I just realized that the word "gongsi" is probably the origin of indonesian word "Kongsi", which is in Indonesian is referring to "trading guild" or colonial companies like British EIC or Dutch VOC.
I love how Ghost Countries brings more attention to states that even most general history nerds wouldn’t know about unless they ended up on a clicking rabbit hole on Wikipedia
Apparently some people just created Wikipedia about Lan Fang a fake country since 2022. 😂 Lang Fang is not a nation or a country. It was just a share (Kongsi) or business organization formed by Chinese labors work in mining. West Borneo was under the control of Sambas Sultanate since 1671.
@@mikhail2446sambas sultanate invite those chinese in their Kingdoms as partner against brunei sultanate in the north and sukadana kingdom in the south. They are given Pretty high autonomy even when under sambas vassalage. In fact last independen sambas king died in singkawang seeking shelter against his nephew who allied with dutch. This republic actually one of last area to be conquered by the dutch along with banjar sultanate.
Bruh I am Indonesian but only hear the name of Lanfang Republic, basically I know that it was once exist but I don't have any single idea about who is them, how their government and society does to live, etc. The history books and our historical teachers here never write any single thing about their history, even from Dutch or Chinese Indonesian sources never tell anything about this Republic. It's a big shame that my country never teach us about Lanfang and I only started to know it because of your videos. Big thumbs 👍❤
Indonesian history does not fit with the narrative that the government and clerics want people to believe. Indonesia was supposed to be a united people who gained their independence against a foreign invader, which wasn't the reality. In truth the archipelago was made of a bunch of tribes who were constantly fighting amongst themselves.
@@freemanol Dude, stop making propaganda. After the Dutch conquer the entire archipelago, people from all different islands realize that they have the same enemy and only by uniting they can became strong and repel the invaders. That's why in 1928 they decide to make a Youth Pledge where they will create one homeland, one nation, one language: Indonesia.
@@JackRoopers Not until these ethnolinguistic groups had enough critical mass of educated elites (thanks to the Dutch emancipation program, although sadly very belated and of small scale) in the early 1900s. This was culminated on the Youth Congress of 1928. Prior to the emancipation program, it was essentially every group for themselves.
@@archingelusi dont think they cover all kingdom.indonesian only teach the huge one like majapahit,sriwijaya,singosari. While small kingdom like banten sultanate or sunda forgotten
@@rez1525theyre not forgotten. even kingdoms in eastern indonesia like gowa, ternate, tidore are mentioned. but they dont have that many historical source like ancient inscription/prasasti or temples so theres not much to tell about them.
If I'm asking at least my friend on java and madura they will have no clue what lanfang is, generally it's not even mentioned on highschool book I know because play EU4 give the knowledge
@@Vysairsebab memang macam tu lah, semasa Sultan Pertama tu meneroka hutan untuk buatkan bandar, kena kacau dengan ketawa-ketawa dan penampakan makhluk tu. Sebab tu, nama bandar tu jadi Pontianak. Bahasa di sana pun sama atau beza sikit ja dengan Bahasa Melayu di Malaysia. Saya pun ada teman kat sana, sebab dulu dia satu universiti dengan saya kat Malaysia ni.
I was told my ancestors could have been involved with The 蘭芳共和國, shame that my family history is poorly conserve that I only know that my ancestors owned gold mines locally (somewhere within East Kalimantan - the late Sarawak Kingdom), and marrying ancestors that owned tin mine in the peninsula (probably some political marriage lol) I am a Sarawakian Hakka, the exact same slang of Hakka (河婆客, one of the 5? "regional" Hakka) can be found in Sarawak, part of Kalimantan, and part of Chinese GuangDong.
Hey there, I'm Sarawakian here too, although I'm a Dayak (Iban specifically). Interesting how we do know this, although for me, I accidentally stumbled into this while browsing casually on Wikipedia several years ago. Good to see you here, oh and of course, Happy Sarawak Day mate! ❤️
@@paullai1583 my great-grandfather speaks non-Hopo Hakka which is associated with somewhere in Indonesia, he was a gold smith. I'm not sure which generation was the one that moved from Indonesia to Sarawak tho, I was told they were hella rich--- they had servants carrying gold bars in basket, furnitures etc. all the way, we're talking about a long long line of servants here 😂
indonesia isn't a country w 4th largest number of overseas chinese. in fact, the largest overseas chinese community in the world (excluding tw, hk, and macau) is living in Indonesia. Chinese-indonesians have long moved to pre-indonesia, as have been here for hundreds of years, from generation to generation, and not only in borneo island. there is also a large number in java, sumatera, and surronding islands.
I love this video. I love it. we don't even heard of this in our school in Indonesia. I guest that's why there's a lot of chinese ancestry people in West Kalimantan.
Hey there, thanks for your interest! I'm from Borneo, specifically Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo). I too find our history (about Borneo and the surrounding in general) just as interesting as some others out there (too much to name here, but you know it), but pretty underrated and not entirely known except to history enthusiasts, just like you and myself do. :D
Thanks and I completely agree with you about Borneo; I've actually been toying with the idea of doing a comprehensive ghost geography episode about the island at some point!
@@GhostCountries Nice, thanks for your comment! Glad to hear that you've gave this one slice to learn, and now you're giving us here in Borneo more love in this history TH-cam scene, both today and in to the future ❤️ Oh and btw, today, we Sarawakian celebrates Sarawak (Independence) Day, which we officially celebrates it since gazetted into our state law in 2016. Pretty nice and coincidentally timely for me and others to learn about this and other lesser-known history that we aren't made aware of before, thanks to you and few others that really willing to go deep dive into our lesser-known historical rabbit hole ❤️
@@Cigmacica Victoria 3 should have been an improved version of Victoria 2. That's what we have been waiting for for a decade. Instead, it's a sort of cheap HOI4 set in the 19th century. The only thing Victoria 2 players wanted was normal multiplayer and maybe a few very conservative changes. We have been let down and everyone should boycot the dumbest Paradox game.
Lang Fang is not a nation or a country. It was just a share (Kongsi) or business organization formed by Chinese labors work in mining. West Borneo was under the control of Sambas Sultanate since 1671.
@@mikhail2446 depends how you define a country. but in this case, they did have some kind of organizing, ie a leader, council, and the people. the sultanate did not influence how they live as long as they paid tributes, which means they did govern themselves.
