Brunei Country is in the north-west of Borneo. It is of two separate areas which are divided and bounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

In the early 16th century Malay settlers created an independent sultanate of Brunei. An Islamic kingdom which controlled in those days much of Borneo and its neighbouring islands.

When the Dutch and the British came in the 17th century they started to gain more and more land from the sultanate. By the 1800 all there was left was today's states of Brunei, Sarawak and part of Sabah in north and north-west Borneo.

In the 1840 the indigenous people of Sarawak rebelled but with the help of the British adventurer James Brooke the rebellion was put down. The grateful Sultan of Brunei gave James Brooke the control of Sarawak.

1877 A treaty was signed by the consortium of British merchants and the Sultan of Brunei for a part of North Borneo.

1888 The Sultan's state of Brunei was under British protection.

During the Second World War the Japanese overrun the Sultanate of Brunei.

1966 Brunei resisted the pressure to join the Federation of Malaysia and manage to keep their self-government in 1971.. Then in January 1984 Brunei became fully independent.

By then Brunei's economy was the richest in the world with their oil field discover in 1929 and gas fields in 1965.

The Sultan of Brunei, during his lavish silver jubilee celebration in 1992 paraded in an ornate chariot through the capital city.