What role did geographic location and natural resources play in the the development of Malaysia?

Malaysia's Natural Resources:


Malaysia has a wealth of natural resources such as tin, petroleum, timber, palm oil, rubber, copper, iron ore, natural gas and bauxite. But, out of these seven the most important resource that fuels Malaysia's growth is petroleum.

     Petroleum. You can probably guess what Petroleum is, if not Petroleum is PETROL (Petroleum).Petroleum is probably the highest selling resource, because countries not only want it but need it (to power cars etc.). Petroleum is a very important resource and countries all over the world would die for it. Luckily, Malaysia has come to the rescue. Even countries like America import Petroleum from Malaysia!

Part played by geographical location in the exploitation of these resources:

Peninsular Malaysia can be found in South East Asia, bordering Thailand and just on the South China Sea. Malaysia is also located near India and China, therefore Malaysia took advantage of this geographical location to benefit from cheap labour to work on these resources, from China and India. In the early days of Malaysia's development, Indians labour was brought in to work in the rubber and oil palm plantations. The Chinese migrated in large numbers to work in the tin copper and bauxite mines. Native Malays were either fishermen or farmers. In recent years Petronas (of the twin tower fame) the company, was tasked with exploiting the countries vast petroleum and natural gas resources. 

Part played by geographical location in the export of these natural resources:

Malaysia is also very close to the equator, therefore Malaysia only has two seasons: Rainy Season and Dry Season. Peninsular Malaysia is placed in a very strategic location along the Strait of Malacca and on the South China Sea.This helped malaysia with excellent ports that enabled it to trade in these natural resources. The Strait of Malacca is probably the most important shipping lane in the world! Giving us the first topic: Trade Routes. 

     Trade Routes. Definition: "A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo." (Definition courtesy of: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_route). 

As you can see Malaysia's geographic location and natural resources played a big part in the development of Malaysia.

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