@@bukanmars9999 Lol. Wrong. Whatever you try to define, organization is just organization. Even homeless people can forming an organization, but not all people can own or even rule the lands. 1) Lang Fang people was not natives, they just immigrants who came hundreds years after the native kingdoms established and ruled the Western Borneo. They also never purchased the Western Borneo lands from the Sultanate of Sambas, which Sultanate of Sambas was the only Kingdom who administratively controlled and ruled the Western Borneo. 2) Sultanate of Sambas have big influences and acknowledged by the Dutch. That's why Dutch East Indies purchased some of the Western Borneo lands from Sultanate. And that's why the Sultanate was administratively exists during Dutch Est Indies, until the administrations and controls hand-overed from Sultanate of Sambas to Indonesian government in 1956. While Lang Fang organization never acknowledged by the locals, Sultanate and Dutch to rule the Western Borneo. They just a business federation, nothing more. That's why Dutch disbanded this organization.
The Philippines had something similar, but it wasn't a Republic. The Kaboloan or Pangasinan was Chinese tributary-like state in the Pangasinan area in the island of Luzon or Lusong at the time. The state had influence from the Ming dynasty (the Qing didn't take over yet). By the time the Spanish came to Pangasinan, they noted that commoners were wearing Chinese and Japanese cotton garments while the Nobility wore silks. Intresting to know that Indonesia had something similar, having even a chinese republic before the world wars.
In era of sukarno many Chinese living were be retuned over to China by ships and some of them had entered Sabah illegally before Malaysia federation was formed.was not recorded in history.
Soekarno didn't plan this. It's the local sambas and pontianak nobleman who want the mining area for their own with the help of Japanese. But they resist fiercely dispite the genocide, so it fail and to this day, lot of chinese reside in west kalimantan. We called them "mandor affair" Or "pontianak incident".
Fun fact: "công ty" in Vietnamese also means company / business entity. Yes, it's the same Chinese word, just with a Vietnamese sound change of S to T.
any EU4 player knows about this country because of how hard it is to form and how rare it is to see, so it's sorta become a bit famous for that, really interesting video btw!
Basic knowledge about the history of Lancang republic was particularly erased and remained disclosed even for national curriculum since the Soeharto order 1966-1998 as it issued anti - Chinese policies. Very great and informative video! 🤍
Actually there another one, and this was in Tuban, Java 1293, called the Shunta Kingdom. Not much know about this. Not even in Indonesian history lesson book. Established by a group of exile army from Song Dinasty.
My maternal great great grandparents are from this region. They families were slaughtered and only 2 brothers were young boys treked the jungle and rivers, walked to Bau, Sarawak. According to my grandmother, it ws the Dutch who caused the divide and conquer amongst the locals to kill all Chinese. The Dutch has caused many frictions in order to rule over the locals.
Around that time there was also a Chinese kongsi in the Kingdom of Sarawak up north, during the 1850s the miners started an uprising against James Brooke's government over taxations when they invaded the capital of Kuching but failed to kill Brooke, afterwards Brooke led a troops consist of Dayaks and prusued the miners back to their village where they slaughtered the village with only a few survivors left. According to Facebook, the descendant of James Brooke, Jason Brooke actually visited the village few years ago.
I'm a Sarawakian Hakka, I can confirm most rebellion activities throughout China's history were initiated by Hakka 😂 Hakka are so rebellious due to strong code of brotherhood (the Yakuza or Triad kind of stuff). But as a modern Hakka, I strongly condemn their action of burn down the library... bad! could have been a negotiation... but it's a very different context in that era...
@@shadowmistress999 Every group of people have strong code of brotherhood. It's nothing special. What made Hakka special was their history. They came from the northern China to the south of Yangzi river only to find that the lands there were already owned by earlier migrants. So they had to survive by being labors to serve the landowners of the southern China. And for a non landowner, the only way up was education and then work with the government (where the abundant riches at the time were). That's how Hakkas often found themselves in political stations, such as gongsi leader of Lan Fang, head of Taiping rebels, founder of Republic of China, or prime minister of Singapore ... and yes, bosses of Triad.
2:07 Brunie🇧🇳 is not an expansionist because for many centuries and millenium they never expanded its territory even they all have the rights to own Sabah.. the Sultan of Brunie🇧🇳 gave the northern part of Sabah to the Sultan of Sulu but the british monarchs and its oil company that renting the north borneo to Sultan of Sulu they hand over it into Malaysia to extend its territorial colony..
Lang Fang is not a nation or a country. It was just a share (Kongsi) or business organization formed by Chinese labors work in mining. West Borneo was under the control of Sambas Sultanate since 1671.
@@georgeloh8257 lol. There is thousands organization put republic on their organization name, even until today there are many organization with republic in their name, but they are not a nation. Western Borneo was not a no man land. It was ruled by many different native kingdoms hundreds years before Chinese came. And when Chinese came, Western Borneo were owned and ruled administratively by Sultanate of Sambas from 1609 - 1956. The Dutch recognized and acknowledged this Sultanate, even purchased some of the lands in Western Borneo from them. While Chinese Lang Fang was just bunch of immigrants, not a native, didn't owned any lands, didn't brought any lands from the Sultanate, they just settlers that formed a business organization for themselves. Their rules didn't acknowledged by the Kingdom, Locals, or even the Dutch. That's why Dutch disbanded this useless organization.
@@kakikakakukakumaybe for China that got cruesed by Mongolians, Brits, and Japan in many years. But for Indonesia or Nusantara, country is owned or controlled and ruled by native kingdoms or administrations. Colonizers, immigrants, etc are just settlers.
The Chinese population has always been respected in the Dutch East Indies. Compulsory education was introduced in 1900, but education was segregated. There were European and indigenous schools, but also Chinese schools. In terms of level, the Chinese schools were on par with the European schools. The Chinese could speak their own language and preserve their culture. In 1918, the 'Volksraad' (People's Council) was established to replace the colonial government. The Volksraad consisted of 30 indigenous, 25 Dutch and 5 Chinese members. After independence, the Chinese were seen as traitors because they sympathized with the Dutch. The Europeans were banished from Indonesia, the Chinese were not. But the Chinese had to change their Chinese surname to an Indonesian name and choose a religion. Chinese characters were also banned in public. Ultimately, many Chinese become Christians, but until 1963 many Chinese also fled to the Netherlands. In 1963, Dutch New Guinea was transferred to Indonesia. Until that date, the Netherlands gave everyone in the Republic of Indonesia the last chance to take on Dutch nationality. The Chinese diaspora in the Netherlands consists of a mixture of diasporas from the former Dutch East Indies, Dutch New Guinea, Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean. Moreover, in 1980, many Chinese (refugees) came from South China.
i have heard of lanfang republic many times as a south east asian chinese but i thought it just sounded cool........then again there are so many republics in chinese history. even polytechnics have republics in their names.
