1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:11,039 Speaker 1: M what's colonizing my sop? Help me out here? How 2 00:00:11,039 --> 00:00:15,360 Speaker 1: do I introduce the podcast? I'm Robert Evans and this 3 00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:18,040 Speaker 1: is Behind the Bastards, podcast about the worst people from 4 00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:21,079 Speaker 1: history and today. And my guest is that doesn't sound 5 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:25,880 Speaker 1: like me. No one's gonna buy that. Sophie, we gotta okay, okay? 6 00:00:26,079 --> 00:00:28,600 Speaker 1: Can I try? Can I try to get okay? Ready? Hitler? 7 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:33,800 Speaker 1: I'm Robert Evans. See you know, Sophie, you gotta admit 8 00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:37,600 Speaker 1: there's there's it's it's there's there's something. You know. There's 9 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:40,240 Speaker 1: a power in just screaming the name Hitler to introduce 10 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:42,640 Speaker 1: the podcast. There's a reason why I've done it so 11 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:46,640 Speaker 1: many times. It gets attention. It gets attention, It gets attention. 12 00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:48,800 Speaker 1: People pay attention when you just shout the name Hitler 13 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:52,040 Speaker 1: into their ears as they're driving to work in the morning. 14 00:00:55,920 --> 00:01:00,200 Speaker 1: This is of course Behind the Bastards. Bad people talk 15 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:02,920 Speaker 1: about him. Uh. Sometimes we introduced it by shouting Hitler, 16 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:05,920 Speaker 1: but this time we introduced it with a meandering discussion 17 00:01:05,959 --> 00:01:08,240 Speaker 1: about how bad I am at introducing the show. My 18 00:01:08,319 --> 00:01:12,960 Speaker 1: guest again, it's Dr Kvehda of the House of Pod podcast, 19 00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:16,000 Speaker 1: which deals with a whole bunch of cool medical stuff 20 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:18,200 Speaker 1: are our friend of the pod. Garrison Davis was on 21 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:20,919 Speaker 1: it recently to talk about gun violence. Right That's Rights. 22 00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:23,520 Speaker 1: Had him on with a gun. We had him on 23 00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:27,600 Speaker 1: to ask questions of a gun violence researcher named Dr 24 00:01:27,640 --> 00:01:32,080 Speaker 1: Amy barn Horse. That was a really fun episode. Good good, Yeah. 25 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:39,280 Speaker 1: I mean, I'm actually holding a bullet. Speak it's just 26 00:01:39,319 --> 00:01:46,160 Speaker 1: one of my desk bullets, the dust bullets. Sophie's holding 27 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:50,040 Speaker 1: up blood orange cake. You know. I just got a 28 00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:53,080 Speaker 1: crate of two and fifty tracer rounds of three oh eight, 29 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:54,960 Speaker 1: which is fun because you can light things on fire 30 00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:57,040 Speaker 1: with them. So I'm excited to find some things to 31 00:01:57,120 --> 00:01:59,480 Speaker 1: light on fire when I when I got shooting next. 32 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:02,320 Speaker 1: Sometimes if you hit a tree stump because of all 33 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:04,560 Speaker 1: the sap and there, it'll light the whole stump on fire. 34 00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:07,960 Speaker 1: It's a hoot. Oh, that's a hoot. As long as 35 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:09,760 Speaker 1: it's wet enough outside. You don't want to do it 36 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:11,679 Speaker 1: during the dry summer day. So we're in the last 37 00:02:11,720 --> 00:02:13,320 Speaker 1: couple of months where I can light a stump on 38 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:15,800 Speaker 1: fire and not burn down the forest. There's gonna be 39 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:19,000 Speaker 1: like doctors who are gonna you know, who follow our show, 40 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:20,359 Speaker 1: who are going to be listening to this for the 41 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:22,639 Speaker 1: first time and they're just gonna be like, wait, wait, 42 00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:25,519 Speaker 1: hold on, what's going on? What's going on? He talked 43 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:29,080 Speaker 1: about Hitler in guns and what what has happened to 44 00:02:29,160 --> 00:02:33,960 Speaker 1: Cave And that's okay, I'm okay, it's okay. Speaking of 45 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:37,840 Speaker 1: what's happened to what's about to happen to Cave is 46 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:39,720 Speaker 1: that he's about to hear about what happens next to 47 00:02:39,800 --> 00:02:44,440 Speaker 1: James Brooke literally left off had just kind of at 48 00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:47,840 Speaker 1: gunpoint made himself into the governor of a sizeable chunk 49 00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:50,720 Speaker 1: of Brunei or Malaysia, whatever you want to call it. Borneo. 50 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:54,640 Speaker 1: Um so he has. He has gotten himself declared governor 51 00:02:54,919 --> 00:02:57,839 Speaker 1: at gunpoint, which is the way to do it. You know, 52 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,880 Speaker 1: I've I've considered that for a while. I would like 53 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:02,639 Speaker 1: to be a governor. I think I'd be a good one, 54 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:06,560 Speaker 1: Gonna open up whatever state I'm in or lock it down, 55 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:08,480 Speaker 1: depending on wherever it is. I'll do the opposite of 56 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:14,000 Speaker 1: whatever they were doing before. It's a safe bet for governors. Change. Change. 57 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:16,280 Speaker 1: That's what people want, is change, whether or not it's 58 00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:19,680 Speaker 1: good change or reasonable change or change. People have asked 59 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:26,480 Speaker 1: for just change things. Yes, Sophie, that doesn't sound like 60 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:29,720 Speaker 1: something I do anyway. Uh So, yeah, James had threatened 61 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:32,560 Speaker 1: himself into being a governor. Uh and this this obviously 62 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:36,480 Speaker 1: the actual leaders in in Brunei at the time, like 63 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:39,880 Speaker 1: the different royal people. Uh, most of them were not 64 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:42,680 Speaker 1: super happy with it. So the Sultan of Brunei doesn't 65 00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:44,560 Speaker 1: like that he's been forced at gunpoint to make this 66 00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:47,200 Speaker 1: guy a governor. Now, there is a chunk of royals, 67 00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:49,880 Speaker 1: as there are kind of anywhere there's British imperialism, there's 68 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:52,920 Speaker 1: a chunk of the ruling class that likes what's happening, right, 69 00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:55,680 Speaker 1: And in James's case, it's Prince Badrudine, the guy that 70 00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:58,760 Speaker 1: he's got the hots for, and Russia hashim Um, and 71 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:01,440 Speaker 1: both of these guys kind of warded him because even 72 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:04,960 Speaker 1: though he was super problematic and kind of disrespectful, he 73 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:07,960 Speaker 1: also had a bunch of modern canons and they were 74 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:10,520 Speaker 1: more worried about their local rivals than they were about 75 00:04:10,520 --> 00:04:13,200 Speaker 1: this British guy who they assumed was going to leave eventually. 76 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: They were like, we'll put up with this guy. I mean, Badine, 77 00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:18,520 Speaker 1: I think really loved him, but Raja Hashim is more like, 78 00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:21,240 Speaker 1: we'll put up with this guy and he'll use his 79 00:04:21,279 --> 00:04:23,600 Speaker 1: cannons to help us against our rivals, and that'll be 80 00:04:23,640 --> 00:04:26,320 Speaker 1: a good deal for us. And for a while this 81 00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:29,640 Speaker 1: worked pretty well. Um, But the whole time James was 82 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:32,720 Speaker 1: kind of solidifying his hold on Sarawak. His rivals, who 83 00:04:32,720 --> 00:04:34,800 Speaker 1: included Prince Makota and one of the sons of the 84 00:04:34,839 --> 00:04:37,640 Speaker 1: Sultan and brune I, were working behind the scenes to 85 00:04:37,680 --> 00:04:40,720 Speaker 1: take back their land from this usurper. And obviously it's 86 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:43,440 Speaker 1: worth noting that none of the people fighting over sarah 87 00:04:43,440 --> 00:04:45,960 Speaker 1: Wak had a good moral claim to the land right. 88 00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:48,880 Speaker 1: The Sultan and Brunei and his kin are all bad people. 89 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:53,680 Speaker 1: They let raiders bribe them to rob and murder their citizens. James, meanwhile, 90 00:04:53,800 --> 00:04:55,880 Speaker 1: wanted to rule sarah Walk for the sake of his 91 00:04:55,960 --> 00:04:59,160 Speaker 1: ego and to live out his boyhood dreams of Eastern adventure. 92 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:03,320 Speaker 1: Nobody's nobody in charges, As is generally the case in history, 93 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:06,800 Speaker 1: nobody in charges is a good person or particularly righteous. 94 00:05:07,279 --> 00:05:09,720 Speaker 1: This is often how colonial dramas would play out. You've 95 00:05:09,720 --> 00:05:12,839 Speaker 1: got a shitty local leader, You've got differently shitty foreign 96 00:05:12,839 --> 00:05:15,200 Speaker 1: imperialist interlopers, and you've got a bunch of normal people 97 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:17,080 Speaker 1: caught in the middle. That's kind of the story of 98 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:20,719 Speaker 1: imperialism and part of why it. Part of why imperialists 99 00:05:20,720 --> 00:05:23,279 Speaker 1: get traction in places is because a decent number of 100 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:26,000 Speaker 1: locals are always willing to sign on with the imperialist 101 00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:29,159 Speaker 1: because like, well, but our current leaders sucked too, you know, 102 00:05:29,480 --> 00:05:31,840 Speaker 1: like that's the thing that happens a lot, which is great. 103 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:34,800 Speaker 1: Uh So, James had a decent amount of support among 104 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:37,279 Speaker 1: some folks in the area. A lot of Malay and 105 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:40,640 Speaker 1: Dyak people who rebelled against the Sultan liked him because 106 00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:43,119 Speaker 1: even if he had won the war against them, he'd 107 00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:45,760 Speaker 1: spared their lives and he'd done it against the wishes 108 00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:48,520 Speaker 1: of some of the local powers. Meanwhile, a number of 109 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:50,840 Speaker 1: folks in the interior liked him because he'd gotten the 110 00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:53,640 Speaker 1: Rash to call off that big Dyak raid. So the 111 00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:56,080 Speaker 1: point is he had a bunch of local support. He 112 00:05:56,160 --> 00:05:58,200 Speaker 1: was not like, it was not just him imposing his 113 00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:00,800 Speaker 1: will on the local people for guns. Because of things 114 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:03,120 Speaker 1: he did. A decent number of people who lived in 115 00:06:03,160 --> 00:06:06,800 Speaker 1: sarah Wak and didn't like the leaders in Brunei supported him. 116 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:09,280 Speaker 1: And honestly, if you were living in sarah Walk at 117 00:06:09,279 --> 00:06:12,159 Speaker 1: the time. Given the options, especially if you're one of 118 00:06:12,200 --> 00:06:14,520 Speaker 1: the people who was about to get rated by these diets, 119 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:17,279 Speaker 1: you might have supported James Brooke too, right, because it's 120 00:06:17,279 --> 00:06:20,200 Speaker 1: just like the Sultans ship too, you know. And and 121 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:22,920 Speaker 1: these people aren't dumb. They get a sense of this guy, 122 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:25,960 Speaker 1: and clearly everything he's done up to this point would 123 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:28,680 Speaker 1: lead you to believe that he's probably gonna get tired 124 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:30,320 Speaker 1: at some point and go back to England and leave 125 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:32,400 Speaker 1: them alone. You would think that's what's going to happen. 126 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:34,800 Speaker 1: I think that would be a reasonable assumption. Yeah, yeah, 127 00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:37,239 Speaker 1: I think that's kind of what's happening. They're like, everything 128 00:06:37,279 --> 00:06:38,960 Speaker 1: he's done isn't shitty. He's helped us out in a 129 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:41,360 Speaker 1: couple of things we don't like about our leaders. He's 130 00:06:41,360 --> 00:06:43,080 Speaker 1: a white dude. He's not going to stay here forever. 131 00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:44,800 Speaker 1: He's a rich white boy. He's gonna go home at 132 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:47,240 Speaker 1: some point. Let's use him while he's here, you know. 133 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:50,919 Speaker 1: I think that's the bet a lot of people make now. 134 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:53,480 Speaker 1: At the point in which he became kind of total 135 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:56,119 Speaker 1: ruler of his own little country, James Brooke was thirty 136 00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:59,200 Speaker 1: eight years old. He started using the title Raja, which 137 00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:01,800 Speaker 1: was not strictly legal because he was not royal in 138 00:07:01,839 --> 00:07:03,640 Speaker 1: any way, shape or form. He had been made a 139 00:07:03,720 --> 00:07:06,719 Speaker 1: governor um. But he starts calling himself the Rajah. The 140 00:07:06,800 --> 00:07:10,640 Speaker 1: locals called him twine Bassar, which means big lord, which 141 00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:14,160 Speaker 1: is kind of a rad nickname. Again, and he started 142 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:16,720 Speaker 1: off his reign pretty well by releasing a bunch of 143 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:19,120 Speaker 1: hostages who had been taken during the civil war, so 144 00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:22,040 Speaker 1: again kind of ingratiating himself with the local people. Not 145 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:25,160 Speaker 1: a bad move. Um. Now he'd come to power by 146 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:27,560 Speaker 1: defending the cooching Malaise, who were the folks in the 147 00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:30,239 Speaker 1: interior that were about to get rated from their rulers 148 00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:33,800 Speaker 1: in Brunei. But his territory had an equal population of Dyaks, 149 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:35,960 Speaker 1: and they were not as friendly to him on the 150 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:38,400 Speaker 1: whole because he had stopped some of them from raiding 151 00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:41,120 Speaker 1: these cootching Malaise. So James knew that if he was 152 00:07:41,120 --> 00:07:43,560 Speaker 1: going to hold on power, he already had the cootching 153 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:46,040 Speaker 1: people like kind of on his back. He needed to 154 00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:48,480 Speaker 1: win over these Dyaks to his side, and in order 155 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:50,000 Speaker 1: to do that, he took a leaf out of the 156 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:54,360 Speaker 1: British Empire's playbook. As he later wrote, quote divide and 157 00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:57,560 Speaker 1: govern is the motto, I must govern each by the other. 158 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:00,080 Speaker 1: So do you understand what that means? This again what 159 00:08:00,120 --> 00:08:02,600 Speaker 1: the British Empire does in in we talked about in 160 00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:04,800 Speaker 1: the in the idi Amine episode, and there were certain 161 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:08,440 Speaker 1: tribal groups that they would support an arm to control 162 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:12,200 Speaker 1: other tribal groups. Right, that's the same thing the Belgians do. Yeah, 163 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:15,400 Speaker 1: he's he's learning. That's what he figures out he's going 164 00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:18,000 Speaker 1: to do. So his first step was to demolish an 165 00:08:18,040 --> 00:08:21,600 Speaker 1: old system set up by both Bruneyan and Malay aristocrats 166 00:08:21,680 --> 00:08:25,000 Speaker 1: called the Sarah. This gave those nobles the right to 167 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:28,240 Speaker 1: legally take any diac property they happened to. Like if 168 00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:30,600 Speaker 1: they saw a diet boat they fancied, they could cut 169 00:08:30,640 --> 00:08:32,720 Speaker 1: a gouge in the top and that was a legally 170 00:08:32,800 --> 00:08:36,000 Speaker 1: binding signal that the boat was now their property. Nobles 171 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:38,439 Speaker 1: were also given the right to set prices for produce 172 00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:41,200 Speaker 1: that they bought from peasant farmers and gatherers. So like 173 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:43,160 Speaker 1: you gather a bunch of food, or farmer a bunch 174 00:08:43,160 --> 00:08:45,160 Speaker 1: of food, and the rich people get to decide what 175 00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:47,520 Speaker 1: they pay you for it, which is not a great 176 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:50,240 Speaker 1: deal for the actual people making the food, you know. 177 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:54,559 Speaker 1: Um So, if these little people didn't produce sufficient quantities 178 00:08:54,559 --> 00:08:57,319 Speaker 1: of food stuff, their children and spouses could be sold 179 00:08:57,320 --> 00:09:00,600 Speaker 1: into slavery. So the Surah is an unpopular their system 180 00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:03,559 Speaker 1: among the Dyaks, and James Brooke abolishes it as soon 181 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:06,120 Speaker 1: as he comes to power. Again, not a bad call 182 00:09:06,280 --> 00:09:08,439 Speaker 1: so far. He's pretty much to two in my book, 183 00:09:08,480 --> 00:09:12,080 Speaker 1: you know. Um So, he also decided early on not 184 00:09:12,200 --> 00:09:16,720 Speaker 1: to mess with a local religion. I should clarify. He 185 00:09:16,760 --> 00:09:19,320 Speaker 1: decided not to mess with the religious beliefs of the 186 00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:22,600 Speaker 1: local Malays who were Muslim. So he sees that like 187 00:09:22,679 --> 00:09:25,640 Speaker 1: a lot of the population are Muslim, in kind of 188 00:09:25,679 --> 00:09:28,920 Speaker 1: an uncommon move for a British imperial ruler in this period. 