From wikipedia about Brunei
Brunei, officially the State of
Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of
Brunei, the Abode of Peace Haggett, Peter (ed). Encyclopedia of World Geography, Volume 1, Marshall Cavendish, 2001, p. 2913. Available on is around 400, 000 (July 2010).
Brunei can trace its beginnings to the 7th century, when it was a subject state of the Srivijayan empire under the name P'o-li. It later became a vassal state of Majapahit empire before converting to Islam in the 15th century. At the peak of its empire, the sultanate had control that extended over the coastal regions of modern-day Sarawak and Sabah, the Sulu archipelago, and the islands off the northwest tip of Borneo. The thalassocracy was visited by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 and fought the Castille War in 1578 against
Spain. Its empire began to decline with the forced ceding of Sarawak to James Brooke and the ceding of Sabah to the British North Borneo Chartered Company. After the loss of Limbang,
Brunei finally became a British protectorate in 1888, receiving a resident in 1906. In the post-occupation years, it formalised a constitution and fought an armed rebellion.
Brunei regained its independence from the
United Kingdom on 1 January 1984. Economic growth during the 1970s and 1990s, averaging 56% from 1999 to 2008, has transformed
Brunei Darussalam into a newly industrialised country.
Brunei has the second highest Human Development Index among the South East Asia nations after
Singapore, and is classified as a Developed Country. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
Brunei is ranked 4th in the world by gross domestic product per capita at purchasing power parity. Data refer to the year 2009.. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
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