It’s pronounced as; “Kong Xi” “Kong Xi” as it it’s Cantonese for company… as the same or contemporary to such organizations as The East Indian Company…
Thanks for sharing this history, this one is too little known. Am Indonesian. I knew this history before because I played Victoria 2 and Victoria 3 lol, and the fact that this country could appear in EU4.
there were Greek city state republics in anatolia before 400BC and the Roman republic spread as far as Syria republics of Genoa and Venice had their colonies in Crimea (Asia), so it's technically not the first republic in Asia but East Asia most likely, and great video!
@@rickville8898 why is it matters what he says, if you watch the video you would have your own conclusion, it was first east-asian/oriental/sino colony in malay-pasific world predates the European settlement in region even japanese occupation beside the moral discussion about what "colonialism" is, and ppl talk about roman and greece like wtf, the word asian is problematic and racist it includes everybody outside europe, ppl should've used it anymore even in academia, that isolate/damaged us from scientific study.
Indonesian archipelago is archipelago and 3 different time zone like west , central and East. East part of Indonesia is part of South west Pacific area
For historical context, the choice for a Republic was not so strange as the Dutch were also a republic: The United Republic of the Seven Netherlands aka the United States.
Learning history about indonesia since tarumanagara (400 AD), doho, medang, pajang, singosari, sriwijaya, majapahit, mataram, ducth colonial, japanese event post-independence is about War. Thats why indonesian people call their land as "My Land My Bloodshed"
Probably not really related.. I know the descandsnts of the first president of the lanfang republic, low lan pak. Most of them currently reside in malaysia today (peninsular) but every year or so they make a trip back to mandor as some sort of pilgrimage to the leaders of the republic
Borneo in the 19th century is a pretty odd island politically having two countries formed by foreigners, Lanfang Republic founded by Chinese Kongsi, The Kingdom of Sarawak founded by an Englishman from Devon by the name of James Brooke and a British protectorate named North Borneo which was originally established by an Austro-Hungarian businessman and diplomat named Gustav Overbeck.
Well, I become know of Lanfang Republic from Victoria 3 as I play the Dutch east Indies. Frustratingly enough, if you start the game as any other independent nation on Indonesia like Aceh, Siak, among other things, even if you unite every independent nation, the total population would barely reach 3 million. On the other hand, West Java alone on 1836 has a population of 4 million.
I've read the story from the Indonesia magazine (msybe TEMPO or INTISARI) long time ago (maybe at 90's). They have alots of photograph about lanfang republic. Old story and burried in my mind until now at 2024.
Chinese diaspora has held huge clout in Indonesia's political and economic structure. Most behemoth conglomerates are owned by Chinese Indonesians including banks, telecommunication, energy, etc....
NEVER NAME THEM "CHINESE DIASPORA" only their haters name them that and want them out. The 'conglomerate themselves want to be referred as "Indonesian of Chinese descendants". You sabotage them!😂
Indi kalimantan, The three largest kongsi republics were the Lanfang Republic, the Heshun Confederation (Fosjoen), and the Santiaogou Federation (Samtiaokioe) after it had split from the Heshun.[1]
Interesting. China throughout several points in history could've taken much of SEA and Australia, fortunately their sense of universalism was mostly inwards
I always thought that the First Philippine Republic was the first one in Asia in 1898. I think if we talk about an organized Republic, then the First Philippine Republic is one. With a written constitution, formal independence, and a standing army. Americans during the Philippine - American War subjugated the last Filipino soldier in 1913, which the war started in 1899.
This is fascinating! Never heard of this republic before. It is interesting that a Chinese person not only set up a state across the sea in Indonesia, but that he founded it on fairly democratic principles, holding elections for major governmental positions including head of state and seeking popular consent when enacting policies. Given that this was around the time of the founding of the US and French republics, I'm wondering if he was influenced by the events on the opposite side of the globe and/or Enlightenment and Western political philosophers.
From what I read the Kongsi federations originally stemmed from traditional Chinese notions of brotherhoods. But there are scholarly debates on whether calling it republicanism or a Chinese style democracy. But facts are it had the meaning of a commercial company but had democratic institutions. Main scholarly arguments are whether the comparisons to western style republicanism are valid
Well, Singkawang is now a city with the most percentage of Indonesian-Chinese in Indonesia (if exclude Jakarta), covering around 40% of the population and also nicknamed "The City with 1000 Temples" (kinda like how the population Manado in North Sulawesi is most Christian and nicknamed "The City with 1000 Churches and there's a lot of churches there) and also has the highest number of Chinatowns in Indonesia
7:59 This clip is actually the Chinatown of Manila, and not in Indonesia. I know this because of our own motorised tricycles as well as three-letter four-digit license plates.
The country everyone discovered from Vicky 2, honestly I'm surprised as many people know about it as they do from Indonesia, that country isn't the most kind towards its Chinese population, or that there were still a significant Chinese population there after everything
The way I found this was because of AoH2 😂 when I was making a scenario I found it kinda odd that there was a republic in 1840s Indonesia, so I was even more surprised when I found out it was actually a Chinese state
Tiong hua di indonesia awal data k3 nusantara berdagang.. dan buruh pekerja yang di bawa kolonial eropa ... Dan mereka ber esimilasi dengan penduduk pribumi...
Not even our Indonesian school history class ever taught us about this. Possibly due to nationalistic sentiment, but... its probably going to be mentioned if Low proclaimed himself as a sultan instead of turned his domain into a republic 😉
Possibly to burry this piece of history to acertain Chinese origin as minority and seen as exploiting stuff. If this history were to come out more ppl would change their minds of Chinese settlers. Kudos for this video 👍
China made the biggest mistake and did not colonised the countries around the South China Seas and Asian region. Unlike the Spaniard, Dutch, Portuguese, and British, American colonised the Asian countries and forced these countries to adopt culture and religion.