189 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:31,760 Speaker 1: He decides, I'm not going to let like missionaries come 190 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:34,040 Speaker 1: in and funk with the Muslims because I think people 191 00:09:34,040 --> 00:09:37,000 Speaker 1: have the right to their own religion and that's great. However, 192 00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:40,839 Speaker 1: the di Acts were animists, right, so they have kind 193 00:09:40,840 --> 00:09:44,360 Speaker 1: of a more not it's they were. They have a religion, 194 00:09:44,360 --> 00:09:46,640 Speaker 1: but it's not a Judeo Christian religion, and thus it's 195 00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:51,120 Speaker 1: not a religion that James Brooke recognizes as a religion. Um, 196 00:09:51,160 --> 00:09:54,760 Speaker 1: and so he is willing to let evangelists go kind 197 00:09:54,800 --> 00:09:57,360 Speaker 1: of proselytize to them because he doesn't think they have 198 00:09:57,440 --> 00:10:03,440 Speaker 1: a religion, because he doesn't understand exactly he's been to 199 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:07,080 Speaker 1: Islam because all the time the Indian subcontinent, So it's 200 00:10:07,080 --> 00:10:08,960 Speaker 1: not foreign to him. This whatever I mean, I don't 201 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:13,560 Speaker 1: know what they were following. Yeah, totally foreign to him. Yeah, 202 00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:15,160 Speaker 1: he doesn't know what it is, and so he thinks 203 00:10:15,160 --> 00:10:19,200 Speaker 1: they have no religion. His biographer writes that he considered 204 00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:22,640 Speaker 1: the Diets to be quote children of nature without true religion, 205 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:25,240 Speaker 1: since their most cherished beliefs were dismissed in the eyes 206 00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:30,959 Speaker 1: of civilization as mere childlike superstition. So again, not your 207 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:34,280 Speaker 1: worst case for an imperialist overlord because he respects some 208 00:10:34,480 --> 00:10:39,840 Speaker 1: of the local beliefs under gentler imperialist slightly yeah to 209 00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:43,280 Speaker 1: some people, I guess now. In all, Brooke championed what 210 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:47,200 Speaker 1: he considered to be a hands off approach to rulership. 211 00:10:47,559 --> 00:10:49,400 Speaker 1: He didn't want to engage in the kind of full 212 00:10:49,400 --> 00:10:52,800 Speaker 1: scale colonialism that he had seen in India. Instead, he 213 00:10:52,840 --> 00:10:55,040 Speaker 1: only wanted to bring in a few Europeans, and he 214 00:10:55,040 --> 00:10:57,800 Speaker 1: saw himself as assisting the native leaders, giving them the 215 00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:01,080 Speaker 1: benefit of his big European brain, rather than taking over. 216 00:11:01,440 --> 00:11:04,520 Speaker 1: He felt that this tactic had quote never been fairly tried, 217 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:06,920 Speaker 1: and it appears to me in some respects more desirable 218 00:11:06,920 --> 00:11:10,200 Speaker 1: than the actual possession of a foreign nation. For if successful, 219 00:11:10,320 --> 00:11:13,200 Speaker 1: the native prince finds greater advantages, and if a failure, 220 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:16,480 Speaker 1: the European government is not committed. Above all, it ensures 221 00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:18,800 Speaker 1: the independence of the native princes and may advance the 222 00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:22,040 Speaker 1: inhabitants further in the scale of civilization by means of 223 00:11:22,040 --> 00:11:24,319 Speaker 1: the very independence that can be done when a government 224 00:11:24,360 --> 00:11:28,480 Speaker 1: is a foreign one and their natural freedom sacrificed. So 225 00:11:29,280 --> 00:11:33,560 Speaker 1: that's his attitude here. I'm struck well, he writes, and 226 00:11:33,600 --> 00:11:36,679 Speaker 1: this is kind of some like US and Vietnam style thinking, 227 00:11:36,679 --> 00:11:39,480 Speaker 1: where it's like, we can't invade this country to declare war, 228 00:11:39,559 --> 00:11:42,000 Speaker 1: but we can send in advisors and that way if 229 00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:44,600 Speaker 1: we if it goes badly, we're not committed, which didn't 230 00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:48,200 Speaker 1: work in Vietnam and spoilers great here. But like that's 231 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:51,720 Speaker 1: the that's the thought process that he has. So critics 232 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:54,280 Speaker 1: will point out that Brooke was regularly heavy handed in 233 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:57,240 Speaker 1: his leadership, although he wouldn't admit to this personally. His 234 00:11:57,320 --> 00:12:00,559 Speaker 1: years in power included numerous rebellions and brutal crackdowns on 235 00:12:00,640 --> 00:12:04,840 Speaker 1: insurgent campaigns. They will also note that his enlightened colonialism 236 00:12:04,840 --> 00:12:07,120 Speaker 1: may have been preferable to him because it was cheaper. 237 00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:10,280 Speaker 1: James Brooke definitely had dreams of exploiting the mineral wealth 238 00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:12,760 Speaker 1: of sarah Walk, but he never ever gained any kind 239 00:12:12,800 --> 00:12:15,640 Speaker 1: of competence at trade or business. The land he conquered 240 00:12:15,679 --> 00:12:17,560 Speaker 1: was also not rich in the kind of gyms and 241 00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:20,880 Speaker 1: precious metals he wanted. He just did send back one 242 00:12:20,960 --> 00:12:23,760 Speaker 1: stone that his laborers found, which he called the Brook Diamond. 243 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:25,600 Speaker 1: He sent this to like England to try to drum 244 00:12:25,679 --> 00:12:28,520 Speaker 1: up like enthusiasm for his reign, but when it was 245 00:12:28,559 --> 00:12:32,560 Speaker 1: appraised in London, it was found to be a worthless opal. Now, yeah, 246 00:12:32,559 --> 00:12:34,640 Speaker 1: the Brook Diamond. I wonder what if that's why I 247 00:12:34,640 --> 00:12:36,640 Speaker 1: thought the name Brooke was related to diamonds. I wonder 248 00:12:36,679 --> 00:12:38,680 Speaker 1: if I'd ever heard that before. I don't know. I 249 00:12:38,720 --> 00:12:41,520 Speaker 1: don't know. They may have a cookie company, yes, but 250 00:12:41,559 --> 00:12:43,400 Speaker 1: not so much of the diamonds. Not so much of 251 00:12:43,440 --> 00:12:46,360 Speaker 1: the diamonds. So the irony is that the land he'd 252 00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:49,600 Speaker 1: stumbled into controlling held a tremendous amount of crude oil. 253 00:12:49,640 --> 00:12:52,320 Speaker 1: That's why the Sultan of Brunei today as a billionaire. Right, Like, 254 00:12:52,360 --> 00:12:55,880 Speaker 1: there's actually it's very very valuable land to control, but 255 00:12:55,920 --> 00:12:58,160 Speaker 1: at the time crude oil was kind of useless. There 256 00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:00,680 Speaker 1: were plenty of valuable commodities though with in sarah Wak, 257 00:13:00,960 --> 00:13:04,880 Speaker 1: but through financial incompetence, James Brooke repeatedly failed to capitalize 258 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:08,319 Speaker 1: on them. When he took power in like he kind 259 00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:10,880 Speaker 1: of estimated the revenue of his country at about five 260 00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:13,960 Speaker 1: thousand pounds per year um and although even this sum 261 00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:16,720 Speaker 1: was inflated, but as time went on, Like he would 262 00:13:16,760 --> 00:13:18,760 Speaker 1: never make a profit out of this. He would eventually 263 00:13:18,760 --> 00:13:22,080 Speaker 1: go broke running sarah Wak um because he just like 264 00:13:22,280 --> 00:13:25,400 Speaker 1: had no head for actual business. It would not be 265 00:13:25,480 --> 00:13:28,720 Speaker 1: fair to say that his motive in sarah Wak was pure, 266 00:13:28,720 --> 00:13:32,600 Speaker 1: pure venal profit seeking, but neither was he particularly pure hearted. 267 00:13:32,840 --> 00:13:35,839 Speaker 1: For James, ruling was about stature. He didn't want to 268 00:13:35,880 --> 00:13:38,120 Speaker 1: get rich off of the wealth of sarah Wak. He 269 00:13:38,160 --> 00:13:40,000 Speaker 1: wanted to be a big man who had to be 270 00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:42,520 Speaker 1: respected because he was the governor of like he was 271 00:13:42,559 --> 00:13:45,720 Speaker 1: the king basically of an entire country. Right to that end, 272 00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:48,679 Speaker 1: he started sending home excerpts from his diary and inflated 273 00:13:48,720 --> 00:13:51,640 Speaker 1: stories about the rebellion and his campaign's fighting pirates in 274 00:13:51,679 --> 00:13:53,959 Speaker 1: the area. These started to pick up a leadership, in 275 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:55,760 Speaker 1: part because he had an agent back and like he 276 00:13:55,840 --> 00:13:58,160 Speaker 1: has like a like a press agent who he sends 277 00:13:58,160 --> 00:14:00,440 Speaker 1: back his diaries to and who pumped him up in 278 00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:03,120 Speaker 1: the imagination of the local people in England. We'll just 279 00:14:03,160 --> 00:14:05,320 Speaker 1: not done. He started to pick up a readership. But 280 00:14:05,400 --> 00:14:08,560 Speaker 1: James was incensed because, like, while his stories were popular, 281 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:11,800 Speaker 1: the Queen didn't automatically knight him, and he wrote back 282 00:14:11,840 --> 00:14:14,720 Speaker 1: to the British government, who still had not acknowledged his reign, 283 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:19,040 Speaker 1: asking for an eight barrel. So he gets frustrated, like 284 00:14:19,080 --> 00:14:21,320 Speaker 1: he does all the time, this like work to puff 285 00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:23,560 Speaker 1: himself up, and the British Government's like, I don't think 286 00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:25,760 Speaker 1: we should recognize this guy. This seems like this might 287 00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:27,840 Speaker 1: go bad, Like let's let's just let's just kind of 288 00:14:27,920 --> 00:14:30,760 Speaker 1: keep quiet for now. Um. This makes him angry and 289 00:14:30,760 --> 00:14:32,560 Speaker 1: he writes back to Britain being like, you guys have 290 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:35,320 Speaker 1: to support me. I'm doing the right thing in this country. 291 00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:37,720 Speaker 1: I'm trying to civilize them. And by the way, would 292 00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:41,040 Speaker 1: you send me an eight barreled cannon, because I I 293 00:14:41,040 --> 00:14:42,720 Speaker 1: think I'm gonna have to kill more of these people 294 00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:45,840 Speaker 1: to civilize them properly, so I need a beggar gun. 295 00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:50,640 Speaker 1: He's sad he's not immediately knighted, so he's like, can't 296 00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:53,760 Speaker 1: have a cannon? And I have a cannon. Yeah, an 297 00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:56,960 Speaker 1: eight barreled cannon. I mean that makes sense. One barrel 298 00:14:57,040 --> 00:15:03,000 Speaker 1: is not enough to clip Clinton mother. So James's letters 299 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:06,480 Speaker 1: home this period evince a distinct sense of insecurity. After 300 00:15:06,520 --> 00:15:09,240 Speaker 1: taking power, he took actions against pirates, often with the 301 00:15:09,320 --> 00:15:11,880 Speaker 1: late aid of a local British naval captain and his ship, 302 00:15:12,200 --> 00:15:14,600 Speaker 1: but the lack of formal recognition of his own government 303 00:15:14,680 --> 00:15:17,360 Speaker 1: rankled alongside the fact that his status as governor had 304 00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:20,040 Speaker 1: only been confirmed by the words of the Rajah. There 305 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:22,400 Speaker 1: was nothing written by the Sultan of Brunei that made 306 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:26,240 Speaker 1: his position clear. As the new, unchecked ruler of sarah Wak, 307 00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:29,240 Speaker 1: James inherited a number of things, most notably a five 308 00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:32,120 Speaker 1: year old Diak boy named Stu. This kid was a 309 00:15:32,160 --> 00:15:34,240 Speaker 1: prisoner of the war that he had just fought, and 310 00:15:34,280 --> 00:15:36,880 Speaker 1: in his writings, James's care for Settu comes across as 311 00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:41,360 Speaker 1: genuine and frankly somewhat heroic. He wrote, quote, the gift 312 00:15:41,400 --> 00:15:43,680 Speaker 1: causes me vexation because I know not what to do 313 00:15:43,760 --> 00:15:46,000 Speaker 1: with the poor innocent, and yet I shrink from the 314 00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:49,040 Speaker 1: responsibility of adopting him. My first wish is to return 315 00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:51,120 Speaker 1: him to his parents and his tribe, and I find 316 00:15:51,160 --> 00:15:53,000 Speaker 1: I cannot do that, and if I fight, I cannot 317 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:54,800 Speaker 1: do this. I believe it will be better to carry 318 00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:56,720 Speaker 1: him with me than leave him to become a slave 319 00:15:56,760 --> 00:15:59,160 Speaker 1: of a slave, for should I send him back, such 320 00:15:59,160 --> 00:16:02,320 Speaker 1: will probably be his fate. So for a time he 321 00:16:02,440 --> 00:16:05,440 Speaker 1: keeps this five year old boy. Uh. And James later 322 00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:07,760 Speaker 1: wrote that he was able to make Situ content and 323 00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:10,440 Speaker 1: happy um by giving him a bunch of tobacco. So 324 00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:16,360 Speaker 1: that's like his to give him cigarettes. Kids love cigarettes. 325 00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:21,480 Speaker 1: This will make him happy. Um. Now, Brooke did write 326 00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:23,960 Speaker 1: regularly about wanting to find and return this boy to 327 00:16:24,040 --> 00:16:27,360 Speaker 1: his parents, but as Nigel Barley writes, it's not easy 328 00:16:27,400 --> 00:16:30,400 Speaker 1: to tell how honest he was about wanting this quote. 329 00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:33,560 Speaker 1: His relations with Stu are cast in exactly the same 330 00:16:33,960 --> 00:16:36,360 Speaker 1: terms of chest beating morality as his relations with the 331 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:39,040 Speaker 1: whole of poor suffering sarah Wak. He will take in 332 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:41,880 Speaker 1: the devastated orphan province, protect it, train it up, give 333 00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:43,640 Speaker 1: it the means to earn a living, if only as 334 00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:46,479 Speaker 1: a servant, and give it back at self respect, regardless 335 00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:48,920 Speaker 1: of the cost to himself. Above all, he will give 336 00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:51,560 Speaker 1: it love, And the greatest of these is love. No 337 00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:54,040 Speaker 1: wonder then that it becomes a matter of deep concern 338 00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:57,160 Speaker 1: whether Settu and other boys were, as claimed objects of 339 00:16:57,200 --> 00:17:00,840 Speaker 1: selfless love or active lust. To James Brooke, to debauch 340 00:17:00,920 --> 00:17:04,360 Speaker 1: Situ would be to metaphorically debauch innocent sarah Wak. In general, 341 00:17:04,600 --> 00:17:06,600 Speaker 1: he would no longer be the founder and protector of 342 00:17:06,640 --> 00:17:10,360 Speaker 1: a model state, but the abuser of innocent trust Sarawak. Indeed, 343 00:17:10,440 --> 00:17:12,520 Speaker 1: is like a foundling at which you first protect with 344 00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:15,920 Speaker 1: hesitation and doubt, but which foundling afterwards repays you your 345 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:19,119 Speaker 1: cost and your trouble. We will never know whether, as Rasha, 346 00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:22,200 Speaker 1: James boyled daily and the clammy sheets of unrequited lust, 347 00:17:22,440 --> 00:17:26,199 Speaker 1: engaged in a little vague scout masterly fumbling, sublimate a 348 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:29,280 Speaker 1: desire under a stiff rictus of a buncular benevolence, or 349 00:17:29,359 --> 00:17:31,919 Speaker 1: reached a sensible standing arrangement with wondering more of his 350 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:35,080 Speaker 1: young men. So again, we don't know if he was 351 00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:39,080 Speaker 1: sexually abusing this young child or if he was just 352 00:17:39,280 --> 00:17:41,439 Speaker 1: like because of kind of the way things are written, 353 00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:44,240 Speaker 1: it's possible that he was. He was possible that he 354 00:17:44,320 --> 00:17:48,040 Speaker 1: was like engaged in perfectly consensual sexual relationships with other 355 00:17:48,080 --> 00:17:50,760 Speaker 1: adult men and men that were considered adult at the time. 356 00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:54,040 Speaker 1: It's also possible he's abusing this kid. And we don't 357 00:17:54,040 --> 00:17:58,320 Speaker 1: really know which is going on, but Nigel Barley considers 358 00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:00,640 Speaker 1: the idea that he may have been male sting this child. 