Malaysia location is rather unique, being most of the country is located on the mainland of Southeast Asia and rest is located across the South China Sea on the island of Borneo. Malaysia was the prime location geographically in colonial days for trade. Malaysia home to one of the most common trade routes between china and Europe (strait of Malacca and the south China sea).
In 1785 the British came to Malaysia, they tried several different cash crops, but none of them seemed to produce any profit. Then they found rubber trees. The automobile industry in the United States was starting to take off about the same time they found rubber, and they needed the rubber for automobile production. Rubber was being exported so fast the country almost depleted its natural resources until they found another product to export. After that they were able to start mining and mining took off in the world of exporting as well. .
Malaysia had a lot of immigration from china and India. They came to Malaysia to work in the mines. The British wanted them to do just that, but they eventually wanted them to go back to their own country. The immigrants from china and India did not go back, they merged together and formed the ethnic group now know as Malays. The colonial world was taken over by the Japanese early in the Pacific War. That did not last for long because the British regained partial control for twelve years. After that people in Malaysia started to take pride in their country, and saw they had opportunities knocking on their door for an economically prosperous country. Because of that Malaysia gained its independence in 1957. During the late 50's and 60's the Malaysian people went back to their old exports such as rubber and mining. This time they started producing rubber in more productive varieties. These varieties competed very well and successfully with the synthetic rubbers produced in other parts of the world.