page_title: History of Kuala Lumpur
section_title: Pre-independence era (1857-1957)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Kuala Lumpur / Pre-independence era (1857-1957)
caption_attribution_description: English: By Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. User __earth. Replacing en:Image:PICT2413.JPG.
context_page_description: Kuala Lumpur is the largest city in Malaysia; it is also the nation's capital. The history of Kuala Lumpur began in the middle of the 19th century with the rise of the tin mining industry, and boomed in the early 20th century with the development of rubber plantations in Selangor. It became the capital of Selangor, later the Federated Malay States, and then Malayan Union, and finally Malaya and Malaysia.
context_section_description: Kuala Lumpur was founded ca. 1857 at the confluence of the Gombak and Klang rivers.  In English, the name Kuala Lumpur literally means "muddy confluence". The venture into the muddy confluence started when a member of the Selangor royal family hired tin prospectors to open tin mines in the Klang Valley. 87 Chinese prospectors went up the river Klang and began prospecting in the Ampang area, which was then jungle. Despite 69 of them dying due to the pestilential conditions, a thriving tin mine was established. This naturally attracted merchants who traded basic provisions to the miners in exchange for some of the tin.  At that time a Mandailing from Sumatra Sutan Puasa was already trading near Ampang. Two traders from Lukut, Hiu Siew and Yap Ah Sze, then arrived in Kuala Lumpur where they set up shops to sell provisions to the miners. Kuala Lumpur was the furthest point up the Klang River to which supplies could conveniently be brought by boat; it therefore became a collection and dispersal point serving the tin mines.
  The town, spurred on by tin-mining, started to develop beside the confluence of the Gombak and Klang rivers with the Old Market Square (Medan Pasar) its commercial centre. The Chinese mainly settled around the Market Square; the Malays, later also Indian Chettiars and Indian Muslims, resided further north in areas such as Kampung Rawa with Java Street (now Jalan Tun Perak) the boundary between the Chinese and Malay areas. Roads radiated out from the early town centre towards Ampang (Ampang Road), then Pudu (Pudu Road) and Batu (Batu Road) where miners also started to settled in, as well as Petaling (Petaling Street) and Damansara (later part of Damansara Road).
caption: The junction of the Gombak and Klang rivers, from which Kuala Lumpur takes its name
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