359 00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:04,320 Speaker 1: It's kind of symbolic of his relationship with Sarah Wak 360 00:18:04,359 --> 00:18:08,600 Speaker 1: in general. So he's both portraying himself as honestly and 361 00:18:08,680 --> 00:18:11,760 Speaker 1: kind of heroically taking this this boy and this province 362 00:18:11,800 --> 00:18:13,680 Speaker 1: under his wing, trying to help it, trying to raise 363 00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:17,000 Speaker 1: it up, and the possible reality lurking under the surfaces 364 00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:19,240 Speaker 1: that he's abusing both of them like that that might 365 00:18:19,280 --> 00:18:21,960 Speaker 1: be what's happening. It's definitely what's happening with Sarah walk 366 00:18:22,040 --> 00:18:23,360 Speaker 1: We don't know if it's what's happening with the boy 367 00:18:23,440 --> 00:18:25,000 Speaker 1: or not, but it's kind of hard I get why 368 00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:27,959 Speaker 1: Barley kind of draws a comparison between the two. Yeah, 369 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:32,280 Speaker 1: that's tough. I mean, actually, this guy in general is 370 00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:35,840 Speaker 1: not the most bastardly bastard you've covered. It's not so 371 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:37,960 Speaker 1: I kind of want to give him the benefit of 372 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:40,760 Speaker 1: the doubt. But I don't feel like that's the smart 373 00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:43,680 Speaker 1: play I feel. I don't think it is something very bad, 374 00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:46,480 Speaker 1: and it may not have been with Situ. It may 375 00:18:46,520 --> 00:18:50,440 Speaker 1: have been that his sexual relationships were all with people. 376 00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:53,720 Speaker 1: We would call it pedophilia still, but fifteen year olds 377 00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:55,800 Speaker 1: are kind of legally adults at this point, right, which 378 00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:58,040 Speaker 1: I'm not saying makes it right, But if they like 379 00:18:58,200 --> 00:19:01,640 Speaker 1: it's they're like lieutenants the military and stuff. That might 380 00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:04,159 Speaker 1: be what he can find. We don't really know. Or 381 00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:06,120 Speaker 1: he may have been molesting this five year old boy. 382 00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:09,159 Speaker 1: We don't know. I do like the phrase vague scout, 383 00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:19,040 Speaker 1: masterly fumboy. Yeah. So, as ruler, James took responsibility for 384 00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:21,679 Speaker 1: enforcing the law on himself. He had a house constructed 385 00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:24,000 Speaker 1: to his own specifications, and he used it as both 386 00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:26,320 Speaker 1: his home and the only law court in sarah Wak. 387 00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:29,199 Speaker 1: His subjects would attend mainly to gamble on the results 388 00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:32,119 Speaker 1: of the proceedings. A fact James seemed largely unaware of. 389 00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:35,000 Speaker 1: So like he starts he becomes like I am the law, 390 00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:37,960 Speaker 1: I'll rule on all cases, and like an industry, starts 391 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:40,480 Speaker 1: up gambling on how he's going to decide. Is it 392 00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:44,000 Speaker 1: because he's just so haphazard that like, yeah, because I 393 00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:46,359 Speaker 1: imagine if he really was a good ruler, there wouldn't 394 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:49,640 Speaker 1: be much, you know, much don't much gambling in there. 395 00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:51,520 Speaker 1: If if he was a good ruler, there might be 396 00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:57,880 Speaker 1: actual professional judges. James also attempted to broke your peace 397 00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:00,000 Speaker 1: with the local pirates. To this end, he held us 398 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:02,320 Speaker 1: summit with several of their leaders. He seems to have 399 00:20:02,359 --> 00:20:04,920 Speaker 1: fallen in love with them, describing one pirate chief as 400 00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:07,120 Speaker 1: as fine a young man as the eye would really 401 00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:10,920 Speaker 1: wish to rest upon, straight elegantly, let's yet strongly made, 402 00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:12,280 Speaker 1: with a chest in a neck and a head and 403 00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:15,680 Speaker 1: set upon them which might serve Apollo legs far better 404 00:20:15,720 --> 00:20:19,000 Speaker 1: than that of his belvidere, and a countenance mild and intelligence. 405 00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:23,479 Speaker 1: He meets with these pirates because there's a pirate problem 406 00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:26,479 Speaker 1: in his domain, and he's just like his thirsty as 407 00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:29,679 Speaker 1: buck over these young great I don't know everyone's complaining 408 00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:38,399 Speaker 1: about these guys are snacks, what's going on there? He 409 00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:41,200 Speaker 1: writes repeatedly about the fact that these young pirate kings 410 00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:45,920 Speaker 1: didn't cover their thighs or their torsos, which again profoundly thirsty. 411 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:49,600 Speaker 1: The pirates realized that the white Rajah was kind of 412 00:20:49,640 --> 00:20:52,080 Speaker 1: hot for them, and they tried to use his attraction 413 00:20:52,119 --> 00:20:54,320 Speaker 1: to them to push him to allow them to go 414 00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:57,960 Speaker 1: head hunting in his domain. Brooks own writings relate to 415 00:20:58,080 --> 00:21:00,399 Speaker 1: how one of these conversations went between him and a 416 00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:04,959 Speaker 1: sexy young pirate named Matari. Quote, and this is Matari speaking, 417 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:07,159 Speaker 1: You will give me, your friend leave to steal a 418 00:21:07,160 --> 00:21:10,520 Speaker 1: few heads occasionally, No, I replied, you cannot take a 419 00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:12,840 Speaker 1: single head, you cannot enter the country. And if you 420 00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:15,639 Speaker 1: were your countrymen, do I have a hundred scrying, I 421 00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:17,280 Speaker 1: will have a hundred scring that's the name of these 422 00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:20,399 Speaker 1: pirate people heads for everyone you take here. He recurred 423 00:21:20,440 --> 00:21:23,000 Speaker 1: to this request several times, just to steal one or 424 00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:28,879 Speaker 1: two as a schoolboy asks for apples. That's how James 425 00:21:28,880 --> 00:21:31,879 Speaker 1: describes as pirate asking to the head people. At what 426 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:34,240 Speaker 1: point do you think like his mother was reading these 427 00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:37,760 Speaker 1: letters and was like, he's really focusing on the thighs 428 00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:43,080 Speaker 1: of pirates. I mean, I'm not gonna get grandkids, Yeah, 429 00:21:43,119 --> 00:21:45,160 Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think I'm gonna have grandkids out 430 00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:50,000 Speaker 1: of this one. Talking a lot about the thighs of 431 00:21:50,040 --> 00:21:55,480 Speaker 1: these sexy pirate boys. Paragraphs on his quads. Something's really 432 00:21:55,520 --> 00:22:01,920 Speaker 1: a quad man definitely a quad man. Um. And this 433 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:03,960 Speaker 1: is part of why I think it might be less 434 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:06,160 Speaker 1: likely that he was molesting that little kid, because most 435 00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:09,479 Speaker 1: of his obsession is with like his he. I mean, 436 00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:12,520 Speaker 1: there's a lot of them are teenagers, but older teenagers. 437 00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:15,399 Speaker 1: I don't know, you can decide how you what, like 438 00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:18,840 Speaker 1: what you think about James Brooke. Clearly something sketchy is 439 00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:23,320 Speaker 1: going on. Um, just because a lot of these relationships 440 00:22:23,359 --> 00:22:25,560 Speaker 1: are there's a huge power in balance. Like outside of 441 00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:28,160 Speaker 1: the fact that some of these people are teenagers, he's 442 00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:31,520 Speaker 1: also like now the governor king of the province and 443 00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:34,600 Speaker 1: not just a bunch of these young local teenagers. But 444 00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:37,560 Speaker 1: later on he starts bringing in young young British boys 445 00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:41,440 Speaker 1: who are legally again legally adults, but are also he's 446 00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:43,560 Speaker 1: taking like these fifteen and sixteen year olds into the 447 00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:48,080 Speaker 1: country and like giving them positions and highly problematic problematic, 448 00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:53,200 Speaker 1: you would say, yeah, but you know who won't try 449 00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:57,520 Speaker 1: to molest young pirate chieftains. I really don't like where 450 00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:00,359 Speaker 1: you're going here, but continue the products and services that 451 00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:04,680 Speaker 1: support this podcast. I did not like that one. Well 452 00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:09,639 Speaker 1: they won't, Sophie. Yeah, I think we can safely say 453 00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:13,760 Speaker 1: that Audible has never thirsted angrily over a pirate attempting 454 00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:18,040 Speaker 1: to take heads in their domain. Never doubt Bezos, man, 455 00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:21,800 Speaker 1: I you are right, No, I don't know. We know 456 00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:25,159 Speaker 1: what Jeff. We've seen Jeff Bezos's sects. We know what 457 00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:31,760 Speaker 1: he's into, and it's weirder than liking a pirate kings squads. Yeah, 458 00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:34,800 Speaker 1: have you not run into this? Oh my god, Google 459 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:37,159 Speaker 1: Jeff and all you at home who don't know what 460 00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:42,359 Speaker 1: I'm talking about. Google Jeff Bezos alive girl? Oh boy, yeah, 461 00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:45,679 Speaker 1: go go check into that. Will you listen to these ads? 462 00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:55,160 Speaker 1: We're back talking about talking about James brook By eighty three, 463 00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:57,720 Speaker 1: it had become clear that negotiation was not going to 464 00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:00,920 Speaker 1: bring a conclusion to Sarah Wak's piracy pro them. James 465 00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:03,040 Speaker 1: Brooke decided he had no choice but to go to war. 466 00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:06,360 Speaker 1: Lucky for him, an East India Company warship that Diana 467 00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:08,920 Speaker 1: had just sailed into the area at the time. Again, 468 00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:11,560 Speaker 1: this is like the second one of these coincidences that happens. 469 00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:14,800 Speaker 1: James had attempted to enlist the company's warships in his 470 00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:18,400 Speaker 1: military campaigns before, with mixed success. But the captain this 471 00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:20,800 Speaker 1: time was a fellow named Henry Keppel, who was a 472 00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:23,520 Speaker 1: very similar sort of person like James, he had been 473 00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:26,719 Speaker 1: raised on a steady diet of imperialist popular fiction, and 474 00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:30,040 Speaker 1: he too dreamed of fighting pirates in the Far East. Now, 475 00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:32,480 Speaker 1: Keppel's actual job in the area was to fight against 476 00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:35,640 Speaker 1: a group of raiders who are harassing company shipping nearby. 477 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:38,399 Speaker 1: He was not there to travel around the waters in 478 00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:41,480 Speaker 1: Sarawak and fight pirates. But James made a series of 479 00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:44,800 Speaker 1: very effective arguments. First, he pointed out that since water 480 00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:50,040 Speaker 1: was the primary means of transport around uh Borneo, any 481 00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:53,800 Speaker 1: criminals who were sailing on the water were by definition pirates. 482 00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:56,320 Speaker 1: So if the company had been sent here to fight 483 00:24:56,440 --> 00:24:59,680 Speaker 1: raiders who were using waters nearby, pirates are the same 484 00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:02,560 Speaker 1: thing as raiders. That means that your job is also 485 00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:04,760 Speaker 1: to fight the pirates and sarah Wak you could justify 486 00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:07,639 Speaker 1: it this way. Now, he also pointed out that it 487 00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:10,200 Speaker 1: would be profitable for the company because at the time 488 00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:13,239 Speaker 1: the British Parliament offered generous bounties to officers and men 489 00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:16,560 Speaker 1: who killed or captured pirates. This law was a holdover 490 00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:19,000 Speaker 1: from the eighteen twenties, when the British government had declared 491 00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:22,439 Speaker 1: a crusade against slavery and human trafficking. Pirates were a 492 00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:24,960 Speaker 1: big part of the slave trade, and by monetizing the 493 00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:28,800 Speaker 1: murder of pirates, Parliament created an underground economy based around 494 00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:32,320 Speaker 1: liberating slaves. Now, of course, those freed slaves were left 495 00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:36,280 Speaker 1: destitute without any kind of restitation, restitution or compensation UM 496 00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:38,719 Speaker 1: and the people who killed the pirates got rich. So 497 00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:41,680 Speaker 1: it was again kind of a fucked up situation, but hey, 498 00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:44,359 Speaker 1: what are you gonna do? So James Brooke basically argued 499 00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:46,880 Speaker 1: that the the raiders Kepple had been tasked to fight 500 00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:50,000 Speaker 1: by the company UM and the rebels and pirates threatening 501 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:52,600 Speaker 1: James's rule in sarah Wak were one and the same. 502 00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:55,680 Speaker 1: And again James frames, all of this is fighting pirates. 503 00:25:55,800 --> 00:25:58,120 Speaker 1: Some of them are actual pirates, some of them are 504 00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:00,720 Speaker 1: rebels who were fighting for other Brunei and princes in 505 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:02,399 Speaker 1: the area, Like He just kind of lumps them all 506 00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:04,920 Speaker 1: because they're all on boats. They're all pirates to him, 507 00:26:05,119 --> 00:26:07,439 Speaker 1: even though some of them are political dissidents who were 508 00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:12,720 Speaker 1: fighting against his regime. For you could argue justified reasons. Um. 509 00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:14,719 Speaker 1: He also points out to Keppel that if the company 510 00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:17,960 Speaker 1: lets these pirate havens and sarah Wak exist, the rating 511 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,280 Speaker 1: of company ships will continue. Eventually, he had made like 512 00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:25,080 Speaker 1: a good enough argument that this guy Keppel was like, yeah, okay, 513 00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:27,480 Speaker 1: I'll come fight pirates with you. And this gives James 514 00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:30,720 Speaker 1: Brook access to an army of Company soldiers, one he 515 00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:34,480 Speaker 1: would repeatedly used to butcher pirates and rebels. Now, best 516 00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:37,080 Speaker 1: of all, the company helped him avoid maintaining a standing 517 00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:39,919 Speaker 1: army or navy. This was very fortunate too, because it 518 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:43,000 Speaker 1: let him save money. Sarah Wak didn't have a formal 519 00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:46,320 Speaker 1: military force. He would occasionally like raise up militaries. But 520 00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:49,479 Speaker 1: that ship's expensive. If the company's coming in and fighting 521 00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:51,679 Speaker 1: pirates on his behalf, and they're being paid by the 522 00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,959 Speaker 1: British government, and he's maybe being able to argue these 523 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:58,399 Speaker 1: political dissidents are pirates, that means the British government is 524 00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:01,720 Speaker 1: paying for the army. That's helping him cement his rule. Right, 525 00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:04,440 Speaker 1: that kind of makes sense what he's doing here. So 526 00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:07,600 Speaker 1: after working out this arrangement, James Brooke had the Company 527 00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:09,520 Speaker 1: land men at his capital, where he was able to 528 00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:11,119 Speaker 1: show them off to his people as a sort of 529 00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:14,720 Speaker 1: veiled threat. Now in actuality, the Company soldiers spent more 530 00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:17,400 Speaker 1: time traveling around Brooks new domain and showing off their 531 00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:20,920 Speaker 1: guns than they did actually fighting. There were several encounters 532 00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:23,440 Speaker 1: with pirates, but since any locals and boats who had 533 00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:26,200 Speaker 1: weapons were to find as pirates, we don't know if most, 534 00:27:26,320 --> 00:27:28,760 Speaker 1: or even any of the people killed by Company soldiers 535 00:27:28,800 --> 00:27:32,280 Speaker 1: in this period were pirates. The violence quickly escalated, though 536 00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:35,360 Speaker 1: largely because Brooke wanted it to escalate. Though their initial 537 00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:38,160 Speaker 1: raids had led to a marked drop in pirate activity, 538 00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:41,280 Speaker 1: Brooke had Pence, Prince Bodredine, and other local leaders sent 539 00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:44,000 Speaker 1: him letters begging for British help with the pirate menace. 