Vietnam was colonised and occupied by ancient China for more than 1000 years. China is not as saintly and innocent as most people think they are. Meanwhile, Islam and Buddhism have much greater influences in South East Asia than Christianity.
@@perrycheong1058 Nah.. What you described was not colonization. In history, during the 1000 years, Northern Vietnam was governed in the exact way as every single other province of China across different dynasties. 😅 It was just a Chinese province that broke away to become an independent country. And it did become a new independent country after all. But still, it's a completely different concept from sending troops overseas and create a colonial government that does not consider the local as their own nationals. Like the British colonizers never considered the Native Americans as British citizens when they colonized North America.... How is it colonization when the Chinese rulers back then treated people living in northern Vietnam the exactly the same way it treated the people regardless of ethnicity and religious beliefs living in rest of its territory, such as Beijing or Guangzhou?
There no mistake china never was interested with the outside world, and they had so much trouble inward and also coming from the north and east.Even during their peak they never was interested except bordering state despite having contact with south east asia for over 1000 year. Which is good atleast most asian never regard the chinese race which animosity.
China throughout several points in time could've taken much of Asia, Australia, and attempted other landgrabs that may not have been successful but resulted in lots of human suffering. Their sense of universalism was inward, unlike the British that were outward. We should be thankful China didn't go hard...
6:55 I believe that's a picture of the arrest of prince Diponegoro in Java. A totally different region, people, and time. cmiiw. edit: it was "The Submission of Prince Dipo Negoro to General De Kock", a picture by Nicolaas Pienerman.
It was about economic reason at first, they worked as gold miners coz they good at. Then it was became huge in trading and had economic and social impacts there. To protect them as comunity worker from inequality sultane's rule they started to make their own governance
This is my Hometown, in Singkawang. Our ancestor Lo Fong Pak is the first person who introduced Republic system in indonesia
It's one of the earliest in the modern era but it isn't *the* first Republic in the world, Rome in particular comes to mind
@@scotandiamapping4549 my mistake, i mean first in Indonesia.
@@benatis ah
ayy, its my hometown as well. my dad grew up there
Well we still don't have consensus whether the republic was a 'western style' or a chinese developed one.
I just realized that the word "gongsi" is probably the origin of indonesian word "Kongsi", which is in Indonesian is referring to "trading guild" or colonial companies like British EIC or Dutch VOC.
You would be correct, many came from hokkien like pisau(knife), becak(ricksaw), and lonceng(bells)
KONGSI...KHENGZI...
.GONGSHI
mandarin language....(HAKA...HOKKIEN dialect).
'Gongxi' in Mandarin ('Kongsi' in the Hokkien dialect) means 'company' or 'corporation'.
gongsi not gongxi
@@imbat7149 who said gongxi?
I love how Ghost Countries brings more attention to states that even most general history nerds wouldn’t know about unless they ended up on a clicking rabbit hole on Wikipedia
Or just play vicky 2/3
Or Europa Universalis IV
How the US Empire Operates (Part 2)
th-cam.com/video/hRhhv8TBGTo/w-d-xo.html
Apparently some people just created Wikipedia about Lan Fang a fake country since 2022. 😂
Lang Fang is not a nation or a country. It was just a share (Kongsi) or business organization formed by Chinese labors work in mining. West Borneo was under the control of Sambas Sultanate since 1671.
@@mikhail2446sambas sultanate invite those chinese in their Kingdoms as partner against brunei sultanate in the north and sukadana kingdom in the south. They are given Pretty high autonomy even when under sambas vassalage. In fact last independen sambas king died in singkawang seeking shelter against his nephew who allied with dutch. This republic actually one of last area to be conquered by the dutch along with banjar sultanate.
Bruh I am Indonesian but only hear the name of Lanfang Republic, basically I know that it was once exist but I don't have any single idea about who is them, how their government and society does to live, etc. The history books and our historical teachers here never write any single thing about their history, even from Dutch or Chinese Indonesian sources never tell anything about this Republic. It's a big shame that my country never teach us about Lanfang and I only started to know it because of your videos. Big thumbs 👍❤
Indonesian history does not fit with the narrative that the government and clerics want people to believe. Indonesia was supposed to be a united people who gained their independence against a foreign invader, which wasn't the reality. In truth the archipelago was made of a bunch of tribes who were constantly fighting amongst themselves.
@@freemanolwho cares?
@@freemanol Dude, stop making propaganda. After the Dutch conquer the entire archipelago, people from all different islands realize that they have the same enemy and only by uniting they can became strong and repel the invaders. That's why in 1928 they decide to make a Youth Pledge where they will create one homeland, one nation, one language: Indonesia.
@@JackRoopers and who's this enemy, the chinese?
Is this why you massacred many of them lol 😂, because of the "youth pledge"?
@@JackRoopers Not until these ethnolinguistic groups had enough critical mass of educated elites (thanks to the Dutch emancipation program, although sadly very belated and of small scale) in the early 1900s. This was culminated on the Youth Congress of 1928. Prior to the emancipation program, it was essentially every group for themselves.
This is not even mentioned in my Dutch history classes while Dutch East Indies is something obligatory every Dutch student has to learn
Probably overshadowed by the dutch conquest of java and the larger borneon states
I have litteraly never seen that in any book
Neither we have this is our national history class, all the older muslim and hindu kingdoms are recognized but this
@@archingelusi dont think they cover all kingdom.indonesian only teach the huge one like majapahit,sriwijaya,singosari. While small kingdom like banten sultanate or sunda forgotten
@@rez1525theyre not forgotten. even kingdoms in eastern indonesia like gowa, ternate, tidore are mentioned. but they dont have that many historical source like ancient inscription/prasasti or temples so theres not much to tell about them.
Cool to see this discussed more online. Indonesians know about this, but rather passingly.
We've never taught about this in our history class, ngl.
If I'm asking at least my friend on java and madura they will have no clue what lanfang is, generally it's not even mentioned on highschool book
I know because play EU4 give the knowledge
Yeah many indonesians know but not most. Its been mentioned on quora indonesia for many years
I know this history about history of garuda symbol.
there is only few indonesian know about this history..
I found out about this country through wikipedia like 3 years ago
I found out about this country through EU4
I found out about it via a HOI 4 mod.
