On this day August 31, 1957

Tje Federation of Malaya gains its independence from the United Kingdom, the Federation was formed of 11 states on  January 31, 1948 from the nine Malay states and the British settlements of Penang and Malacca.

From 1946 to 1948, the 11 states formed a single crown colony known as the Malayan Union. Due to opposition from Malay nationalists, the Union was disbanded and replaced by the Federation of Malaya, which restored the symbolic positions of the rulers of the Malay states.

Within the Federation, while the Malay states were protectorates of the United Kingdom, Penang and Malacca remained British colonial territories. Like the Malayan Union before it, the Federation did not include Singapore, which before this time had usually been considered to be part of Malaya.

The Federation achieved independence within the Commonwealth of Nations on August 31, 1957. In 1963, the federation together with Singapore, Sarawak and British North Borneo (which was renamed Sabah) formed a new federation called Malaysia. Singapore separated from Malaysia to become an independent republic on August 9, 1965.

Members of the federation; Perlis, Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Malacca, Johore, Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan.

The Malayan Emergency was a state of emergency declared by the British colonial government of Malaya in 1948 and lifted in 1960, as well as an insurrection and guerrilla war fought between government forces and the Malayan National Liberation Army around the same period.

The state of emergency entailed the revocation of many civil rights, the granting of special powers to the police, and other measures aimed at the suppression of left wing political movements, especially the Malayan Communist Party (MCP).

The guerrilla war was part of the ongoing conflict between the MCP and other leftists, and the colonial establishment, starting shortly after the Japanese withdrawal in 1945 and extending to the signing of the peace treaty between the communists and the government of Malaya in December 1989. The Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) was the military arm of the MCP, and was supplied by the Min Yuen or Mass Organisation.

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