540 00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:47,439 Speaker 1: This paper trail helped brook And and Kepple justify their 541 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:50,360 Speaker 1: escalating use of force. Soon he had gathered a force 542 00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:53,000 Speaker 1: of more than a thousand local troops and Company soldiers. 543 00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:56,080 Speaker 1: He marched them deep into the jungle, burning villages as 544 00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:59,040 Speaker 1: they went. What had started as an anti pirate campaign 545 00:27:59,119 --> 00:28:02,640 Speaker 1: quickly became something akin to a light ethnic cleansing. James 546 00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:04,960 Speaker 1: promised his local Malay fighters the right to loot the 547 00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:07,760 Speaker 1: villages of their enemies. He promised his diet soldiers the 548 00:28:07,880 --> 00:28:09,960 Speaker 1: right right the right to take heads, which they stole 549 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:12,800 Speaker 1: both from corpses of the slain and from ransacked graves. 550 00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:15,320 Speaker 1: We'll never know how many people were killed in this 551 00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:19,040 Speaker 1: anti pirate crusade, or how many of them were actually pirates, 552 00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:21,920 Speaker 1: but it did serve to kind of wipe out any 553 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:24,640 Speaker 1: resistance to him, because, among other things, first he's killing 554 00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:26,159 Speaker 1: a bunch of the people who don't want him to 555 00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:29,800 Speaker 1: be Raja. And second, everyone who might resist him sees, oh, 556 00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:33,040 Speaker 1: this guy can command a company military anytime he wants. 557 00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:35,520 Speaker 1: I don't want to fight funk with that. I guess 558 00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:37,920 Speaker 1: I'm a little surprised that he even needed a paper trail. 559 00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:40,840 Speaker 1: I feel like no one would care if he did 560 00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:44,760 Speaker 1: it from the you know, the English side. That's actually 561 00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:46,360 Speaker 1: not true, And this is one of the things that 562 00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:49,680 Speaker 1: I think when we talk about anti imperialism is not 563 00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:53,000 Speaker 1: mentioned enough. It's often kind of I think people tend 564 00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:55,080 Speaker 1: to think like everyone in England was okay with this 565 00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:57,640 Speaker 1: sort of stuff. They were not a lot of people 566 00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:00,760 Speaker 1: recognized at the time how immoral this was, um, how 567 00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:02,520 Speaker 1: fucked up all of it was. And there was there 568 00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:05,720 Speaker 1: were even within Parliament there was a significant anti imperial 569 00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:08,440 Speaker 1: parliamentary faction and we'll talk about that later. Here he 570 00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:10,840 Speaker 1: goes on trial for some of this stuff. So there 571 00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:13,080 Speaker 1: was actually a reason for him to make a paper trail, 572 00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:15,720 Speaker 1: and it's because he knows there are people back whom 573 00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:19,040 Speaker 1: we don't support of the imperialism happening. Yeah, this is 574 00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:21,000 Speaker 1: it's a little reassuring. Actually, that makes me feel a 575 00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:25,520 Speaker 1: little bit better. It's this and they're never successful. Really. 576 00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:27,640 Speaker 1: It's the same thing with like when we talked about 577 00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:31,320 Speaker 1: King Leopold in Belgium, right, there was an anti imperial 578 00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:34,040 Speaker 1: movement that four years was fighting against what he was doing. 579 00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:37,200 Speaker 1: They didn't succeed in stopping the genocide until it had 580 00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:40,160 Speaker 1: killed thirteen million people. But I think it is important 581 00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:42,160 Speaker 1: to note that they exist in part because it means 582 00:29:42,320 --> 00:29:44,360 Speaker 1: this is not a everyone at the time thought it 583 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:46,720 Speaker 1: was fine. No, a lot of a lot of elected 584 00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:48,560 Speaker 1: leaders in England at the time, we're like, it's bad 585 00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:52,880 Speaker 1: what we're doing, right, we're committing crimes against humanity. We 586 00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:56,600 Speaker 1: ought to stop um and that's important. It's the same 587 00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:59,280 Speaker 1: thing as like there were Founding fathers who were abolitionists 588 00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:02,400 Speaker 1: and record nice that slavery was a tremendous evil, and 589 00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:05,840 Speaker 1: unlike Thomas Jefferson didn't own slaves while talking about slavery, 590 00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:08,600 Speaker 1: as guys like Thomas Paine, and I think you you 591 00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,040 Speaker 1: need to highlight those folks because it makes it clear 592 00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:15,760 Speaker 1: how immoral everyone else was. Yeah, good to know, good 593 00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:18,480 Speaker 1: to know. So after this quick brutal little war, Kepple 594 00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:21,520 Speaker 1: sailed on Um and another company vessel entered into the 595 00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:24,959 Speaker 1: area soon after his departure, and in a very another 596 00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:29,720 Speaker 1: wildly lucky like strike for Um, uh for James Brooke, 597 00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:33,120 Speaker 1: this next company ship that sails into Sarah Wax strikes 598 00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:36,280 Speaker 1: a rock and capsizes. Now the crew and captain are 599 00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:38,720 Speaker 1: rescued and James gets to take them into his care 600 00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:41,720 Speaker 1: in his capital while he waits for company reinforcements. And 601 00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:44,240 Speaker 1: the company sends an entire fleet of ships to pick 602 00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:47,280 Speaker 1: up these guys. And this is really lucky for James 603 00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:50,520 Speaker 1: because for all of the locals know for massive warships 604 00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:53,480 Speaker 1: sail into Borneo and as far as they know he 605 00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:56,040 Speaker 1: has some power over these ships. They're not like he 606 00:30:56,080 --> 00:30:58,120 Speaker 1: doesn't make it clear to his the locals, like they're 607 00:30:58,160 --> 00:30:59,760 Speaker 1: just here to pick up a crew of a boat. 608 00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:02,480 Speaker 1: That's something like. It looks like, oh look, now there's 609 00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:05,240 Speaker 1: a whole fleet of military ships at his beck and call. 610 00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:09,320 Speaker 1: So James takes advantage of the opportunity and he convinces 611 00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:12,760 Speaker 1: all of these company warships to sail with him to Brunei, 612 00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:15,360 Speaker 1: which is the capital of the region where the Sultan lives. 613 00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:18,160 Speaker 1: And he goes ashore to meet again with the Sultan 614 00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:21,480 Speaker 1: and asked him for an official declaration confirming his appointment 615 00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:24,920 Speaker 1: as governor of sarah Wak and now granting him the 616 00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:27,680 Speaker 1: powers of governor. Uh, not just to him, but to 617 00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:32,120 Speaker 1: his peirs, his heirs on into perpetuity. Right. So this 618 00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:35,760 Speaker 1: declaration also guaranteed in writing that the Sultan could not 619 00:31:35,840 --> 00:31:38,760 Speaker 1: dismiss him from his throne for any reason. This is 620 00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:41,600 Speaker 1: a bad deal for the Sultan, But the Sultan signs. 621 00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:44,560 Speaker 1: When I guess why he signs because there's massive warships 622 00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:47,680 Speaker 1: pointing in the capital. Yeah, and he literally James has 623 00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:51,440 Speaker 1: these four warships trained dozens of cannons on the Sultan's home. 624 00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:56,440 Speaker 1: It is not settled. This guy like, well, he's presented 625 00:31:56,480 --> 00:31:58,520 Speaker 1: with this offer and he looks out of his window 626 00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:02,320 Speaker 1: and there are dozens of massive artillery guns pointed at 627 00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:06,320 Speaker 1: his house. Yeah, sultan had Nope, there you go again, 628 00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:08,600 Speaker 1: blitzing and every play this is this is by this 629 00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:11,440 Speaker 1: time it's working. Yeah, I am not again. The Sultan 630 00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:13,920 Speaker 1: is a bad person too, as pretty much all sultans 631 00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:17,440 Speaker 1: in history have been. But you can't consent when someone's 632 00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:19,920 Speaker 1: pointing dozens of cannons at your home. I think it's 633 00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:25,400 Speaker 1: fair to say that is not like free consent, you know. Um, 634 00:32:25,760 --> 00:32:28,520 Speaker 1: this is basically armed robbery. That's how he gets Sarah walks. 635 00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:33,960 Speaker 1: This is a mugging, you know. Yeah, yeah, very fortunate. 636 00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:39,720 Speaker 1: Um yeah, so uh the Sultan signs this declaration, um 637 00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:43,400 Speaker 1: and yeah. One historian Stephen Luscomb states that Brooke quote 638 00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:46,000 Speaker 1: gave the distinct impression that he could seize the entire 639 00:32:46,120 --> 00:32:48,720 Speaker 1: kingdom for himself if he was so disposed to do so, 640 00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:52,000 Speaker 1: and that's why the Sultan like gives him Sarah wak 641 00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:56,760 Speaker 1: basically so most people. Again, we had talked about there's 642 00:32:56,800 --> 00:32:58,920 Speaker 1: resistance to this, there's people who who see what James 643 00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:01,160 Speaker 1: is doing is immoral. It is also important to note 644 00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:03,200 Speaker 1: most people back in England see him as a hero 645 00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:05,960 Speaker 1: for this right he like. He's continuing to send his 646 00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:08,480 Speaker 1: diaries and dispatches back, his agent is putting them into 647 00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:11,800 Speaker 1: the popular press, and he becomes wildly popular for what 648 00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:15,320 Speaker 1: he's done, and most people credulously accept his version of 649 00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:18,320 Speaker 1: events that the people of sarah Wak had basically demanded 650 00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:21,480 Speaker 1: he take rules and uses enlightened white wisdom to fix 651 00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:25,280 Speaker 1: their country. And for the next several years, Brooks settled 652 00:33:25,280 --> 00:33:28,480 Speaker 1: into a pattern engaging in intermittent battle with local princes. 653 00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:31,080 Speaker 1: He always described them as pirates, but their local leaders 654 00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:34,120 Speaker 1: who don't like his him being in charge. Right again, 655 00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:37,360 Speaker 1: these antipo He does also fight pirates, but a lot 656 00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:40,040 Speaker 1: of the people he calls pirates are just local leaders 657 00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:44,040 Speaker 1: that don't want him to be in charge. Yeah, um yeah. 658 00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:46,400 Speaker 1: The East India Company took his words at face value. 659 00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:48,480 Speaker 1: Whenever he said someone was a pirate, they assumed he 660 00:33:48,560 --> 00:33:51,160 Speaker 1: was telling the truth. Uh. In eighteen forty four, they 661 00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:54,000 Speaker 1: helped him depose a local Bruneian prince and annexed that 662 00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:58,120 Speaker 1: prince's former territory so the the agreement he'd signed with 663 00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:00,360 Speaker 1: the Sultan had included a promise that he would not 664 00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:02,840 Speaker 1: act outside the borders of sarah Wak. And like a 665 00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:05,280 Speaker 1: year later he conquers a bunch of land outside of 666 00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:07,880 Speaker 1: Sarah Walk and annexes him. Because he doesn't like he 667 00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:09,840 Speaker 1: doesn't feel like he has to actually abide by this. 668 00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:14,480 Speaker 1: He sees this this agreement as like limiting the Sultan's power, 669 00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:16,960 Speaker 1: but he doesn't see any of the limitations he agreed 670 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:19,960 Speaker 1: to his binding in any way. Um Now, whenever he 671 00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:21,839 Speaker 1: would conquer that he does it a few times where 672 00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:24,279 Speaker 1: he'll fight a war against some local leader, calling them 673 00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:27,160 Speaker 1: a pirate. He'll conquer their land, and in order to 674 00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:29,719 Speaker 1: make it seem legitimate, he'll arrange what he calls a 675 00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:32,239 Speaker 1: conference where local leaders will come out in view of 676 00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:35,279 Speaker 1: company representatives. So he has witnesses who are white and 677 00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:38,600 Speaker 1: ask him to take control of the territory. His friend, 678 00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:42,480 Speaker 1: it's a whole show, it's a whole thing. Yeah, he 679 00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:45,040 Speaker 1: knows what he's doing, and his friend, Captain Keppel, wrote 680 00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:47,840 Speaker 1: about one such encounter. On this occasion, I had the 681 00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:50,400 Speaker 1: satisfaction of witnessing what must have been from the effect 682 00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:52,520 Speaker 1: I observed it to have produced on the hearers a 683 00:34:52,600 --> 00:34:55,560 Speaker 1: splendid piece of oratory delivered by Mr Brooke in the 684 00:34:55,640 --> 00:34:57,759 Speaker 1: native tongue with a degree of fluency I had never 685 00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:01,000 Speaker 1: witnessed before, even in a Malay. Again, he's saying, oh, 686 00:35:01,239 --> 00:35:04,879 Speaker 1: he speaks better than the natives. That's what this guy, 687 00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:09,480 Speaker 1: who doesn't speak the local language thinks. He hears this 688 00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:11,879 Speaker 1: guy saying words he doesn't understand. Was like, this guy 689 00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:13,880 Speaker 1: is better at speaking their language than they are. Of 690 00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:17,280 Speaker 1: course I don't speak their language. But was he actually 691 00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:19,720 Speaker 1: was there any evidence that he actually spoke the language 692 00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:21,400 Speaker 1: or was this just like I think he did. I mean, 693 00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:23,919 Speaker 1: he ruled the country, who lived there for most he should. 