I found out about it now, i knew china had some influence there but never thought they had their own country
Well i found about it from vic3 as one of the most progressive OPM starts
Making it a very fun start
You can do a lot with it
I found it by playing vic 2
their legacy still lives on, 42% of singkawang and 30% of pontianak/mandor citizens are Chinese descent (a total 8% of west kalimantan population)
pontianak still sounds funny because it's a type of ghost
Many of them marry with the local converted to be Muslim and claim they are origin people
@@Vysairsebab memang macam tu lah, semasa Sultan Pertama tu meneroka hutan untuk buatkan bandar, kena kacau dengan ketawa-ketawa dan penampakan makhluk tu. Sebab tu, nama bandar tu jadi Pontianak. Bahasa di sana pun sama atau beza sikit ja dengan Bahasa Melayu di Malaysia. Saya pun ada teman kat sana, sebab dulu dia satu universiti dengan saya kat Malaysia ni.
I am Chinese Indonesian and i live in Pontianak, i don't know any of this till now.
Nantinya salah satu keturunan yang selamat menarik diri ke Singapura dan salah satu keturunannya adalah perdana menteri pertama Singapura
@@Yitnoyitno-wv6gbbeda marga koq, pendiri Lanfang marga Low, pendiri SGP marga Lee.
Ive never met any singkawang chinese who know this also. One has to read wiki quora or EU4
@@Yitnoyitno-wv6gblee itu dari semarang bukan kalimantan
@@anneke6904 Nenek LKY (dari ibunya) merupakan keturunan Hakka yg berasal dari Pontianak kemudian pindah ke singapore.
Always wanted to learn more about this! Thanks guy!
Thanks man - we've got a more episodes in SE Asia and Oceania planned!
@@GhostCountries can’t wait!
I was told my ancestors could have been involved with The 蘭芳共和國, shame that my family history is poorly conserve that I only know that my ancestors owned gold mines locally (somewhere within East Kalimantan - the late Sarawak Kingdom), and marrying ancestors that owned tin mine in the peninsula (probably some political marriage lol)
I am a Sarawakian Hakka, the exact same slang of Hakka (河婆客, one of the 5? "regional" Hakka) can be found in Sarawak, part of Kalimantan, and part of Chinese GuangDong.
Lanfang founder not hopo hakka!
Hey there, I'm Sarawakian here too, although I'm a Dayak (Iban specifically). Interesting how we do know this, although for me, I accidentally stumbled into this while browsing casually on Wikipedia several years ago. Good to see you here, oh and of course, Happy Sarawak Day mate! ❤️
@@paullai1583 my great-grandfather speaks non-Hopo Hakka which is associated with somewhere in Indonesia, he was a gold smith. I'm not sure which generation was the one that moved from Indonesia to Sarawak tho, I was told they were hella rich--- they had servants carrying gold bars in basket, furnitures etc. all the way, we're talking about a long long line of servants here 😂
@@danielsuguwa746 mate I am oversea so no any celebration vibe here 😭😭😭 Thank you!!!! Happy Sarawak Day to you too my brother in Motherland
@@shadowmistress999 You too, and you're very much welcome mate! 😊❤️
indonesia isn't a country w 4th largest number of overseas chinese. in fact, the largest overseas chinese community in the world (excluding tw, hk, and macau) is living in Indonesia. Chinese-indonesians have long moved to pre-indonesia, as have been here for hundreds of years, from generation to generation, and not only in borneo island. there is also a large number in java, sumatera, and surronding islands.
I love this video. I love it.
we don't even heard of this in our school in Indonesia.
I guest that's why there's a lot of chinese ancestry people in West Kalimantan.
Literally never heard of this cool part of south east asian history. You earned yourself a sub!
Borneo is an interesting subject from many perspectives
This is something I knew nothing about
Well presented
Hey there, thanks for your interest! I'm from Borneo, specifically Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo). I too find our history (about Borneo and the surrounding in general) just as interesting as some others out there (too much to name here, but you know it), but pretty underrated and not entirely known except to history enthusiasts, just like you and myself do. :D
Thanks and I completely agree with you about Borneo; I've actually been toying with the idea of doing a comprehensive ghost geography episode about the island at some point!
@@GhostCountries Nice, thanks for your comment! Glad to hear that you've gave this one slice to learn, and now you're giving us here in Borneo more love in this history TH-cam scene, both today and in to the future ❤️
Oh and btw, today, we Sarawakian celebrates Sarawak (Independence) Day, which we officially celebrates it since gazetted into our state law in 2016. Pretty nice and coincidentally timely for me and others to learn about this and other lesser-known history that we aren't made aware of before, thanks to you and few others that really willing to go deep dive into our lesser-known historical rabbit hole ❤️
@@GhostCountries So where are the sources for this video?
@@mfulan7548literally it exist in internet. You just lazy like most of Indonesian
Ayo, you highlighted my hometown boy!
As a Pontianak native i salute you.
need to pay a visit to your hometown
Everybody who played Vic3 will know it :D
Cringe. Just play Victoria 2 with HFM or GFM
@@hans7856 In Victoria 2 players can directly give commands to each individual brigades, so no
@@colinyu9517 Just like in the 19th century. That is the damn point.
@@hans7856I swear to god vicky 2 players can be the biggest assholes, just go back and play your game you don’t see vicky 3 players shit on you game
@@Cigmacica Victoria 3 should have been an improved version of Victoria 2. That's what we have been waiting for for a decade. Instead, it's a sort of cheap HOI4 set in the 19th century. The only thing Victoria 2 players wanted was normal multiplayer and maybe a few very conservative changes. We have been let down and everyone should boycot the dumbest Paradox game.
Victoria 2 players know this.
Me when I want to free Indonesia and form them in 1845. Lanfang,you're in!
Lang Fang is not a nation or a country. It was just a share (Kongsi) or business organization formed by Chinese labors work in mining. West Borneo was under the control of Sambas Sultanate since 1671.
@@mikhail2446 depends how you define a country. but in this case, they did have some kind of organizing, ie a leader, council, and the people. the sultanate did not influence how they live as long as they paid tributes, which means they did
govern themselves.
v2的兰芳是mod吧
@@bukanmars9999 Lol. Wrong. Whatever you try to define, organization is just organization. Even homeless people can forming an organization, but not all people can own or even rule the lands.
1) Lang Fang people was not natives, they just immigrants who came hundreds years after the native kingdoms established and ruled the Western Borneo. They also never purchased the Western Borneo lands from the Sultanate of Sambas, which Sultanate of Sambas was the only Kingdom who administratively controlled and ruled the Western Borneo.
