispelled a myth of British omnipotence.
• The rise of the MCP-led Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) as the main resistance against the Japanese during their period of occupation.

This article focuses on the immediate antecedents to the Emergency, beginning shortly after the Japanese surrender and British reoccupation in August and September 1945.