694 00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:26,680 Speaker 1: I believe he didn't gain a fluency, but I don't 695 00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,719 Speaker 1: know if it's more fluent like neither and neither does 696 00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:32,279 Speaker 1: this guy right, because he doesn't know that it's a 697 00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:34,719 Speaker 1: splendid piece of oratory. He says that he thinks it 698 00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:36,879 Speaker 1: is because of the effect it has on the people hearing, 699 00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:40,920 Speaker 1: but he doesn't know what they're saying. It's just this 700 00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:43,480 Speaker 1: is like this this guy is Captain Keppel's speech here 701 00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:47,319 Speaker 1: is like unbel like the peakest white man ever of like, well, 702 00:35:47,480 --> 00:35:49,799 Speaker 1: he I can tell by the way they're reacting that 703 00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:52,120 Speaker 1: he must be better at speaking their language than they are. 704 00:35:53,280 --> 00:35:59,280 Speaker 1: It's amazing um from these people. Many assurances were received 705 00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:01,719 Speaker 1: of their anxiety and willingness to cooperate with us and 706 00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:05,040 Speaker 1: our laudable undertaking, and one and all where like urgent 707 00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:07,440 Speaker 1: that the government of their river should be transferred to 708 00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:11,400 Speaker 1: the English. So again he doesn't speak the language, but 709 00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:13,680 Speaker 1: he assumes like, oh, they all really are, they are 710 00:36:13,719 --> 00:36:16,160 Speaker 1: all on lockstep that we should take over this area. 711 00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:20,200 Speaker 1: How can we not They all clearly assume I'm being 712 00:36:20,239 --> 00:36:22,120 Speaker 1: told by other white men that this is what they're 713 00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:28,600 Speaker 1: saying to speak a little bit of another a little bit. 714 00:36:28,680 --> 00:36:30,279 Speaker 1: This is all you need is a little bit, a 715 00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:34,279 Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah. Now. In this manner, James Brooke was 716 00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:36,839 Speaker 1: able to portray his gradual conquest of more and more 717 00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:40,360 Speaker 1: Bruneian territory is entirely legal, and not just legal, but 718 00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:43,919 Speaker 1: driven by the demand of the locals. In eighteen forty five, 719 00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:47,000 Speaker 1: James executed a plan that, if successful, would have given 720 00:36:47,080 --> 00:36:50,200 Speaker 1: him command of the Sultan of Brunei himself. He started 721 00:36:50,239 --> 00:36:52,799 Speaker 1: by sending Prince Hashim away from sarah Wak and back 722 00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:56,000 Speaker 1: to the capital along with his beloved Prince Badrudine. The 723 00:36:56,080 --> 00:36:58,880 Speaker 1: idea was that Badrudine would keep an eye on Hashim 724 00:36:58,920 --> 00:37:00,520 Speaker 1: and that they would back each other her up because 725 00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:03,040 Speaker 1: Hashim was now second in lyne to the throne of 726 00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:06,280 Speaker 1: Brunei and the Sultan was an old man, so basically 727 00:37:06,719 --> 00:37:09,359 Speaker 1: he was his men in the capital. So that when 728 00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:12,200 Speaker 1: the Sultan diet, Hashim can take power and James can 729 00:37:12,239 --> 00:37:14,240 Speaker 1: kind of carry out a soft coup because he sees 730 00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:17,319 Speaker 1: Hashim and bad Rudin is basically they'll do anything I say. 731 00:37:17,360 --> 00:37:19,000 Speaker 1: So if I can put this guy on the throne 732 00:37:19,040 --> 00:37:21,360 Speaker 1: and this guy next to him, all be in control 733 00:37:21,360 --> 00:37:23,839 Speaker 1: of all of Malaysia basically, like that's it or all 734 00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:25,880 Speaker 1: of at this point it's brune I. But that's his 735 00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:28,880 Speaker 1: plan here, and this also would have been legal, right 736 00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:31,520 Speaker 1: because Hashim is the legal heir. So if I can 737 00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:33,640 Speaker 1: get this guy on the throne who will do everything 738 00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:36,400 Speaker 1: I say, I'll be I'll be writing pretty you know. 739 00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:39,160 Speaker 1: That's his that's his idea. I should note here that 740 00:37:39,239 --> 00:37:42,240 Speaker 1: James sending bad Rudine away was practical because he trusted 741 00:37:42,239 --> 00:37:43,920 Speaker 1: the prince and he wanted him to help him, like 742 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:46,719 Speaker 1: take over this country. But it also fit part of 743 00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:48,799 Speaker 1: a pattern that Brooke had with the young men he 744 00:37:48,880 --> 00:37:51,720 Speaker 1: fell in love with. The Brook The book White Braja 745 00:37:51,800 --> 00:37:55,279 Speaker 1: describes this pattern quote the flattering attention, the seeking out 746 00:37:55,280 --> 00:37:58,000 Speaker 1: of the company of the new young find, the selfless, 747 00:37:58,040 --> 00:38:01,880 Speaker 1: selfless bestowal of patronage, a concern with his education and development, 748 00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:04,840 Speaker 1: the breathy descriptions of his qualities and letters to others, 749 00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:08,319 Speaker 1: and usually finally, the emotional retirement of the loved one 750 00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:11,000 Speaker 1: to become a sarah Wak official. So this is kind 751 00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:13,600 Speaker 1: of his pattern that when he gets over a crush, 752 00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:16,839 Speaker 1: he sends them off to like control, some to take 753 00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:20,440 Speaker 1: up a little would with them, and then he sends 754 00:38:20,480 --> 00:38:23,839 Speaker 1: them off. Yeah, and several of these guys die doing 755 00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:27,200 Speaker 1: the jobs he gives them after he sends them off. Spoilers. 756 00:38:27,719 --> 00:38:30,200 Speaker 1: But before we get into that, you know who never 757 00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:35,400 Speaker 1: sends off their former lovers to die in Malaysia the 758 00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:43,319 Speaker 1: products or services that support this podcast. All right, we 759 00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:45,920 Speaker 1: are we are in fact back. So unfortunately for Prince 760 00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:48,720 Speaker 1: Badru Deine, playing a part in the scheme of James 761 00:38:48,719 --> 00:38:51,400 Speaker 1: Brooke to take power would cost him his life. The 762 00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:54,000 Speaker 1: Sultan of Brunei was not a dumb man, and he 763 00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:56,840 Speaker 1: was fully sick of English adventurers taking over larger and 764 00:38:56,920 --> 00:39:00,000 Speaker 1: larger portions of his territory. He was also quite understand 765 00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:02,719 Speaker 1: Annibalie still erked about the time Brooke aimed dozens of 766 00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:06,239 Speaker 1: cannons at his house, so he started to plot alongside 767 00:39:06,239 --> 00:39:08,880 Speaker 1: one of his younger sons about how to rid themselves 768 00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:12,000 Speaker 1: of the Brook supporters in their own court, Princess Hashim 769 00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:16,040 Speaker 1: and Bodredine. Now they did this in the bloodiest way possible. 770 00:39:16,400 --> 00:39:18,759 Speaker 1: One night, when Boderdine and Hashim were apart from each 771 00:39:18,800 --> 00:39:21,880 Speaker 1: other in their own separate apartments, the sultan dispatched several 772 00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:25,600 Speaker 1: bands of armed men who attacked both brothers simultaneously. Now, 773 00:39:25,719 --> 00:39:28,520 Speaker 1: Buderdine was a fucking badass. And this guy like he's 774 00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:31,560 Speaker 1: got like four different retainers slash bodyguards with him, and 775 00:39:31,600 --> 00:39:34,000 Speaker 1: they get attacked by like fifty men and all of 776 00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:36,280 Speaker 1: his friends get killed, and bad Renine is like fighting 777 00:39:36,440 --> 00:39:39,360 Speaker 1: standing in his doorway with a dagger alone, stabs a 778 00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:41,520 Speaker 1: bunch of people, fights them off for quite a while 779 00:39:41,840 --> 00:39:43,680 Speaker 1: until one of them shoots him in the hand and 780 00:39:43,719 --> 00:39:46,719 Speaker 1: he has to flee and retreat um and he like 781 00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:49,799 Speaker 1: runs back into his inner apartments and locks himself in 782 00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:54,919 Speaker 1: with his um, his sister, and his favorite concubine UM 783 00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:57,640 Speaker 1: and a favorite slave boy UM and they're all kind 784 00:39:57,640 --> 00:40:01,399 Speaker 1: of sheltering together from this attack, and bodreu Deine tells 785 00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:03,320 Speaker 1: the slave boy to go run down and grab a 786 00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:05,960 Speaker 1: barrel of gunpowder, and he then tells the boy to 787 00:40:06,040 --> 00:40:08,760 Speaker 1: like like save yourself basically, and he gathers his Bodrian 788 00:40:08,840 --> 00:40:11,760 Speaker 1: gathers his sister and his concubine to him. He spreads 789 00:40:11,760 --> 00:40:14,600 Speaker 1: gunpowder around them, and then he blows them all up. 790 00:40:14,719 --> 00:40:17,120 Speaker 1: As these guys are like banging down, he's like suicide 791 00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:21,000 Speaker 1: bombs his house basically. And that's yeah, I mean it's 792 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,000 Speaker 1: a it's a it's a flex like he's a he 793 00:40:23,160 --> 00:40:25,120 Speaker 1: very much goes down as kind of the like and 794 00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:28,719 Speaker 1: I guess, you know, have questionably moral to take your 795 00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:31,760 Speaker 1: your girlfriend and wife or your sister with you whatever, 796 00:40:31,800 --> 00:40:33,560 Speaker 1: but like, right, I don't know if they were so 797 00:40:33,600 --> 00:40:37,319 Speaker 1: into that plan, but it's a storybook death though, right, 798 00:40:37,360 --> 00:40:39,239 Speaker 1: it's like one of those like like he he goes 799 00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:41,719 Speaker 1: out kind of like the way you're supposed to go 800 00:40:41,760 --> 00:40:44,319 Speaker 1: in the legends or whatever, you know, fighting until you're 801 00:40:44,360 --> 00:40:47,359 Speaker 1: two wounded too, and then blowing yourself up with gunpowder. Um. 802 00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:50,000 Speaker 1: Prince Hashim tries to do the same thing, but fox 803 00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:52,279 Speaker 1: up and kills everyone in the room but himself, so 804 00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:54,560 Speaker 1: he has to shoot himself in the head um in 805 00:40:54,640 --> 00:40:56,759 Speaker 1: order to once it becomes clear that he's going to 806 00:40:56,840 --> 00:41:00,080 Speaker 1: be captured. So these guys get killed a lot with 807 00:41:00,120 --> 00:41:02,680 Speaker 1: a couple of other Brook supporters in the capital um, 808 00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:05,680 Speaker 1: and the news eventually reaches Sarah Wak and James Brooke 809 00:41:05,760 --> 00:41:08,239 Speaker 1: is said to have gone nearly insane with grief when 810 00:41:08,239 --> 00:41:11,200 Speaker 1: he realizes what's happened. He writes at the time quote, 811 00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:14,239 Speaker 1: violent passions and sleepless nights are hard to bear. I 812 00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:16,640 Speaker 1: lay no blame on anyone. I look forward as much 813 00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:18,479 Speaker 1: as I can, and backward as little. But I ought 814 00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:20,719 Speaker 1: not and cannot forget my poor friends who lie in 815 00:41:20,719 --> 00:41:23,840 Speaker 1: their bloody graves. Oh how great is my grief and rage. 816 00:41:24,040 --> 00:41:26,120 Speaker 1: But the British government will surely act, And if not, 817 00:41:26,360 --> 00:41:28,279 Speaker 1: then let me remember I am still at war with 818 00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:31,279 Speaker 1: this traitor and murderer. One more determined struggle, one last 819 00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:33,880 Speaker 1: conclusive effort, and if it fail, borneo and all for 820 00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:36,960 Speaker 1: which I have so long earnestly labored must be abandoned. 821 00:41:37,600 --> 00:41:41,160 Speaker 1: It's very dramatic about this um, and he desperately wants 822 00:41:41,160 --> 00:41:44,120 Speaker 1: the British government to intervene and punish the Sultan. But 823 00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:47,000 Speaker 1: the British government this is for them a step too far, 824 00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:50,080 Speaker 1: because again there is a veneer of legality to this. 825 00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:52,080 Speaker 1: And as long as it's like, I want you to 826 00:41:52,120 --> 00:41:54,480 Speaker 1: fight pirates, this guy wants us to fight pirates. He's 827 00:41:54,480 --> 00:41:56,560 Speaker 1: got letters from the local leaders asking us to help 828 00:41:56,600 --> 00:41:59,800 Speaker 1: fight pirates. We have this whole crusade against slaving pirates. 829 00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:02,800 Speaker 1: We can justify that. But when he's like, the Sultan 830 00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:06,440 Speaker 1: has under his legal powers executed two men, I want 831 00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:09,160 Speaker 1: you to murder him, the British government is like, that's 832 00:42:09,200 --> 00:42:12,120 Speaker 1: that's a little bit much for us, right, like where 833 00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:14,719 Speaker 1: you might draw us into a war in Brunei and 834 00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:18,840 Speaker 1: we really don't necessarily want to do that. So it 835 00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:21,279 Speaker 1: takes him about six months of pleading to get the 836 00:42:21,280 --> 00:42:23,080 Speaker 1: British to send a fleet, and they do send a 837 00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:25,480 Speaker 1: fleet eventually, which sails up to the capital and demands 838 00:42:25,640 --> 00:42:28,799 Speaker 1: entrant entrance to talk about what had happened, and in 839 00:42:28,840 --> 00:42:31,239 Speaker 1: a very and another stroke of luck for Brooke, the 840 00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:33,759 Speaker 1: Sultan's men get kind of trigger happy and fire on 841 00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:36,560 Speaker 1: the British fleet, which gives them the legal justification to 842 00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:41,040 Speaker 1: burn down all of the defenses and sail into Brunei. 843 00:42:41,160 --> 00:42:44,080 Speaker 1: So the Sultan flees during the fighting, and the British 844 00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:46,719 Speaker 1: are able to put a puppet, Hashim's brother Mohammed, on 845 00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:49,360 Speaker 1: the throne, and this is the start of the of 846 00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:52,480 Speaker 1: Brunei becoming a protectorate of the British Empire. Right. That's 847 00:42:52,480 --> 00:42:55,520 Speaker 1: how this happens is because there's this failed coup that 848 00:42:55,560 --> 00:42:58,440 Speaker 1: the Sultan cracks down, the British senden ships to talk 849 00:42:58,440 --> 00:43:00,760 Speaker 1: about the fact that he's murdered, James books his friends, 850 00:43:01,040 --> 00:43:03,680 Speaker 1: and then the Sultan's men fire on the British and 851 00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:06,839 Speaker 1: that lets them depose the Sultan. They had considered just 852 00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:09,720 Speaker 1: making James Brooke the Sultan of Brunei, but they decided 853 00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:11,560 Speaker 1: that would be a step too far even for the 854 00:43:11,560 --> 00:43:14,520 Speaker 1: British Empire, and the fact that they've got a puppet 855 00:43:14,560 --> 00:43:16,720 Speaker 1: sultan on the throne works out better for them because 856 00:43:16,719 --> 00:43:19,680 Speaker 1: it seems more legitimate. But they're able to convince this 857 00:43:19,719 --> 00:43:21,960 Speaker 1: guy to give the British Empire an island full of 858 00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:24,440 Speaker 1: coal nearby that they can use as a refueling station, 859 00:43:24,840 --> 00:43:27,760 Speaker 1: and the whole situation makes James Brooke and national hero again. 