2) Sultanate of Sambas have big influences and acknowledged by the Dutch. That's why Dutch East Indies purchased some of the Western Borneo lands from Sultanate.
And that's why the Sultanate was administratively exists during Dutch Est Indies, until the administrations and controls hand-overed from Sultanate of Sambas to Indonesian government in 1956.
While Lang Fang organization never acknowledged by the locals, Sultanate and Dutch to rule the Western Borneo. They just a business federation, nothing more. That's why Dutch disbanded this organization.
My pontianak friend's family is actually descendants of a lanfang kongsi leader
Singkawang is very well known among Indonesian Chinese
Hope more reserch are done by historians for this history after colonised by Dutch and UK was lost. Interesting history.
The Philippines had something similar, but it wasn't a Republic. The Kaboloan or Pangasinan was Chinese tributary-like state in the Pangasinan area in the island of Luzon or Lusong at the time. The state had influence from the Ming dynasty (the Qing didn't take over yet). By the time the Spanish came to Pangasinan, they noted that commoners were wearing Chinese and Japanese cotton garments while the Nobility wore silks. Intresting to know that Indonesia had something similar, having even a chinese republic before the world wars.
Those cities are still 40-50% ethnically Chinese, so I'd say the impact today remains considerable.
In era of sukarno many Chinese living were be retuned over to China by ships and some of them had entered Sabah illegally before Malaysia federation was formed.was not recorded in history.
Soekarno didn't plan this. It's the local sambas and pontianak nobleman who want the mining area for their own with the help of Japanese. But they resist fiercely dispite the genocide, so it fail and to this day, lot of chinese reside in west kalimantan. We called them "mandor affair" Or "pontianak incident".
Ah that explains why Pontianak seems like a randomly existing Chinese community stronghold in Borneo. I've always wondered.
Please make a video about Depok. The free independent city state from Dutch East Indies (nowadays Indonesia) created from free sleeves
can i get free sleeves too?
Funny@@rizkyadiyanto7922
More like creoles - ex-slaves with pretty significant European (mostly Dutch) admixture.
Depok republic
D.E.P.O.C not depok, and it was not created by the free slaves, but european with different philosophy.
There was also the Taiping rebellion in 1850 on mainland China, which led to many Hakka Chinese fleeing to Borneo..
Fun fact: "công ty" in Vietnamese also means company / business entity. Yes, it's the same Chinese word, just with a Vietnamese sound change of S to T.
any EU4 player knows about this country because of how hard it is to form and how rare it is to see, so it's sorta become a bit famous for that, really interesting video btw!
very informative, I'm sure there is still a lot of world history that is rarely discussed
good job man.. your research stuff is more than average person.. a top noch.. thank you for the history..
Fascinating vid!!
This is an awesome video!
Basic knowledge about the history of Lancang republic was particularly erased and remained disclosed even for national curriculum since the Soeharto order 1966-1998 as it issued anti - Chinese policies. Very great and informative video! 🤍
Good Video🎉
Actually there another one, and this was in Tuban, Java 1293, called the Shunta Kingdom. Not much know about this. Not even in Indonesian history lesson book.
Established by a group of exile army from Song Dinasty.
As Indonesian, this is the first time I've heard of this
big question why it wasn't taught in school
@@bukanmars9999 A lot of Indonesian history is not taught at school. Such as the genocide of Batak people by Imam Bonjol ;)
My maternal great great grandparents are from this region. They families were slaughtered and only 2 brothers were young boys treked the jungle and rivers, walked to Bau, Sarawak. According to my grandmother, it ws the Dutch who caused the divide and conquer amongst the locals to kill all Chinese.
The Dutch has caused many frictions in order to rule over the locals.
Very interesting - thank you 🙏
Thanks foe this history lesson.
The remain of Lanfang is still in Singkawang. They are still speaking Hakka and the mayor is Chinese.
Around that time there was also a Chinese kongsi in the Kingdom of Sarawak up north, during the 1850s the miners started an uprising against James Brooke's government over taxations when they invaded the capital of Kuching but failed to kill Brooke, afterwards Brooke led a troops consist of Dayaks and prusued the miners back to their village where they slaughtered the village with only a few survivors left. According to Facebook, the descendant of James Brooke, Jason Brooke actually visited the village few years ago.
I'm a Sarawakian Hakka, I can confirm most rebellion activities throughout China's history were initiated by Hakka 😂 Hakka are so rebellious due to strong code of brotherhood (the Yakuza or Triad kind of stuff). But as a modern Hakka, I strongly condemn their action of burn down the library... bad! could have been a negotiation... but it's a very different context in that era...
@@shadowmistress999 Every group of people have strong code of brotherhood. It's nothing special.
What made Hakka special was their history. They came from the northern China to the south of Yangzi river only to find that the lands there were already owned by earlier migrants. So they had to survive by being labors to serve the landowners of the southern China. And for a non landowner, the only way up was education and then work with the government (where the abundant riches at the time were). That's how Hakkas often found themselves in political stations, such as gongsi leader of Lan Fang, head of Taiping rebels, founder of Republic of China, or prime minister of Singapore ... and yes, bosses of Triad.
2:07 Brunie🇧🇳 is not an expansionist because for many centuries and millenium they never expanded its territory even they all have the rights to own Sabah.. the Sultan of Brunie🇧🇳 gave the northern part of Sabah to the Sultan of Sulu but the british monarchs and its oil company that renting the north borneo to Sultan of Sulu they hand over it into Malaysia to extend its territorial colony..
Lang Fang is not a nation or a country. It was just a share (Kongsi) or business organization formed by Chinese labors work in mining. West Borneo was under the control of Sambas Sultanate since 1671.
Sambas Sultanate since 1609-1956. But yes, it was just a Chinese labors business federation, nothing much.
The name itself " Republic of Lanfang " indicates that it was a government or a nation.
The definition of a country is different three hundred years ago from today.
@@georgeloh8257 lol. There is thousands organization put republic on their organization name, even until today there are many organization with republic in their name, but they are not a nation.
Western Borneo was not a no man land. It was ruled by many different native kingdoms hundreds years before Chinese came.
And when Chinese came, Western Borneo were owned and ruled administratively by Sultanate of Sambas from 1609 - 1956. The Dutch recognized and acknowledged this Sultanate, even purchased some of the lands in Western Borneo from them.
