Malaya (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

 Malaya (Malay: Tanah Melayu; Jawi script: تانه ملايو), officialy the Federation of Malaya (Malay: Persekutuan Tanah Melayu; Jawi script: ڤرسكوتوان تانه ملايو), is a federal constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia. It consists of twelve states and two federal territories and has a total landmass of 132,308 square kilometres. Land borders are shared with Thailand and maritime borders exist with Indonesia and Vietnam. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. In 2010 the population exceeded 21 million. Malaya is a member of the Commonwealth Confederation

History
The first possible inhabitants of Malay Peninsula were the Negritos. Traders and settlers from India and China arrived as early as the 1st century AD, establishing trading ports and coastal towns in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Their presence resulted in strong Indian and Chinese influence 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 4th or 5th century. Between the 7th and 14th centuries, much of the southern Malay Peninsula was part of maritime empires of Srivijaya and Majapahit. Islam began to spread among Malays in the 14th century.

The first Malay state being conquered by Western colonialism was Malacca by Portugal in 1511 and the Dutch in 1641. In 1786, the Sultan of Kedah leased Penang to the British East India Company. The British then took control of Malacca from the Dutch in 1824. By 1826 the British directly controlled Penang and Malacca as the part of crown colony of the Straits Settlements. By the 20th century, the states of Pahang, Selangor, Perak, and Negeri Sembilan, known together as the Federated Malay States, had British Residents appointed to advise the Malay rulers, to whom the rulers were bound to defer by treaty. The remaining five Malay states, known as the Unfederated Malay States, while not directly under British rule, also accepted British advisers around the turn of the 20th century.

In the Second World War, the tensions between the United Kingdom and Thailand emerged after the Chinese forces occupied Thailand in 1941. Thailand, that newly joined the Axis, declared the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 as null and void and claimed back Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, and Perlis that previously ceded to the British authority. Those territorial claim was also included Penang that once had been part of Kedah. In 1942, the Thai army invaded Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, Perlis and Penang and occupied its for over three years.