860 00:43:27,920 --> 00:43:30,800 Speaker 1: His rule over sarah Wak was now absolutely written in stone, 861 00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:33,359 Speaker 1: and all local resistance had been broken. There's no more 862 00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:36,960 Speaker 1: authorities in the area who have any sort of resistance 863 00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:39,640 Speaker 1: to him being in power. And so now that he's 864 00:43:39,680 --> 00:43:41,919 Speaker 1: got his kind of rule settled for the first time 865 00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:45,319 Speaker 1: in eighteen forty seven, he decides to travel back home 866 00:43:45,360 --> 00:43:46,920 Speaker 1: to the land of his birth to bask in the 867 00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:50,239 Speaker 1: glory of his fame. The Times of London, working with 868 00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:52,520 Speaker 1: his agent, published a fawning piece on him just as 869 00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:56,000 Speaker 1: he arrived in town. Quote much as we go, oh 870 00:43:56,080 --> 00:43:58,399 Speaker 1: to guns and grape shot, we are indebted still more 871 00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:01,560 Speaker 1: to the peaceful and meritorious exertions of one man for 872 00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:04,400 Speaker 1: the advances which have happily been made towards civilization in 873 00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:07,360 Speaker 1: peace amongst the Malay people of whom we speak. England 874 00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:09,960 Speaker 1: owes a debt of obligation to Mr Brooke, Rajah of 875 00:44:10,040 --> 00:44:13,719 Speaker 1: sarah Wak, which she will not easily repay. Wow. Journalism 876 00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:17,040 Speaker 1: was not not fantastic at the time. They were really 877 00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:19,360 Speaker 1: impressed with how peacefully he had burned down all of 878 00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:24,520 Speaker 1: those diligious in the interior. What a peaceful series of wars. 879 00:44:26,239 --> 00:44:30,520 Speaker 1: He's delightful. Look at him. This guy is hailed as 880 00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:32,799 Speaker 1: a hero. When he arrives back home, Oxford gives him 881 00:44:32,800 --> 00:44:35,640 Speaker 1: an honorary doctorate. The school he'd run away from as 882 00:44:35,640 --> 00:44:37,720 Speaker 1: a boy, which had refused to take him back, announced 883 00:44:37,719 --> 00:44:39,879 Speaker 1: as a dinner in his honor. He was even given 884 00:44:39,880 --> 00:44:42,959 Speaker 1: a personal meeting with the Queen herself. After six months 885 00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:44,680 Speaker 1: or so, though, he'd had phil his fill of the 886 00:44:44,719 --> 00:44:46,919 Speaker 1: home country, and he booked passage home on a ship 887 00:44:46,960 --> 00:44:49,920 Speaker 1: commanded by his friend Kepple and stalked with a significant 888 00:44:50,000 --> 00:44:55,880 Speaker 1: number of teenage boys new officers. I have one request, couple, 889 00:44:56,600 --> 00:44:59,319 Speaker 1: let me look at one request. How many boys will 890 00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:05,239 Speaker 1: there be? Uh? And again? These these boys are all 891 00:45:05,280 --> 00:45:08,719 Speaker 1: simultaneously old enough to command troops in battle and young 892 00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:11,520 Speaker 1: enough that I think we should continue to call them boys. Right. 893 00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:16,200 Speaker 1: These are children that said their children who are given 894 00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:20,440 Speaker 1: command of army. Sometimes it's a weird time. So James 895 00:45:20,560 --> 00:45:23,759 Speaker 1: is got to s this. This, this voyage back to 896 00:45:23,800 --> 00:45:26,279 Speaker 1: the East, is a blissful period of his life. He 897 00:45:26,280 --> 00:45:28,319 Speaker 1: gets to spend months locked on a boat with a 898 00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:30,759 Speaker 1: bunch of young boys. One of his friends, who was 899 00:45:30,800 --> 00:45:33,480 Speaker 1: present on the voyage, later wrote he had a nephew 900 00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:36,680 Speaker 1: on board, Charles Johnson, a staid sub lieutenant who endeavored 901 00:45:36,719 --> 00:45:39,239 Speaker 1: to preserve order, but it was of little avail. The 902 00:45:39,320 --> 00:45:41,720 Speaker 1: noisy ones were in the ascendant, led by a laughing, 903 00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:43,840 Speaker 1: bright faced lad who, when he was a midshipman on 904 00:45:43,840 --> 00:45:47,920 Speaker 1: the Agincourt in eighty seven, had become acquainted with Mr Brooke, 905 00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:51,000 Speaker 1: and whose fondness for cherry brandy was only equalled by 906 00:45:51,040 --> 00:45:53,759 Speaker 1: his love of fun. No place in the cabin was respected. 907 00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:56,520 Speaker 1: Six or seven would throw themselves on the bed, careless 908 00:45:56,560 --> 00:45:59,160 Speaker 1: of whether Mr Brooke was there or not, and skylock 909 00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:01,400 Speaker 1: over his body as if he were one of themselves. 910 00:46:01,600 --> 00:46:03,560 Speaker 1: In fact, he was as full of play as any 911 00:46:03,560 --> 00:46:07,160 Speaker 1: of them. This is, of course, in reality, what's happening 912 00:46:07,239 --> 00:46:09,440 Speaker 1: is there's probably a bunch of these guys there that 913 00:46:10,239 --> 00:46:13,560 Speaker 1: just have no choice, but the fond over him because 914 00:46:13,680 --> 00:46:16,399 Speaker 1: he has so much power over them. And this guy 915 00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:21,160 Speaker 1: is this quote this he's quomoing it at this point, 916 00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:24,399 Speaker 1: you know, yeah, it is. Also there are references made 917 00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:26,279 Speaker 1: in his biography and other books at the time of 918 00:46:26,320 --> 00:46:29,760 Speaker 1: like if you were a young British boy on a boat, 919 00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:32,400 Speaker 1: like a naval aid or one of these things. You 920 00:46:32,560 --> 00:46:35,560 Speaker 1: got molested, that was and in some cases it would 921 00:46:35,560 --> 00:46:38,240 Speaker 1: be like because obviously some portion of these these folks 922 00:46:38,280 --> 00:46:40,319 Speaker 1: like that that they wind up being into it, which 923 00:46:40,320 --> 00:46:43,440 Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's not abusive, it's complicated. The navy is 924 00:46:43,520 --> 00:46:46,520 Speaker 1: kind of one of those few places where people who 925 00:46:46,560 --> 00:46:49,160 Speaker 1: are homosexual, like you can have gay relationships in the 926 00:46:49,280 --> 00:46:51,799 Speaker 1: navy and they're kind of there. No one considers it 927 00:46:51,840 --> 00:46:53,920 Speaker 1: gay because you're on a boat, you know, Like that 928 00:46:54,040 --> 00:46:56,040 Speaker 1: is that is a factor in all this. That said, 929 00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:59,520 Speaker 1: James is also clearly he is the powerful young he 930 00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:01,880 Speaker 1: has the power for king, like a rich king, and 931 00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:05,160 Speaker 1: he like these are not you can't really be consensual relationship. 932 00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:07,879 Speaker 1: There's a lot going on here. These are the complicated 933 00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:10,719 Speaker 1: relationships that Herman Melville left out of Billy Bud in 934 00:47:10,760 --> 00:47:14,320 Speaker 1: Moby Dick. You know. Yeah, and this is like again 935 00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:18,839 Speaker 1: like the cabin boy gets buggered, right, that's the that's 936 00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:21,080 Speaker 1: the fact of naval life in this period of time. 937 00:47:21,600 --> 00:47:24,240 Speaker 1: And it does kind of seem though, like what goes 938 00:47:24,320 --> 00:47:27,560 Speaker 1: on in this voyage is beyond what naval men are 939 00:47:27,600 --> 00:47:30,080 Speaker 1: familiar with, and naval men have a lot of tolerance 940 00:47:30,120 --> 00:47:32,120 Speaker 1: for this kind of thing, because again it's that's how 941 00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:36,520 Speaker 1: the Navy works at the time. But they like other officers, 942 00:47:36,560 --> 00:47:38,960 Speaker 1: like people who are on board. Note that there's a 943 00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:42,200 Speaker 1: lot of coolness from the older officers to James Brooke 944 00:47:42,360 --> 00:47:45,200 Speaker 1: because of his relationship with these boys, because it's so 945 00:47:45,400 --> 00:47:50,240 Speaker 1: scandalous and so shameless, right, there's an expectation of some buggery. 946 00:47:50,560 --> 00:47:53,120 Speaker 1: He's like cavorting with a half dozen young men in 947 00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:55,120 Speaker 1: his room loudly at all hours of the night, and 948 00:47:55,200 --> 00:47:59,040 Speaker 1: that's not considered to be okay. Um. And James was 949 00:47:59,080 --> 00:48:02,040 Speaker 1: noted as being particul reularly friendly with Charles Grant, a 950 00:48:02,120 --> 00:48:04,920 Speaker 1: boy he had met at age fourteen and immediately showered 951 00:48:04,920 --> 00:48:09,240 Speaker 1: with expensive weapons, clothing, and jewelry. James wrote an erotic 952 00:48:09,280 --> 00:48:12,040 Speaker 1: poem for this boy, which he framed as it's it's 953 00:48:12,080 --> 00:48:14,640 Speaker 1: about sex, but literally the poem is about a bunch 954 00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:18,200 Speaker 1: of young boys eating a plum pudding. Um, I'm gonna 955 00:48:18,239 --> 00:48:20,880 Speaker 1: read you. I'm gonna read you. An excerpt from this 956 00:48:21,200 --> 00:48:28,680 Speaker 1: rotic pudding poem. So stands Doe Citadel, a virgin post 957 00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:31,879 Speaker 1: and captured, though begirt with many a host like other 958 00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:35,480 Speaker 1: virgin places that I want and captured. Yet because a 959 00:48:35,600 --> 00:48:38,960 Speaker 1: sailed not smoking, it stands and seems to dare the 960 00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:42,360 Speaker 1: worst the storm of strife, not Cara when it burst. 961 00:48:42,640 --> 00:48:45,600 Speaker 1: And youthful Dottie Dotty is his nickname for this boy 962 00:48:45,600 --> 00:48:50,080 Speaker 1: fairly firmly stands his ground, unflinching. Still he's swallowed full 963 00:48:50,080 --> 00:48:53,640 Speaker 1: of pound. What I like about this poem is how subtle. 964 00:48:53,680 --> 00:48:59,359 Speaker 1: It is, very subtle, very subtle, No, not at all. 965 00:49:02,120 --> 00:49:04,200 Speaker 1: One of the things that's tough here is it's very 966 00:49:04,200 --> 00:49:07,560 Speaker 1: hard to define when you're talking about a lot of 967 00:49:07,560 --> 00:49:09,799 Speaker 1: the relationships in this period. A lot of them are 968 00:49:09,840 --> 00:49:12,400 Speaker 1: profoundly abuse of A lot of them would be considered 969 00:49:12,440 --> 00:49:15,919 Speaker 1: pedophilia today. There's also a lot of these young men 970 00:49:16,960 --> 00:49:18,759 Speaker 1: for whom like they consider this to be like kind 971 00:49:18,760 --> 00:49:20,719 Speaker 1: of their homosexual and this is like the only kind 972 00:49:20,719 --> 00:49:22,960 Speaker 1: of relationship they get they get to have that is 973 00:49:23,120 --> 00:49:25,239 Speaker 1: that is not going to get them in trouble. So 974 00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:30,360 Speaker 1: it's really fucking complex, Like the dynamics of sexuality in 975 00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:33,000 Speaker 1: the British Navy in this period is a complex story 976 00:49:33,080 --> 00:49:35,040 Speaker 1: that we're not doing enough justice too. I think it 977 00:49:35,120 --> 00:49:38,680 Speaker 1: is fair to say that it definitely seems James Brooke 978 00:49:38,920 --> 00:49:42,000 Speaker 1: is more on the pedophile end of things, right, he is. 979 00:49:42,040 --> 00:49:44,799 Speaker 1: He has a marked preference for fourteen to seventeen year 980 00:49:44,840 --> 00:49:47,759 Speaker 1: old boys, and while they may be considered adults at 981 00:49:47,760 --> 00:49:50,319 Speaker 1: the time, there's a massive power and balance and what 982 00:49:50,360 --> 00:49:52,640 Speaker 1: he's doing is very sketchy and I would heart you abusive, 983 00:49:52,840 --> 00:49:56,080 Speaker 1: although a number of these boys right very positively about him, 984 00:49:56,080 --> 00:49:58,719 Speaker 1: which is not unheard of an abusive situations, especially given 985 00:49:58,719 --> 00:50:00,920 Speaker 1: the socio dynamics at the time, and he's grooming all 986 00:50:00,960 --> 00:50:05,520 Speaker 1: these kids, you know, he's grooming exactly very complicated situations. 987 00:50:05,560 --> 00:50:08,080 Speaker 1: But I do think it's fair to say it seems 988 00:50:08,120 --> 00:50:11,279 Speaker 1: likely he was sexually and emotionally abusing these kids, even 989 00:50:11,320 --> 00:50:13,520 Speaker 1: if some of them went on to think fondly of 990 00:50:13,600 --> 00:50:15,480 Speaker 1: him because he showered them with gifts. You know, I'm 991 00:50:15,480 --> 00:50:18,120 Speaker 1: starting to think he's not a great guy. Yeah, scout, 992 00:50:18,200 --> 00:50:21,080 Speaker 1: masterly fumbling, you know that that's what's going on here. 993 00:50:22,120 --> 00:50:26,000 Speaker 1: James dedicated another poem entirely to Charlie's pimple's um and 994 00:50:26,080 --> 00:50:36,359 Speaker 1: actively it's pretty bad. I'm wanna put this to a song. 995 00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:37,759 Speaker 1: I want to I want to hear the lyrics. I'm 996 00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:39,440 Speaker 1: gonna I wanna make a song out of it. I 997 00:50:39,920 --> 00:50:42,359 Speaker 1: did not come across that poem, and I don't really 998 00:50:42,440 --> 00:50:46,799 Speaker 1: want to. The pudding one was uncomfortable enough. Um. He 999 00:50:46,960 --> 00:50:49,359 Speaker 1: encouraged the boy to join him in Sarah Wakin serve 1000 00:50:49,400 --> 00:50:52,080 Speaker 1: in the colonial government, and Charlie did eventually do this. 1001 00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:55,000 Speaker 1: To try and win over Charlie's parents, James Brooke gave 1002 00:50:55,040 --> 00:50:57,560 Speaker 1: his mother a golden bracelet and his father promises that 1003 00:50:57,600 --> 00:50:59,840 Speaker 1: he would put away five thousand pounds in a trust 1004 00:50:59,880 --> 00:51:02,400 Speaker 1: for the boy. He never actually did this, but Charlie 1005 00:51:02,440 --> 00:51:04,480 Speaker 1: went to join him in the administration of Sarah Wak 1006 00:51:04,520 --> 00:51:07,239 Speaker 1: Corneyway didn't do it. He's such a fucking piece of ship. 1007 00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:11,479 Speaker 1: Is a giant piece of ship. For the next twenty years, 1008 00:51:11,560 --> 00:51:14,400 Speaker 1: James Brook faced few threats to his sovereignty. One of 1009 00:51:14,440 --> 00:51:17,560 Speaker 1: the most serious was a parliamentary inquiry and a trial 1010 00:51:17,640 --> 00:51:21,440 Speaker 1: conducted in Singapore over the massacre of pirates during his 1011 00:51:21,440 --> 00:51:24,640 Speaker 1: his his rule. And the story here is complex because 1012 00:51:24,680 --> 00:51:28,720 Speaker 1: the specific series of events, the specific massacre of pirates 1013 00:51:28,760 --> 00:51:31,520 Speaker 1: that James has tried for, is actually one of the 1014 00:51:31,520 --> 00:51:34,200 Speaker 1: cases which he was probably justified. He and he and 1015 00:51:34,239 --> 00:51:36,480 Speaker 1: his men are attacked by pirates. They killed like a 1016 00:51:36,520 --> 00:51:38,319 Speaker 1: hundred of them, but they let the rest go and 1017 00:51:38,400 --> 00:51:40,760 Speaker 1: choose not to capture or massacre them because he doesn't 1018 00:51:40,760 --> 00:51:43,680 Speaker 1: want to. He knows that that will like incite more 1019 00:51:43,719 --> 00:51:46,520 Speaker 1: of an insurgency against him, which is in the broad 1020 00:51:46,560 --> 00:51:49,160 Speaker 1: strokes of his time ruling Sarah Wak one of the 1021 00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:53,360 Speaker 1: less unethical things he did. Um. But a group of 1022 00:51:53,440 --> 00:51:57,560 Speaker 1: kind of anti colonial activists in the Parliament decided to 1023 00:51:57,560 --> 00:52:00,520 Speaker 1: try him for this and basically claim that he was 1024 00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:03,640 Speaker 1: massacurring civilians and in the guys of fighting piracy, which 1025 00:52:03,640 --> 00:52:06,680 Speaker 1: he absolutely did in his career, but probably not in 1026 00:52:06,680 --> 00:52:08,840 Speaker 1: the specific case they tried him over. Right. It's a 1027 00:52:08,920 --> 00:52:11,360 Speaker 1: very it's a frustrating situation of like, you're right about 1028 00:52:11,400 --> 00:52:14,600 Speaker 1: this man, you picked the wrong specific incident to get 1029 00:52:14,640 --> 00:52:19,560 Speaker 1: angry about him over you know, um, And yeah, uh 1030 00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:21,600 Speaker 1: it was, And a lot of it's mixed up also 1031 00:52:21,680 --> 00:52:26,560 Speaker 1: in there's genuine anti colonialists who rightly see James Brooke 1032 00:52:26,680 --> 00:52:28,839 Speaker 1: as immoral and what he's doing as immoral and want 1033 00:52:28,880 --> 00:52:32,080 Speaker 1: to fight him. There's also a lot of selfish people involved, 1034 00:52:32,120 --> 00:52:34,440 Speaker 1: like he he fires his agent at some point and 1035 00:52:34,480 --> 00:52:36,600 Speaker 1: his agent gets involved in the campaign against him to 1036 00:52:36,640 --> 00:52:39,560 Speaker 1: like get revenge against him. So it's there's a lot 1037 00:52:39,600 --> 00:52:42,439 Speaker 1: going on here and his his fired agent creates something 1038 00:52:42,440 --> 00:52:46,000 Speaker 1: called the Aborigines Protection Society to drum up public outrage 1039 00:52:46,000 --> 00:52:48,759 Speaker 1: about James Brooks crimes and a lot of what this 1040 00:52:48,960 --> 00:52:51,399 Speaker 1: says our lies, but their lies that are like, he's 1041 00:52:51,480 --> 00:52:53,920 Speaker 1: making up things that James Brooke did for real and 1042 00:52:53,960 --> 00:52:56,520 Speaker 1: they just didn't get evidence of over there. So it's again, 1043 00:52:56,560 --> 00:53:01,080 Speaker 1: it's very messy. It's like the Project Lincoln of the time. Yeah, exactly, 1044 00:53:01,320 --> 00:53:04,239 Speaker 1: it's yeah, it's that's exactly the the Lincoln project of 1045 00:53:04,239 --> 00:53:08,720 Speaker 1: colonialism that you guys aren't wrong. You're also not doing 1046 00:53:08,760 --> 00:53:11,360 Speaker 1: this for the right reason. Yeah, and one of you 1047 00:53:11,520 --> 00:53:13,640 Speaker 1: was probably also a pedophile, as was the case with 1048 00:53:13,640 --> 00:53:17,759 Speaker 1: the Project Lincoln guy. So James survived the trial and 1049 00:53:17,840 --> 00:53:21,080 Speaker 1: was eventually acquitted, but the process was brutal and savaged 1050 00:53:21,120 --> 00:53:23,680 Speaker 1: his reputation back home. It seems fair to say that 1051 00:53:23,680 --> 00:53:25,799 Speaker 1: both the specifics of the outrages he was accused of 1052 00:53:25,800 --> 00:53:28,480 Speaker 1: in Parliament were often inaccurate and unfair, and that the 1053 00:53:28,520 --> 00:53:31,879 Speaker 1: actual terrible things he did and wasn't tried for more 1054 00:53:31,920 --> 00:53:35,279 Speaker 1: than justified the public outrage he he finally received. So 1055 00:53:35,600 --> 00:53:38,040 Speaker 1: I guess that's good. I don't know, I don't know 1056 00:53:38,080 --> 00:53:42,040 Speaker 1: how to classify that public turns against him for a while. Yeah, 1057 00:53:42,280 --> 00:53:45,400 Speaker 1: yes they do, um so, But this doesn't he he 1058 00:53:45,440 --> 00:53:48,000 Speaker 1: doesn't get convicted and the last great challenge to Brooke 1059 00:53:48,040 --> 00:53:51,200 Speaker 1: rule in sarah Wak would finally turn the public back 1060 00:53:51,200 --> 00:53:54,520 Speaker 1: on his side. Unfortunately it came in eighteen fifty six. 1061 00:53:54,560 --> 00:53:58,120 Speaker 1: As I noted last episode, James had always hated Chinese people, 1062 00:53:58,560 --> 00:54:01,600 Speaker 1: but he had recognized at they had a lot like 1063 00:54:01,840 --> 00:54:05,200 Speaker 1: they He brought them in. He encouraged their immigration into 1064 00:54:05,320 --> 00:54:09,160 Speaker 1: sarah Walk, which fundamentally changed the ethnic dynamics of the country. 1065 00:54:09,520 --> 00:54:11,920 Speaker 1: Because he wanted them to improve the local economy, he 1066 00:54:11,960 --> 00:54:13,719 Speaker 1: wanted to tax them, and he knew that they would 1067 00:54:13,800 --> 00:54:16,320 Speaker 1: like if he invited these Chinese people who owned businesses 1068 00:54:16,320 --> 00:54:18,640 Speaker 1: and wanted to set up trading businesses in his country, 1069 00:54:18,880 --> 00:54:22,319 Speaker 1: it would improve his tax base. Um And, because he 1070 00:54:22,400 --> 00:54:24,680 Speaker 1: was so constantly short on money, even though he was 1071 00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:27,200 Speaker 1: very racist against the Chinese, James came to rely on 1072 00:54:27,280 --> 00:54:30,640 Speaker 1: them entirely for his like the taxing that funded his reign. 