While Chinese Lang Fang was just bunch of immigrants, not a native, didn't owned any lands, didn't brought any lands from the Sultanate, they just settlers that formed a business organization for themselves. Their rules didn't acknowledged by the Kingdom, Locals, or even the Dutch. That's why Dutch disbanded this useless organization.
@@kakikakakukakumaybe for China that got cruesed by Mongolians, Brits, and Japan in many years.
But for Indonesia or Nusantara, country is owned or controlled and ruled by native kingdoms or administrations. Colonizers, immigrants, etc are just settlers.
The Chinese population has always been respected in the Dutch East Indies. Compulsory education was introduced in 1900, but education was segregated. There were European and indigenous schools, but also Chinese schools. In terms of level, the Chinese schools were on par with the European schools.
The Chinese could speak their own language and preserve their culture. In 1918, the 'Volksraad' (People's Council) was established to replace the colonial government. The Volksraad consisted of 30 indigenous, 25 Dutch and 5 Chinese members.
After independence, the Chinese were seen as traitors because they sympathized with the Dutch. The Europeans were banished from Indonesia, the Chinese were not. But the Chinese had to change their Chinese surname to an Indonesian name and choose a religion. Chinese characters were also banned in public. Ultimately, many Chinese become Christians, but until 1963 many Chinese also fled to the Netherlands. In 1963, Dutch New Guinea was transferred to Indonesia. Until that date, the Netherlands gave everyone in the Republic of Indonesia the last chance to take on Dutch nationality.
The Chinese diaspora in the Netherlands consists of a mixture of diasporas from the former Dutch East Indies, Dutch New Guinea, Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean. Moreover, in 1980, many Chinese (refugees) came from South China.
The gongsi （公司）should be read as kong - see
My grandma came from Pontianak and her family owned plantations
some report that Harry Lee grand parents from Pontianak ; refer to his biography
My Friends called me History Nerd. I never know in the Northern Tip of West Kalimantan Province had a Republic called "Lanfang Republic"
i have heard of lanfang republic many times as a south east asian chinese but i thought it just sounded cool........then again there are so many republics in chinese history. even polytechnics have republics in their names.
belive it or no, back then my great grandparent is lanfang republic citizen, im from west borneo.
Did the video mention why the Chinese men stayed and didn't return to mainland China after finishing their job?
It’s pronounced as; “Kong Xi” “Kong Xi” as it it’s Cantonese for company… as the same or contemporary to such organizations as The East Indian Company…
My ears are bleeding!!!
it's not cantonese. it's hokkien la!! tho yes, it is pronounced as kongsi with second syllable like english word see
But hakkas r not cantonese n dont pronounce cantonese style either!
@@paullai1583 the word "kongsi" didnt come from hakka. hakka were not the first to set up kongsi in southeast asia.
Thanks for sharing this history, this one is too little known. Am Indonesian. I knew this history before because I played Victoria 2 and Victoria 3 lol, and the fact that this country could appear in EU4.
there were Greek city state republics in anatolia before 400BC and the Roman republic spread as far as Syria republics of Genoa and Venice had their colonies in Crimea (Asia), so it's technically not the first republic in Asia but East Asia most likely, and great video!
Perhaps he meant East and South East Asia
he is talking about east asian state in south east asia, so singapore was not the first.
@@whanua98 no he was talking about first republic state in Eastern Asia not East Asian state in Southeast Asia smh
@@rickville8898 why is it matters what he says, if you watch the video you would have your own conclusion, it was first east-asian/oriental/sino colony in malay-pasific world predates the European settlement in region even japanese occupation beside the moral discussion about what "colonialism" is, and ppl talk about roman and greece like wtf, the word asian is problematic and racist it includes everybody outside europe, ppl should've used it anymore even in academia, that isolate/damaged us from scientific study.
@@whanua98 and yet you just use term "malay-pacific" world although malays and pacific islanders are two different thing.
Indonesian archipelago is archipelago and 3 different time zone like west , central and East.
East part of Indonesia is part of South west Pacific area
I learn something new with every episode. I’m no expert but that seems quite a long stretch for the Dutch.
that's why a lot of Chinese people live in Pontianak
Also singkawang
gong si is basiclly company
Di you think we might have another Forgotten Countries episode?
For historical context, the choice for a Republic was not so strange as the Dutch were also a republic: The United Republic of the Seven Netherlands aka the United States.
Learning history about indonesia since tarumanagara (400 AD), doho, medang, pajang, singosari, sriwijaya, majapahit, mataram, ducth colonial, japanese event post-independence is about War. Thats why indonesian people call their land as "My Land My Bloodshed"
Probably not really related.. I know the descandsnts of the first president of the lanfang republic, low lan pak. Most of them currently reside in malaysia today (peninsular) but every year or so they make a trip back to mandor as some sort of pilgrimage to the leaders of the republic
My grandma's ancestors are from that area, how interesting
I only knew about this country because of EU4 🤣
for me its EU4 and VIC2 lol.. i forgot what that mod name was
Also the Nautuna islands.
*Southeast Asia not East Asia.
it was east asia colony in southeast asia, it is east asian state, ret**d
Knew about the Lanfang Republic… did not know that there is a community in Manchester England that claims to be decedents of said Republic.
Borneo in the 19th century is a pretty odd island politically having two countries formed by foreigners, Lanfang Republic founded by Chinese Kongsi, The Kingdom of Sarawak founded by an Englishman from Devon by the name of James Brooke and a British protectorate named North Borneo which was originally established by an Austro-Hungarian businessman and diplomat named Gustav Overbeck.
You should do the West Indies Federation it’s was a Caribbean Union that ended up collapsing into multiple countries
Where are the sources?
i live my whole life in west borneo and never once i heard about this lol
Hey, glad you came across the video; actually, I've also been considering doing a comprehensive video about Boreno itself at some point!
Tolong bahas Kerajaan Banjar juga. Salah satu kerajaan terbesar di Kalimantan😅
Well, I become know of Lanfang Republic from Victoria 3 as I play the Dutch east Indies.
Frustratingly enough, if you start the game as any other independent nation on Indonesia like Aceh, Siak, among other things, even if you unite every independent nation, the total population would barely reach 3 million. On the other hand, West Java alone on 1836 has a population of 4 million.
I've read the story from the Indonesia magazine (msybe TEMPO or INTISARI) long time ago (maybe at 90's).
They have alots of photograph about lanfang republic.
