page_title: North Borneo Chartered Company
section_title: Territory
hierarchical_section_title: North Borneo Chartered Company / Administration / Territory
caption_attribution_description: English: Area of the Chartered Company's Property
context_page_description: The North Borneo Chartered Company, also known as the British North Borneo Company was a British chartered company formed on 1 November 1881 to administer and exploit the resources of North Borneo. The territory became a protectorate of the British Empire in 1888 but the company remained involved with the territory until 1946, when administration was fully assumed by the Crown colony government.
  The company also temporarily administered the island of Labuan in 1890 before it became part of the Straits Settlements. The company motto was Pergo et Perago, which means "I persevere and I achieve" in Latin. Its founder and first chairman was Alfred Dent.
context_section_description: A major contribution to the consolidation of the administrative area was made by William Hood Treacher. In tough negotiations with the White Rajahs, he managed to bring territories to the company that were not included in the original leases. These includes Pengalat (1883), Klias Peninsular (1884), Mantanani (1885), Padas (1889) and the area of Sipitang, Bongawan to Tuaran (1889). From 1889, the island of Labuan was also part of the company administrative territory.
  Although the Netherlands had already installed a trading post in Borneo shortly after the founding of the Dutch East India Company, there were no noteworthy activities by the Dutch on the east coast of northern Borneo. This changed in 1846 when the Dutch signed a contract with the Sultan of Bulungan, who assured the Dutch control of the area. At the instigation of the Dutch, the sultan married his son in 1867 with the daughter of the Sultan of Tarakan, whereby the Dutch sphere of influence finally reached the region around Tawau. The north of the Dutch area which overlapped with an area that was claimed by the Sultanate of Sulu for themselves. A conflict with the British was therefore inevitable when in 1878 the Sultan of Sulu placed the southern boundary of his land for tax to Overbeck on the Sibuku River. In settling the border disputes, the company negotiated with the Dutch from the 1880s onwards to define the boundary between the area granted by the Sultan of Sulu and the area claimed by the Dutch on the basis of the treaty with the Sultan of Bulungan. On 20 January 1891, they finally agreed on a line along 4°10' north latitude – which corresponded to a central division of the island of Sebatik.
  On 5 January 1905, the company territory of Lawas – a controversial border area of the province of Clark was relinquished to the neighbouring Sarawak and in exchange for “certain coal fields at the Brunei Bay”.
caption: Area acquired by the company.
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