1073 00:54:31,160 --> 00:54:34,000 Speaker 1: He mainly did this by taxing opium heavily, which led 1074 00:54:34,000 --> 00:54:36,680 Speaker 1: to the smuggling of opium into sarah Walk, which led 1075 00:54:36,719 --> 00:54:39,600 Speaker 1: to a thriving population of the Triads and sarah Wak, 1076 00:54:39,960 --> 00:54:43,320 Speaker 1: so he creates the space for organized crime by bringing 1077 00:54:43,360 --> 00:54:46,160 Speaker 1: all these people in and then taxing opium heavily, which 1078 00:54:46,200 --> 00:54:49,320 Speaker 1: creates a market for untaxed i legal opium, which brings 1079 00:54:49,560 --> 00:54:51,600 Speaker 1: gangs in, you know, like that. Like that, that's the 1080 00:54:51,640 --> 00:54:55,839 Speaker 1: process that occurs here. Unrest built and built, and since 1081 00:54:55,920 --> 00:54:58,120 Speaker 1: by the geopolitical situation at the time, there's a bunch 1082 00:54:58,120 --> 00:55:00,600 Speaker 1: of conflicts between the British and Chinese government rents and 1083 00:55:00,640 --> 00:55:02,920 Speaker 1: the fact that a British man is governing and sarah 1084 00:55:02,920 --> 00:55:05,239 Speaker 1: Wak makes a lot of these particularly these Chinese folks 1085 00:55:05,239 --> 00:55:08,920 Speaker 1: who connected the Triads angry, and eventually a plan starts 1086 00:55:08,960 --> 00:55:11,600 Speaker 1: to form within a segment of the Chinese community to 1087 00:55:11,800 --> 00:55:14,480 Speaker 1: murder the Rajah and his officers and to take control 1088 00:55:14,480 --> 00:55:16,880 Speaker 1: of sarah Wak for themselves. And part of why they 1089 00:55:16,880 --> 00:55:19,080 Speaker 1: think they can do this is they watch James do it, 1090 00:55:19,160 --> 00:55:21,200 Speaker 1: you know, like it doesn't seem like give me that 1091 00:55:21,200 --> 00:55:22,719 Speaker 1: hard to kill you, like you don't have a standing mill. 1092 00:55:22,760 --> 00:55:25,959 Speaker 1: They we can just kill you take power like you did. Uh. Now, 1093 00:55:26,120 --> 00:55:29,719 Speaker 1: Brooks had an intelligence agency basically had like people keeping 1094 00:55:29,760 --> 00:55:31,719 Speaker 1: an ear to the ground, and they hear about this 1095 00:55:31,760 --> 00:55:34,680 Speaker 1: plan to coop him before it could be executed. He's 1096 00:55:34,680 --> 00:55:38,160 Speaker 1: actually away um in in a Brunei at the time 1097 00:55:38,239 --> 00:55:40,640 Speaker 1: when they find evidence of this plot, and one of 1098 00:55:40,680 --> 00:55:43,560 Speaker 1: his officers orders the garrison called up, gets like a 1099 00:55:43,560 --> 00:55:46,399 Speaker 1: bunch of soldiers called into action, hands out guns to them, 1100 00:55:46,600 --> 00:55:49,239 Speaker 1: and man's a bunch of forts around the capital and 1101 00:55:49,320 --> 00:55:51,520 Speaker 1: for a little while, this forces the plotters to delay 1102 00:55:51,560 --> 00:55:53,439 Speaker 1: taking action because they don't want to attack a bunch 1103 00:55:53,440 --> 00:55:56,760 Speaker 1: of fully armed forts and stuff. So James comes back 1104 00:55:56,880 --> 00:55:59,520 Speaker 1: from Brunei in eighteen fifty seven and he finds all 1105 00:55:59,520 --> 00:56:01,760 Speaker 1: of these four manned and his soldiers on high alert, 1106 00:56:01,960 --> 00:56:04,520 Speaker 1: and this makes him furious because it's expensive to keep 1107 00:56:04,520 --> 00:56:07,120 Speaker 1: a garrison active, and he basically yells at his officer, 1108 00:56:07,200 --> 00:56:09,719 Speaker 1: what the funk are you doing? This Chinese threats thing 1109 00:56:09,760 --> 00:56:12,319 Speaker 1: sounds like bullshit. Send these guys home and lock their 1110 00:56:12,320 --> 00:56:15,480 Speaker 1: guns back up. As soon as this happens, six hundred 1111 00:56:15,680 --> 00:56:21,919 Speaker 1: armed Chinese rebels attack, so his luck finally ran out. 1112 00:56:22,560 --> 00:56:25,680 Speaker 1: H Yeah, and this makes it clear that it had 1113 00:56:25,719 --> 00:56:28,520 Speaker 1: been more luck than brilliance, because this is a bad call. 1114 00:56:29,400 --> 00:56:32,440 Speaker 1: So the rebels came in the night, and when the 1115 00:56:32,480 --> 00:56:35,600 Speaker 1: attack started, James panicked and hid in his room. A 1116 00:56:35,680 --> 00:56:38,719 Speaker 1: servant who realized that like they were under attack, tried 1117 00:56:38,760 --> 00:56:44,640 Speaker 1: to rescue him, and James strangled the man. Then he 1118 00:56:44,680 --> 00:56:47,000 Speaker 1: watched through the window while one of the eighteen year 1119 00:56:47,040 --> 00:56:49,840 Speaker 1: old boys he'd collected and made an officer. This is 1120 00:56:49,880 --> 00:56:51,520 Speaker 1: an English boy that he liked, you know, one of 1121 00:56:51,560 --> 00:56:54,200 Speaker 1: his boys who he brought to Sarah with him. They 1122 00:56:54,600 --> 00:56:57,760 Speaker 1: the Chinese catch this kid and mistake him for James, 1123 00:56:58,040 --> 00:57:00,600 Speaker 1: and he watches from his room while this kid beheaded 1124 00:57:00,600 --> 00:57:02,400 Speaker 1: and has his head shoved on a pike in the 1125 00:57:02,440 --> 00:57:06,320 Speaker 1: front yard of his of his capital. So James abandons 1126 00:57:06,360 --> 00:57:08,800 Speaker 1: his servant and everyone else and escapes through his bathroom 1127 00:57:08,840 --> 00:57:10,880 Speaker 1: window and runs away to go hide in the jungle. 1128 00:57:11,440 --> 00:57:14,840 Speaker 1: The insurrection was initially successful. Chinese fighters took over the 1129 00:57:14,880 --> 00:57:17,360 Speaker 1: courthouse and most of the capital. They butchered many of 1130 00:57:17,400 --> 00:57:21,480 Speaker 1: Brooks officers and local loyal leaders. James Brooke hid terrified, well, 1131 00:57:21,520 --> 00:57:24,360 Speaker 1: a brave gup group of his Malay followers fought back, 1132 00:57:24,680 --> 00:57:29,160 Speaker 1: launching an insurgent campaign against the Chinese occupiers. European writers 1133 00:57:29,200 --> 00:57:31,920 Speaker 1: would later give James Brooke credit for this, saying he 1134 00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:34,600 Speaker 1: inspired the resistance even though he was again hiding in 1135 00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:37,000 Speaker 1: the jungle. At this point of time. The truth is 1136 00:57:37,040 --> 00:57:39,240 Speaker 1: that he did nothing. Were an alliance of Malays Di 1137 00:57:39,600 --> 00:57:42,480 Speaker 1: x and some European evangelists. There's like a church leader 1138 00:57:42,480 --> 00:57:44,120 Speaker 1: who picks up a bunch of guns and goes to 1139 00:57:44,160 --> 00:57:48,520 Speaker 1: fight against this. Uh insurrection actually fought back and forced 1140 00:57:48,520 --> 00:57:52,480 Speaker 1: the Chinese forces out of the capital. A general massacre followed, 1141 00:57:52,520 --> 00:57:54,920 Speaker 1: and this was probably incensed by a lot of the 1142 00:57:55,000 --> 00:57:57,720 Speaker 1: racism that James Brooke had inculcated against the Chinese during 1143 00:57:57,760 --> 00:58:00,760 Speaker 1: his reign, and about fifteen hundred of sarah four thousand 1144 00:58:00,800 --> 00:58:03,640 Speaker 1: Chinese citizens were massacred in an orgy of blood letting 1145 00:58:03,680 --> 00:58:09,120 Speaker 1: in thievery. So that's cool. Yeah, Well I don't cool. 1146 00:58:09,360 --> 00:58:13,680 Speaker 1: I mean it's not great. It's not great. Not great. Um. So, 1147 00:58:13,880 --> 00:58:18,040 Speaker 1: this insurrection didn't succeed in destroying Brooke ragin over Sarah Walk, 1148 00:58:18,120 --> 00:58:21,600 Speaker 1: but it did break James. The experience aged him rapidly, 1149 00:58:21,840 --> 00:58:23,920 Speaker 1: and within a few years he was all but unable 1150 00:58:23,960 --> 00:58:27,600 Speaker 1: to handle the demands of Raja hood. In eighteen sixty three, 1151 00:58:27,680 --> 00:58:30,120 Speaker 1: James handed over formal control of Sarah Walk, who his 1152 00:58:30,120 --> 00:58:33,360 Speaker 1: adopted heir, a guy named Charles Brooke. Now Charles was 1153 00:58:33,400 --> 00:58:36,720 Speaker 1: not actually James's son, as James had little interest in breeding, 1154 00:58:37,280 --> 00:58:39,520 Speaker 1: but he this is the young boy basically starts as 1155 00:58:39,520 --> 00:58:42,040 Speaker 1: a young boy who he gives control over two and 1156 00:58:42,040 --> 00:58:45,480 Speaker 1: and James or Charles adopts the name Brooke and becomes 1157 00:58:45,480 --> 00:58:49,040 Speaker 1: like his adopted son. Um. James would technically remain the 1158 00:58:49,040 --> 00:58:51,160 Speaker 1: White Raja for the last five years of his life, 1159 00:58:51,160 --> 00:58:53,840 Speaker 1: but in reality he fled sarah Wak for England, where 1160 00:58:53,840 --> 00:58:56,240 Speaker 1: he lived out his last days doing the thing he 1161 00:58:56,280 --> 00:59:00,520 Speaker 1: did best, obsessing over young boys. Nigel bar Early writes 1162 00:59:00,640 --> 00:59:03,600 Speaker 1: quote in eighteen sixty six, he read in the newspaper 1163 00:59:03,640 --> 00:59:05,960 Speaker 1: of a thirteen year old youth, Samuel Bray, who had 1164 00:59:06,000 --> 00:59:08,680 Speaker 1: saved a friend from drowning in Devonport, and he became 1165 00:59:08,800 --> 00:59:12,040 Speaker 1: unhealthily excited. He traced the lad sent him half a 1166 00:59:12,080 --> 00:59:15,760 Speaker 1: sovereign and tried to open a correspondence with him. Oh man, 1167 00:59:15,960 --> 00:59:19,360 Speaker 1: he never never gives up. God, this guy he just 1168 00:59:19,680 --> 00:59:21,520 Speaker 1: you know what it does. He does the stuff that like, 1169 00:59:22,200 --> 00:59:25,439 Speaker 1: you know, that cramping feeling you get in your gut 1170 00:59:25,520 --> 00:59:28,360 Speaker 1: when you hear or see something so douchey, like these 1171 00:59:28,400 --> 00:59:31,360 Speaker 1: douche cramps. Like that's like what I get from a 1172 00:59:31,400 --> 00:59:33,800 Speaker 1: lot of this guy's actions. It's just like he's just 1173 00:59:34,040 --> 00:59:36,680 Speaker 1: goes a little extra and he's just such a creep 1174 00:59:36,760 --> 00:59:39,880 Speaker 1: with these young guys. He's a he's real creep. It's 1175 00:59:39,880 --> 00:59:44,440 Speaker 1: not good. It is what happens. Um on Christmas Eve, 1176 00:59:44,520 --> 00:59:46,240 Speaker 1: this is the best part. In Christmas Eve of eighteen 1177 00:59:46,280 --> 00:59:49,000 Speaker 1: sixty seven, James Brooke has a stroke. Uh. This leads 1178 00:59:49,040 --> 00:59:51,840 Speaker 1: to a series of strokes which ends his life in 1179 00:59:51,960 --> 00:59:55,200 Speaker 1: June of eighteen sixty eight. So that's good. That's the 1180 00:59:55,240 --> 00:59:58,800 Speaker 1: first thing he's done that I fully approved of. I'm 1181 00:59:58,840 --> 01:00:02,120 Speaker 1: torn is a radical doctor. I never approve of strokes, 1182 01:00:02,400 --> 01:00:04,400 Speaker 1: but I mean, if you're you know this in this case, 1183 01:00:04,440 --> 01:00:07,160 Speaker 1: and it's not the worst stroke, that the worst stroke. 1184 01:00:07,280 --> 01:00:10,480 Speaker 1: How old was he? Jesus, he would have been like 1185 01:00:10,520 --> 01:00:16,000 Speaker 1: sixty's for the age just a long time. And especially 1186 01:00:16,040 --> 01:00:18,160 Speaker 1: considering the ship. This guy gets wounded a bunch of times, 1187 01:00:18,200 --> 01:00:19,800 Speaker 1: he said, the tropics. You know, he gets a bunch 1188 01:00:19,800 --> 01:00:24,320 Speaker 1: of illnesses. Um. So this is the end of James Brooke, 1189 01:00:24,400 --> 01:00:26,680 Speaker 1: but not, of course, the end of the Brook dynasty. 1190 01:00:27,200 --> 01:00:30,480 Speaker 1: Charlie Brooke, otherwise known as Raja Charles, lost no time 1191 01:00:30,520 --> 01:00:33,440 Speaker 1: in going to war to expand brooke control of brune I. 1192 01:00:33,960 --> 01:00:36,720 Speaker 1: He justified his conquests as a crusade to end the 1193 01:00:36,760 --> 01:00:40,600 Speaker 1: barbaric practice of head hunting. Now, if you remember, James Brooke, 1194 01:00:40,680 --> 01:00:43,800 Speaker 1: his predecessor, had encouraged head hunting and had used like 1195 01:00:44,120 --> 01:00:46,040 Speaker 1: he had paid his diet soldier by being like, you 1196 01:00:46,040 --> 01:00:48,240 Speaker 1: guys can take as many heads as you want, because 1197 01:00:48,280 --> 01:00:49,960 Speaker 1: like having access to a bunch of heads like you 1198 01:00:49,960 --> 01:00:51,880 Speaker 1: would like give them off in marriages and stuff. They're 1199 01:00:51,880 --> 01:00:54,560 Speaker 1: a symbol of your virility in this culture. So James 1200 01:00:54,560 --> 01:00:56,320 Speaker 1: takes advantage of that so he doesn't have to pay 1201 01:00:56,360 --> 01:00:58,960 Speaker 1: them in money. And Charlie then uses like, there's all 1202 01:00:59,000 --> 01:01:00,920 Speaker 1: these head hunters here for some reason, we have to 1203 01:01:00,920 --> 01:01:02,280 Speaker 1: fight a bunch of wars to get rid of the 1204 01:01:02,280 --> 01:01:04,880 Speaker 1: head on Dinga and that's how he expands his domain. 1205 01:01:05,840 --> 01:01:10,560 Speaker 1: So weird, this thing happens over and over in the 1206 01:01:10,560 --> 01:01:12,840 Speaker 1: British and you'll find people today who will kind of 1207 01:01:12,880 --> 01:01:16,480 Speaker 1: whitewash British crimes of imperialism with stuff like, well, but 1208 01:01:16,520 --> 01:01:19,600 Speaker 1: they stopped the barbaric practice of women throwing themselves on 1209 01:01:19,640 --> 01:01:22,000 Speaker 1: the funeral pyres of their husbands in India, which is 1210 01:01:22,040 --> 01:01:24,280 Speaker 1: a horrible thing. It's bad for it to be the 1211 01:01:24,320 --> 01:01:26,880 Speaker 1: norm for women to commit suicide when their husbands die. 1212 01:01:27,000 --> 01:01:29,840 Speaker 1: I would agree. The British weren't fighting that because it 1213 01:01:29,880 --> 01:01:31,520 Speaker 1: was the right thing to do. It was used as 1214 01:01:31,520 --> 01:01:34,080 Speaker 1: a justification for power graps, just like head hunting is 1215 01:01:34,200 --> 01:01:37,560 Speaker 1: used by Charles, and just like the anti slavery crusades, 1216 01:01:37,560 --> 01:01:42,680 Speaker 1: where uses the justification for a bunch of fucked up shit. Um. So, 1217 01:01:43,360 --> 01:01:45,800 Speaker 1: Charles blamed head hunting on the local women because it 1218 01:01:45,840 --> 01:01:47,520 Speaker 1: was kind of a sign of your virility if you 1219 01:01:47,600 --> 01:01:50,200 Speaker 1: captured heads. So he uses that to blame the women 1220 01:01:50,280 --> 01:01:53,800 Speaker 1: for basically what he he He not only conquers a 1221 01:01:53,800 --> 01:01:56,840 Speaker 1: bunch of land to stop headhunting, he orders sexual violence 1222 01:01:56,880 --> 01:02:00,200 Speaker 1: against Dyak women in order to punish them for like 1223 01:02:00,440 --> 01:02:06,240 Speaker 1: supporting head hunting. Yeah, he's He's worse. He's much worse. 1224 01:02:06,280 --> 01:02:09,560 Speaker 1: He's very bad. In his last years of ruling, after 1225 01:02:09,600 --> 01:02:13,200 Speaker 1: the Chinese Insurrection, Rasha James had repeatedly attempted to convince 1226 01:02:13,200 --> 01:02:16,040 Speaker 1: the British government to annex sarah Wak and incorporated into 1227 01:02:16,040 --> 01:02:19,040 Speaker 1: the Empire. Officially, the government had never quite bitten on 1228 01:02:19,080 --> 01:02:21,720 Speaker 1: this offer, and once Rossa Charles took power, he made 1229 01:02:21,720 --> 01:02:24,160 Speaker 1: it clear that the Brook dynasty had no further desire 1230 01:02:24,200 --> 01:02:29,000 Speaker 1: to sell out to the Motherland. Instead, Charles pursued expansion 1231 01:02:29,080 --> 01:02:31,880 Speaker 1: at the expense of the Sultan of Brunei, which is 1232 01:02:31,880 --> 01:02:35,000 Speaker 1: again now a British protectorate. This led to a conflict 1233 01:02:35,040 --> 01:02:38,560 Speaker 1: with the newly established British North Borneo Company, which was 1234 01:02:38,640 --> 01:02:41,760 Speaker 1: kind of running Brunei and was not interested in letting 1235 01:02:41,760 --> 01:02:45,480 Speaker 1: the Brooks take over. Now through a series of military campaigns, 1236 01:02:45,640 --> 01:02:48,080 Speaker 1: Raja Charles took over a region called the Limbang in 1237 01:02:48,160 --> 01:02:51,440 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety, but he failed to conquer Brunei itself because 1238 01:02:51,480 --> 01:02:55,080 Speaker 1: of the British, like the north Borneo Company um. And 1239 01:02:55,120 --> 01:02:57,960 Speaker 1: this really frustrated Charles because he wanted to control Brunei. 1240 01:02:58,040 --> 01:03:01,240 Speaker 1: He wanted to conquer everything, but he can't because of 1241 01:03:01,240 --> 01:03:03,800 Speaker 1: this British company and the fact that the British north 1242 01:03:03,800 --> 01:03:07,320 Speaker 1: Borneo Company had stopped him from taking Brunei leads Charles, 1243 01:03:07,360 --> 01:03:10,200 Speaker 1: who was an imperialist Raja of a conquered land, to 1244 01:03:10,280 --> 01:03:17,720 Speaker 1: become an anti imperialism crusader. Rebranding Yeah, he publishes well 1245 01:03:17,760 --> 01:03:21,560 Speaker 1: he is again the White Raja of Sarah. He publishes 1246 01:03:21,640 --> 01:03:26,480 Speaker 1: a pamphlet um titled Queries Past, Present in Future, in 1247 01:03:26,480 --> 01:03:29,400 Speaker 1: which he critiques the specific sort of imperialism that ran 1248 01:03:29,480 --> 01:03:32,200 Speaker 1: counter to the kind of imperialism he supported. It's a 1249 01:03:32,240 --> 01:03:36,120 Speaker 1: remarkable document because in eighteen ninety this guy, who literally 1250 01:03:36,240 --> 01:03:38,680 Speaker 1: ruled a conquered Asian nation based on the power of 1251 01:03:38,760 --> 01:03:44,880 Speaker 1: Western guns, accurately diagnoses the problems of imperialism. Quote. It 1252 01:03:45,000 --> 01:03:48,120 Speaker 1: is something dreadful to contemplate, and yet too true that nearly, 1253 01:03:48,160 --> 01:03:51,240 Speaker 1: if not all, of our magnificently built colonial towns and 1254 01:03:51,320 --> 01:03:55,080 Speaker 1: colonial developments of every description have their foundations upon the 1255 01:03:55,120 --> 01:03:58,280 Speaker 1: bones of the aborigines of the soil. One asks if 1256 01:03:58,280 --> 01:04:01,560 Speaker 1: the benefits bestowed upon their success are sufficient to justify 1257 01:04:01,640 --> 01:04:04,439 Speaker 1: such sacrifices. I am fully aware that there are many 1258 01:04:04,440 --> 01:04:07,440 Speaker 1: occasions when bloodshed cannot be avoided, and that a certain 1259 01:04:07,480 --> 01:04:10,919 Speaker 1: amount of severity is necessary in governing all races, white 1260 01:04:11,040 --> 01:04:13,640 Speaker 1: or dark. But as we rule at present, I fail 1261 01:04:13,720 --> 01:04:16,520 Speaker 1: to see any hope of improvement respecting the real elevation 1262 01:04:16,560 --> 01:04:19,360 Speaker 1: of the natives by intellectual culture. If we look upon 1263 01:04:19,440 --> 01:04:21,520 Speaker 1: the sad side of the picture of the making of 1264 01:04:21,520 --> 01:04:24,280 Speaker 1: our immense empire, we should pause a moment and ask 1265 01:04:24,360 --> 01:04:26,200 Speaker 1: if there will not be a day of reckoning in 1266 01:04:26,240 --> 01:04:28,600 Speaker 1: the near far and the not far off future. Do 1267 01:04:28,720 --> 01:04:32,040 Speaker 1: all them yet so like that, that's not unreasoned, that's 1268 01:04:32,280 --> 01:04:35,400 Speaker 1: very accurate. Actually he doesn't see that, you're just as 1269 01:04:35,480 --> 01:04:38,040 Speaker 1: much a part of this as the British North Thornio Company. 1270 01:04:38,080 --> 01:04:41,280 Speaker 1: But it's accurate. Russia. Charles goes on to list British 1271 01:04:41,320 --> 01:04:44,640 Speaker 1: imperial possessions that had been won by conquest and aptly 1272 01:04:44,680 --> 01:04:50,000 Speaker 1: diagnosed the evils perpetuated, perpetuated in those places, quote New Zealand, 1273 01:04:50,240 --> 01:04:52,760 Speaker 1: years of warfare to subdue as finer races ever on 1274 01:04:52,880 --> 01:04:56,840 Speaker 1: trod God's Earth. What are they now? Australia Mostly he's 1275 01:04:56,840 --> 01:04:59,560 Speaker 1: talking about the Aboriginals here Australia mostly killed off by 1276 01:04:59,640 --> 01:05:03,360 Speaker 1: native police raised for this purpose, the Aborigines being found 1277 01:05:03,360 --> 01:05:07,600 Speaker 1: somewhat dangerous to Europeans gold workers and farmers. India, frequent 1278 01:05:07,640 --> 01:05:10,640 Speaker 1: collisions and battles occur, the interior still being much unsubdued, 1279 01:05:10,680 --> 01:05:14,360 Speaker 1: and its inhabitants very strong, Burma fighting occasional battles, and 1280 01:05:14,360 --> 01:05:16,720 Speaker 1: the natives put to the sword when the country was annexed. 