Old story and burried in my mind until now at 2024.
Chinese diaspora has held huge clout in Indonesia's political and economic structure. Most behemoth conglomerates are owned by Chinese Indonesians including banks, telecommunication, energy, etc....
NEVER NAME THEM "CHINESE DIASPORA" only their haters name them that and want them out. The 'conglomerate themselves want to be referred as "Indonesian of Chinese descendants". You sabotage them!😂
90% of Indonesia economy estimated to be controlled by Chinese ethnic.
@@biggbro9 Not the ones descended from this republic though
Indi kalimantan, The three largest kongsi republics were the Lanfang Republic, the Heshun Confederation (Fosjoen), and the Santiaogou Federation (Samtiaokioe) after it had split from the Heshun.[1]
Interesting. China throughout several points in history could've taken much of SEA and Australia, fortunately their sense of universalism was mostly inwards
I always thought that the First Philippine Republic was the first one in Asia in 1898. I think if we talk about an organized Republic, then the First Philippine Republic is one. With a written constitution, formal independence, and a standing army.
Americans during the Philippine - American War subjugated the last Filipino soldier in 1913, which the war started in 1899.
Lanfang Republic militias were formed by 14 Kongsi, eventually 14 K, spreading across Asia.
This is fascinating! Never heard of this republic before. It is interesting that a Chinese person not only set up a state across the sea in Indonesia, but that he founded it on fairly democratic principles, holding elections for major governmental positions including head of state and seeking popular consent when enacting policies. Given that this was around the time of the founding of the US and French republics, I'm wondering if he was influenced by the events on the opposite side of the globe and/or Enlightenment and Western political philosophers.
From what I read the Kongsi federations originally stemmed from traditional Chinese notions of brotherhoods. But there are scholarly debates on whether calling it republicanism or a Chinese style democracy.
But facts are it had the meaning of a commercial company but had democratic institutions. Main scholarly arguments are whether the comparisons to western style republicanism are valid
Possibly related to the question of whether the Taiping Rebellion is related to somewhat western ideas taking root in Chinese societies
Well, Singkawang is now a city with the most percentage of Indonesian-Chinese in Indonesia (if exclude Jakarta), covering around 40% of the population and also nicknamed "The City with 1000 Temples" (kinda like how the population Manado in North Sulawesi is most Christian and nicknamed "The City with 1000 Churches and there's a lot of churches there) and also has the highest number of Chinatowns in Indonesia
It was some 800+ years ago, so for many generations there were intermarry with locals.
7:59
This clip is actually the Chinatown of Manila, and not in Indonesia. I know this because of our own motorised tricycles as well as three-letter four-digit license plates.
Cool, never heard of this!
Good information
So this explains why there is a sizeable Hakka community in southwestern Sarawak.
Ita not country
Kongsi is Trading guild or clan
The country everyone discovered from Vicky 2, honestly I'm surprised as many people know about it as they do from Indonesia, that country isn't the most kind towards its Chinese population, or that there were still a significant Chinese population there after everything
The way I found this was because of AoH2 😂 when I was making a scenario I found it kinda odd that there was a republic in 1840s Indonesia, so I was even more surprised when I found out it was actually a Chinese state
Tiong hua di indonesia awal data k3 nusantara berdagang.. dan buruh pekerja yang di bawa kolonial eropa ... Dan mereka ber esimilasi dengan penduduk pribumi...
Never even knew there is such a republic in south east asia....well done ghost
Not even our Indonesian school history class ever taught us about this.
Possibly due to nationalistic sentiment, but... its probably going to be mentioned if Low proclaimed himself as a sultan instead of turned his domain into a republic 😉
I know it though I thought it was only teaches on west Kalimantan only
same case with Sunda Empire. if only they named it Sunda Sultanate.
Possibly to burry this piece of history to acertain Chinese origin as minority and seen as exploiting stuff. If this history were to come out more ppl would change their minds of Chinese settlers. Kudos for this video 👍
U assume a lot. Not many knows this other than who read wiki
@@rizkyadiyanto7922 you dont get it, do you?
It's new information to me...
Reason why West Kalimantan majority is Chinnese
Wouldn't it be the "first South East Asian Repubic?"
China made the biggest mistake and did not colonised the countries around the South China Seas and Asian region.
Unlike the Spaniard, Dutch, Portuguese, and British, American colonised the Asian countries and forced these countries to adopt culture and religion.
Vietnam was colonised and occupied by ancient China for more than 1000 years. China is not as saintly and innocent as most people think they are. Meanwhile, Islam and Buddhism have much greater influences in South East Asia than Christianity.
Even China itself was being colonized by British, Portuguese and Japanese how come China be able colonize it's neighbour 😂
@@perrycheong1058 Nah.. What you described was not colonization. In history, during the 1000 years, Northern Vietnam was governed in the exact way as every single other province of China across different dynasties. 😅 It was just a Chinese province that broke away to become an independent country. And it did become a new independent country after all.
But still, it's a completely different concept from sending troops overseas and create a colonial government that does not consider the local as their own nationals. Like the British colonizers never considered the Native Americans as British citizens when they colonized North America.... How is it colonization when the Chinese rulers back then treated people living in northern Vietnam the exactly the same way it treated the people regardless of ethnicity and religious beliefs living in rest of its territory, such as Beijing or Guangzhou?
There no mistake china never was interested with the outside world, and they had so much trouble inward and also coming from the north and east.Even during their peak they never was interested except bordering state despite having contact with south east asia for over 1000 year. Which is good atleast most asian never regard the chinese race which animosity.
China throughout several points in time could've taken much of Asia, Australia, and attempted other landgrabs that may not have been successful but resulted in lots of human suffering. Their sense of universalism was inward, unlike the British that were outward. We should be thankful China didn't go hard...
6:55 I believe that's a picture of the arrest of prince Diponegoro in Java. A totally different region, people, and time. cmiiw.
edit: it was "The Submission of Prince Dipo Negoro to General De Kock", a picture by Nicolaas Pienerman.
"De Kock"
@@MGharriy Naruhodo, anata wa hentaidesu.
It doesn't say in Indonesia's history, as an Indonesian i just knew
Yohoo ❤ interesting.
It seems that it was not a governance but a social organization.
It was about economic reason at first, they worked as gold miners coz they good at. Then it was became huge in trading and had economic and social impacts there. To protect them as comunity worker from inequality sultane's rule they started to make their own governance