Sultanate of Selangor

The Sultans of Selangor belong to a Bugis dynasty that traces its descent to the rulers of Luwu in Sulawesi. Bugis nobles became dominant in the Johor-Riau Sultanate in the early eighteenth century, and in 1743 Daeng Chelak's son Raja Lumu was installed as Yamtuan Selangor. He was recognised by the Sultan of Perak and in 1766 was installed as the first Sultan of Selangor, taking the name Sultan Salehuddin Shah, thereby detaching the territory from Johor. His successors ruled from Kuala Selangor and later Klang, drawing wealth from the tin trade that linked the Malay peninsula to European and Chinese markets. In the nineteenth century the sultan's chiefs divided the state into rival districts, and the resulting civil war drew in British intervention in 1874. A British resident was imposed, and by 1876 Selangor had become a protected state under colonial administration. Klang, at the mouth of the river, became the chief port through which tin from the interior reached foreign merchants.