1281 01:05:16,760 --> 01:05:20,520 Speaker 1: So he's again very accurately calling out the genocides of 1282 01:05:20,560 --> 01:05:24,439 Speaker 1: Aboriginal people, thing about this, that's weird. Yeah, while order 1283 01:05:24,600 --> 01:05:27,480 Speaker 1: ordering campaigns of sexual violence against the women of the 1284 01:05:27,520 --> 01:05:30,400 Speaker 1: country in order to stop a cultural practice that his 1285 01:05:30,520 --> 01:05:34,160 Speaker 1: direct successor had. Man, I want this to have I 1286 01:05:34,160 --> 01:05:35,800 Speaker 1: shouldn't say this as a doctor, but I want him 1287 01:05:35,840 --> 01:05:38,720 Speaker 1: to stroke too. Yeah, yeah, you do, you do? You 1288 01:05:38,720 --> 01:05:41,360 Speaker 1: want them all kind of a couple of more Strokes 1289 01:05:41,360 --> 01:05:44,240 Speaker 1: could have really handled things well from Malaysia here. So, 1290 01:05:45,000 --> 01:05:48,680 Speaker 1: after again very accurately describing the evils of imperialism Russia, 1291 01:05:48,800 --> 01:05:51,680 Speaker 1: Charles botched the diagnosis of their cause in a profoundly 1292 01:05:51,720 --> 01:05:55,440 Speaker 1: self lagrandizing way. The problem, he said, was not imperialism, 1293 01:05:55,480 --> 01:05:57,760 Speaker 1: it was the fact that quote, the right men to 1294 01:05:57,800 --> 01:06:00,120 Speaker 1: deal with the natives are not chosen, and such men 1295 01:06:00,160 --> 01:06:03,360 Speaker 1: should be very carefully picked. So Charles Brooke was not 1296 01:06:03,480 --> 01:06:05,920 Speaker 1: against white men ruling foreign lands for profit, but they 1297 01:06:05,920 --> 01:06:08,960 Speaker 1: had to be the right white men him. He got 1298 01:06:08,960 --> 01:06:14,240 Speaker 1: that from James. From James, Yeah, yeah, he did. Now. 1299 01:06:14,400 --> 01:06:17,520 Speaker 1: Raja Charles replaced the courtroom chairs his adopted father had 1300 01:06:17,560 --> 01:06:19,720 Speaker 1: set up with an iron bench, which he considered a 1301 01:06:19,800 --> 01:06:22,400 Speaker 1: symbol of the immutable power of his law. And he was, 1302 01:06:22,440 --> 01:06:25,200 Speaker 1: in general a more toxic version of everything his adopted 1303 01:06:25,240 --> 01:06:27,560 Speaker 1: father had been. And while Raja James had failed to 1304 01:06:27,560 --> 01:06:31,280 Speaker 1: actually spawn, and he recognized descendants Russia. Charles took seriously 1305 01:06:31,320 --> 01:06:34,040 Speaker 1: his royal imperative to make heirs to the throne. Three 1306 01:06:34,040 --> 01:06:36,680 Speaker 1: of his children survived to adulthood, including a man who 1307 01:06:36,720 --> 01:06:40,440 Speaker 1: would succeed him as the third Brook, Raja Charles Viner 1308 01:06:40,480 --> 01:06:42,560 Speaker 1: Brook and I'm gonna quote from the Daily Beast here. 1309 01:06:43,400 --> 01:06:47,560 Speaker 1: In nineteen eleven, Charles's son Viner married Sylvia Brett, who 1310 01:06:47,520 --> 01:06:50,400 Speaker 1: would eventually embraced the crude title. One headline writer gave 1311 01:06:50,400 --> 01:06:53,360 Speaker 1: her the Queen of the head Hunters. When Sylvia first 1312 01:06:53,440 --> 01:06:55,600 Speaker 1: arrived in sarah Walk with her brother, he found the 1313 01:06:55,600 --> 01:06:58,520 Speaker 1: place very different from what I had anticipated. Far safer, 1314 01:06:58,560 --> 01:07:01,520 Speaker 1: far more advanced, far happier, far more civilized, a very 1315 01:07:01,560 --> 01:07:06,560 Speaker 1: happy country, guided by European brained, but untouched by European vulgarity. 1316 01:07:06,760 --> 01:07:09,240 Speaker 1: The magic of it all possessed me. Sylvia would recall 1317 01:07:09,480 --> 01:07:12,520 Speaker 1: sites sounded sense there was in this abundant land everything 1318 01:07:12,560 --> 01:07:16,280 Speaker 1: which my heart had yearned for. Now. Eventually, Sylvia's self 1319 01:07:16,400 --> 01:07:19,680 Speaker 1: dramatizing streak eclipsed her aesthetic sense, playing up in eleven 1320 01:07:19,720 --> 01:07:22,480 Speaker 1: books and countless headlines. The exotic anomaly of these British 1321 01:07:22,480 --> 01:07:25,680 Speaker 1: blokes running a jungle kingdom, The rainy Sylvia ended up 1322 01:07:25,720 --> 01:07:28,560 Speaker 1: downplaying the progress that Rasha's in their country made. She 1323 01:07:28,680 --> 01:07:31,520 Speaker 1: and her husband had also had numerous affairs and encouraged 1324 01:07:31,520 --> 01:07:34,840 Speaker 1: their daughters to be equally libertine. The three princesses, Leonora, 1325 01:07:34,880 --> 01:07:38,160 Speaker 1: Elizabeth and Nancy, nicknamed Gold Pearl and Baba by reporters, 1326 01:07:38,400 --> 01:07:42,200 Speaker 1: dressed like quote tarts, had flamboyant escapades with numerous men 1327 01:07:42,240 --> 01:07:44,680 Speaker 1: and married eight times, including to a band leader and 1328 01:07:44,720 --> 01:07:48,560 Speaker 1: a boxer. Thank God I haven't had four daughters, Byner claimed, 1329 01:07:48,640 --> 01:07:53,400 Speaker 1: what a family? So yeah. One of his daughters, Mary's 1330 01:07:53,400 --> 01:07:56,080 Speaker 1: a jazz musician, the other Mary's a wrestler, um and 1331 01:07:56,160 --> 01:07:58,680 Speaker 1: the daughter who marries a wrestler. Princess Baba travels to 1332 01:07:58,720 --> 01:08:01,520 Speaker 1: Hollywood to try and sell screenplay based on the life 1333 01:08:01,560 --> 01:08:04,919 Speaker 1: of James Brooke. Princess Baba also repeatedly floated a plan 1334 01:08:05,000 --> 01:08:07,000 Speaker 1: to buy land next to the Sarah Walk and turn 1335 01:08:07,040 --> 01:08:15,080 Speaker 1: it into a rival kingdom called Baba Land. Fun people. Yeah. 1336 01:08:15,200 --> 01:08:17,800 Speaker 1: The Brooks of the twentieth century enjoyed little of the 1337 01:08:17,840 --> 01:08:20,520 Speaker 1: positive pr that had turned James Brooke into a celebrity. 1338 01:08:20,800 --> 01:08:22,719 Speaker 1: Much of this had to do with their libertine natures. 1339 01:08:22,720 --> 01:08:25,800 Speaker 1: They're kind of sucking around and getting wasted constantly. At 1340 01:08:25,840 --> 01:08:28,800 Speaker 1: one point, Rainey Sylvia was found dancing with two prostitutes 1341 01:08:28,800 --> 01:08:30,680 Speaker 1: in a nightclub and then taking them back to her 1342 01:08:30,720 --> 01:08:33,840 Speaker 1: palace to have their portraits painted. A visiting MP from 1343 01:08:33,840 --> 01:08:37,639 Speaker 1: Westminster wrote that, quote a more undignified woman, it would 1344 01:08:37,680 --> 01:08:40,280 Speaker 1: be hard to find. It was obvious to even casual 1345 01:08:40,280 --> 01:08:42,400 Speaker 1: observers that the Brooks had turned sarah Wak, a land 1346 01:08:42,479 --> 01:08:45,400 Speaker 1: with more than half a million citizens, into their private playground. 1347 01:08:45,720 --> 01:08:48,680 Speaker 1: One critic noted with disgusted that quote everything in this 1348 01:08:48,760 --> 01:08:52,559 Speaker 1: obscure little country bears the stamp of slackness and hopeless disorder. 1349 01:08:53,320 --> 01:08:56,280 Speaker 1: The brook dynasty's end began with World War Two. One 1350 01:08:56,320 --> 01:08:58,200 Speaker 1: of the benefits of being ruled over by the Brooks 1351 01:08:58,240 --> 01:09:00,000 Speaker 1: was supposed to be the fact that sarah walk would 1352 01:09:00,000 --> 01:09:03,040 Speaker 1: received the protection of the English Crown. British ships and 1353 01:09:03,080 --> 01:09:05,519 Speaker 1: soldiers had regularly fought in sarah Wak to put down 1354 01:09:05,520 --> 01:09:08,639 Speaker 1: internal rebellions and fight pirates, after all, but as soon 1355 01:09:08,680 --> 01:09:11,160 Speaker 1: as the country was menaced by a real foreign threat 1356 01:09:11,280 --> 01:09:14,160 Speaker 1: the Japanese Empire, British guns were nowhere to be seen. 1357 01:09:14,680 --> 01:09:17,000 Speaker 1: When sarah Wak was liberated at the start of the war. 1358 01:09:17,080 --> 01:09:19,360 Speaker 1: The destruction it had suffered was too extensive for the 1359 01:09:19,360 --> 01:09:22,360 Speaker 1: Brook family to afford to rebuild. They finally handed over 1360 01:09:22,360 --> 01:09:24,600 Speaker 1: control of their domain to Great Britain, who paid the 1361 01:09:24,840 --> 01:09:27,720 Speaker 1: family two hundred thousand pounds for the Kingdom Sarah Wak 1362 01:09:27,760 --> 01:09:30,839 Speaker 1: would mark the very last colonial acquisition of the British Empire. 1363 01:09:31,080 --> 01:09:34,200 Speaker 1: The country finally received its independence in nineteen sixty three 1364 01:09:34,400 --> 01:09:37,760 Speaker 1: and joined a federation with Malaya, North Borneo and Singapore. 1365 01:09:38,320 --> 01:09:41,560 Speaker 1: The last white Rajah and Rainey had an uncomfortable retirement 1366 01:09:41,600 --> 01:09:45,240 Speaker 1: in England. Sylvia hated being quote short of our glory 1367 01:09:45,280 --> 01:09:47,519 Speaker 1: and faced with the necessity of adjusting to a world 1368 01:09:47,520 --> 01:09:50,880 Speaker 1: in which we were no longer emperors but merely two ordinary, 1369 01:09:50,960 --> 01:09:55,120 Speaker 1: aging people, two misfits in the changing pattern of modern times. 1370 01:09:55,760 --> 01:09:59,320 Speaker 1: Oh my god, this family sucks. They suck, and they 1371 01:09:59,360 --> 01:10:02,719 Speaker 1: would rule from more than a century god well into 1372 01:10:03,680 --> 01:10:08,479 Speaker 1: based on dumb luck. So annoying. Yeah, all this stuff 1373 01:10:08,479 --> 01:10:12,240 Speaker 1: with this family, I mean, has this has this guy 1374 01:10:12,479 --> 01:10:16,440 Speaker 1: been popularized? The original James Brooke? Was he ever popularized 1375 01:10:16,479 --> 01:10:19,040 Speaker 1: in like popular culture? Was there movies made of him 1376 01:10:19,120 --> 01:10:22,400 Speaker 1: or anything? I'm assuming still to this day people probably 1377 01:10:22,920 --> 01:10:27,679 Speaker 1: only the more common popular cultures speaks of him. Well right, yeah, 1378 01:10:27,840 --> 01:10:29,960 Speaker 1: I think so. I mean, even like the stuff you'll 1379 01:10:29,960 --> 01:10:32,240 Speaker 1: find written recently, articles will point out that like he 1380 01:10:32,280 --> 01:10:34,559 Speaker 1: was a relatively benevolent ruler and he did this and 1381 01:10:34,560 --> 01:10:37,479 Speaker 1: he did that, um, which I don't think is fair. 1382 01:10:37,560 --> 01:10:40,160 Speaker 1: You could argue more benevolent than the East India Trading Company, 1383 01:10:40,160 --> 01:10:47,479 Speaker 1: which perpetuated a genocide that killed thirty million people. Yes, yeah, 1384 01:10:47,520 --> 01:10:50,600 Speaker 1: a very low bar. Oh there is um. Edge of 1385 01:10:50,640 --> 01:10:54,040 Speaker 1: the World stars Hollywood actor John Rice Myers as Brooke, 1386 01:10:54,320 --> 01:10:57,960 Speaker 1: Dominic Monahan as Colonel Arthur Crookshank and Hong Kong actress 1387 01:10:58,040 --> 01:11:02,760 Speaker 1: Josie Hoe as Brooks, former of Madeline Limb. So yeah, 1388 01:11:02,840 --> 01:11:05,240 Speaker 1: the movie Raja. Oh I guess Raj is the movie? 1389 01:11:05,479 --> 01:11:10,200 Speaker 1: Um god? Oh it was retitled The Edge of the World. Okay, 1390 01:11:10,680 --> 01:11:14,000 Speaker 1: oh this is being made in Oh my god, this 1391 01:11:14,040 --> 01:11:16,679 Speaker 1: is yeah, that that February. This is not Oh my god, 1392 01:11:16,720 --> 01:11:20,479 Speaker 1: what are you people doing? Stop? They've given they made 1393 01:11:20,520 --> 01:11:23,479 Speaker 1: a Hong Kong actress his his love interest, the love 1394 01:11:23,520 --> 01:11:28,400 Speaker 1: interest of a man who was almost undeniably at least 1395 01:11:28,439 --> 01:11:32,160 Speaker 1: engaged in questionable sexual relationships with teenagers. And it worst 1396 01:11:32,240 --> 01:11:39,000 Speaker 1: a a straight up pedophile predator, like desperate for they 1397 01:11:39,000 --> 01:11:42,439 Speaker 1: had to go to this, I mean the hot God 1398 01:11:42,520 --> 01:11:45,120 Speaker 1: damn it. Wait wait, god damn who who's starring? Is him? 1399 01:11:45,560 --> 01:11:51,639 Speaker 1: What's his name? Dominic Monahan, John Rice Myers, John Rice Meyers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 1400 01:11:51,680 --> 01:11:56,400 Speaker 1: he's yeah, I mean they made him hot. God damn it. 1401 01:11:56,439 --> 01:11:59,479 Speaker 1: I'll put I'll put a picture in here. Fucking hell. 1402 01:11:59,520 --> 01:12:03,120 Speaker 1: Why did they they did this? I mean, it was 1403 01:12:03,200 --> 01:12:06,800 Speaker 1: okay when they did this for um, for um David 1404 01:12:06,880 --> 01:12:10,200 Speaker 1: Koresh because he was hot. But this is just No 1405 01:12:10,240 --> 01:12:12,960 Speaker 1: one questions that, No one questions, No one questions how 1406 01:12:13,080 --> 01:12:17,320 Speaker 1: hot David Koresh was. But I guarantee you fucking James 1407 01:12:17,400 --> 01:12:19,000 Speaker 1: Brooke was not this hot. Look at it, look at 1408 01:12:19,520 --> 01:12:23,920 Speaker 1: and they get hired an Irish actor when in reality, yeah, yeah, 1409 01:12:24,720 --> 01:12:30,800 Speaker 1: that's not fair. Oh no, God damn it. They okay. 1410 01:12:30,840 --> 01:12:33,439 Speaker 1: The synopsis on IMDb is at the epic tale of 1411 01:12:33,479 --> 01:12:36,080 Speaker 1: Sir James Brooke, the British adventurer who became King of 1412 01:12:36,160 --> 01:12:38,680 Speaker 1: sarah Look in the eighteen forties and embarked on a 1413 01:12:38,760 --> 01:12:43,800 Speaker 1: lifelong crusade to in piracy and head hunting. This is 1414 01:12:43,800 --> 01:12:48,439 Speaker 1: going to be awesome. Can we just get together, Let's 1415 01:12:48,560 --> 01:12:52,639 Speaker 1: let's do that. Fuck this movie and fuck James Brooke 1416 01:12:53,840 --> 01:12:57,880 Speaker 1: the British Empire. Yeah, agreed. Also check out the song 1417 01:12:58,000 --> 01:13:01,160 Speaker 1: Fuck the British Army if you're if you're feeling feeling 1418 01:13:01,240 --> 01:13:04,760 Speaker 1: more of those vibes. Um, oh, there's some good news. 1419 01:13:04,800 --> 01:13:06,880 Speaker 1: The family of George Floyd reached a twenty seven million 1420 01:13:06,920 --> 01:13:09,200 Speaker 1: dollar settlement with the City of Minneapolis in a wrongful 1421 01:13:09,240 --> 01:13:12,720 Speaker 1: death suit. All right, that does kind of speak well 1422 01:13:12,840 --> 01:13:15,360 Speaker 1: for what I hope will happen to Derek Chauvin in 1423 01:13:15,400 --> 01:13:19,639 Speaker 1: the trial. Um, well, got it. You've got some plug 1424 01:13:19,680 --> 01:13:22,240 Speaker 1: doubles to plug before we write out. Yeah, I should 1425 01:13:22,360 --> 01:13:24,760 Speaker 1: promote our show a little bit better than I did 1426 01:13:24,880 --> 01:13:27,960 Speaker 1: last time, or my co host will hurt me. So 1427 01:13:28,560 --> 01:13:30,720 Speaker 1: we have a podcast called The House of Pod. It's 1428 01:13:30,760 --> 01:13:33,439 Speaker 1: like a medical podcast, but it's like pretty relatable and 1429 01:13:33,520 --> 01:13:36,120 Speaker 1: it's not just for doctors. So, um, we talk we 1430 01:13:36,240 --> 01:13:39,680 Speaker 1: cover medical topics, but we also talk about things, um 1431 01:13:40,000 --> 01:13:44,000 Speaker 1: like you know, systemic racism and medicine, sexual harassment in medicine. 1432 01:13:44,040 --> 01:13:46,240 Speaker 1: We try to cover a lot of different topics that 1433 01:13:46,320 --> 01:13:48,760 Speaker 1: we think are important, and we have guests ranging from 1434 01:13:48,840 --> 01:13:51,519 Speaker 1: like the world expert physicians, like the best doctors in 1435 01:13:51,560 --> 01:13:55,559 Speaker 1: the world, to you know, Robert Evans so you should 1436 01:13:55,600 --> 01:13:57,960 Speaker 1: check it out. I think you'll like it. Um find 1437 01:13:58,000 --> 01:14:00,759 Speaker 1: this at the House of Pod, at Twitter and anywhere 1438 01:14:00,840 --> 01:14:05,840 Speaker 1: you do your podcasting. Yeah, check it out. Um Uh, 1439 01:14:06,120 --> 01:14:09,160 Speaker 1: yell at the people making the movie about James Brooke, um, 1440 01:14:09,800 --> 01:14:12,360 Speaker 1: because it seems like a bad idea. What the world 1441 01:14:12,479 --> 01:14:16,080 Speaker 1: needs now is for us all to idolize a man 1442 01:14:16,360 --> 01:14:20,840 Speaker 1: who conquered an entire country for his own self aggrandizement, 1443 01:14:21,560 --> 01:14:25,599 Speaker 1: paid his mercenary local soldiers in the heads of their enemies, 1444 01:14:25,720 --> 01:14:29,680 Speaker 1: and then gained a reputation as fighting head hunting. Um 1445 01:14:30,320 --> 01:14:32,360 Speaker 1: that's great. I mean he did, like he had a 1446 01:14:32,400 --> 01:14:35,160 Speaker 1: couple of anti head hunting like crusades and stuff throughout 1447 01:14:35,240 --> 01:14:38,360 Speaker 1: his career, But when he needed the people who were 1448 01:14:38,360 --> 01:14:40,519 Speaker 1: head hunting to fight for him, he paid them in heads. 1449 01:14:40,600 --> 01:14:43,439 Speaker 1: So I don't I'm not gonna call him an opponent 1450 01:14:43,560 --> 01:14:46,200 Speaker 1: of head hunting. Um. I just I just don't see 1451 01:14:46,240 --> 01:14:48,360 Speaker 1: how in this day and age, people are still buying 1452 01:14:48,439 --> 01:14:53,400 Speaker 1: the story. You know, Yeah, you know it's because, like 1453 01:14:53,560 --> 01:14:55,720 Speaker 1: funck Man, I I it's hard. Not like I was 1454 01:14:55,840 --> 01:14:57,720 Speaker 1: raised on a lot of impre like I read a 1455 01:14:57,760 --> 01:15:00,240 Speaker 1: lot like King Solomon's minds and stuff. I've talked about 1456 01:15:00,240 --> 01:15:02,760 Speaker 1: this someone episode, these books about like the the age 1457 01:15:02,800 --> 01:15:05,920 Speaker 1: of exploration and adventure, and like there's always been like 1458 01:15:06,080 --> 01:15:07,760 Speaker 1: I've made some of the decisions I've made in my 1459 01:15:07,840 --> 01:15:11,000 Speaker 1: life because I wanted to have, you know, adventures in 1460 01:15:11,760 --> 01:15:15,120 Speaker 1: places that that seemed exotic and strange and unfamiliar to me. 1461 01:15:15,400 --> 01:15:19,280 Speaker 1: It's a powerful impulse, particularly within our culture. So you 1462 01:15:19,760 --> 01:15:22,160 Speaker 1: there's a lot of desire for these guys to have 1463 01:15:22,240 --> 01:15:25,519 Speaker 1: actually been heroes for what they did do have been heroic. Um. 1464 01:15:25,920 --> 01:15:29,840 Speaker 1: And in part because it justifies further colonial adventures, and 1465 01:15:29,920 --> 01:15:33,080 Speaker 1: in part because just people like a good adventure story. 1466 01:15:33,560 --> 01:15:36,760 Speaker 1: But I think it's pretty harmful. I think it's pretty harmful. Yeah. 1467 01:15:37,200 --> 01:15:41,960 Speaker 1: You know, I'm not mad at everyone who contributes in 1468 01:15:42,040 --> 01:15:45,200 Speaker 1: a tiny ways to Orientalism, you know. I mean sometimes 1469 01:15:45,280 --> 01:15:47,479 Speaker 1: it leads to people learning more about these cultures and 1470 01:15:47,720 --> 01:15:50,240 Speaker 1: you know, more about like you know, Iron for example. 1471 01:15:50,680 --> 01:15:53,880 Speaker 1: So it's not always bad, um, but it kind of 1472 01:15:54,000 --> 01:15:57,559 Speaker 1: gets it does get so easy for it to go bad. Yeah, 1473 01:15:57,680 --> 01:16:00,080 Speaker 1: I mean, it can in some cases be so of 1474 01:16:00,200 --> 01:16:03,160 Speaker 1: the seed that leads someone to an actual nuanced understanding 1475 01:16:03,360 --> 01:16:06,439 Speaker 1: of both like a different culture and and that can 1476 01:16:06,520 --> 01:16:09,679 Speaker 1: be positive. Um. But more often I think it leads 1477 01:16:09,760 --> 01:16:15,519 Speaker 1: to James brook You know James Brooke. Um, yeah, it's 1478 01:16:15,560 --> 01:16:21,120 Speaker 1: not great. He's not great, but yeah he's not hot, 1479 01:16:21,200 --> 01:16:22,880 Speaker 1: not as hot as they're making him, not nearly as 1480 01:16:22,920 --> 01:16:25,960 Speaker 1: hot as David Karrett. Um. So yeah, I guess if 1481 01:16:26,000 --> 01:16:28,360 Speaker 1: I'm going to ask my listeners to do anything, it's 1482 01:16:28,840 --> 01:16:34,040 Speaker 1: think about David Koresh's unbelievably cut abs, just shredded abs. 1483 01:16:34,840 --> 01:16:38,360 Speaker 1: Then check out the House of hod Um, or do 1484 01:16:38,479 --> 01:16:39,880 Speaker 1: both at the same time. You can do both at 1485 01:16:39,880 --> 01:16:41,560 Speaker 1: the same time. We may talk about his abs on 1486 01:16:41,600 --> 01:16:43,439 Speaker 1: the show. We may talk about his abs. Abs are 1487 01:16:43,439 --> 01:16:47,200 Speaker 1: an important part of health um And here's at the 1488 01:16:47,320 --> 01:16:47,760 Speaker 1: end of the show.