History[edit]

The royal town of Klang has been a site of human settlement since prehistoric times.
Bronze Age drums, axes and other artifacts have been found within the town itself
and within the vicinity. A bronze bell dating from the 2nd Century BC was found in
Klang and is now in the British Museum.[4][5][6] Commanding the approaches to the
tin rich Klang Valley, Klang has always been of key strategic importance.
The celebrated Tun Perak, the Malacca Sultanate's greatest Bendahara, came from
Klang and became its territorial chief. After the fall of Melaka to the Portuguese in
1511, Klang remained in Malay hands, controlled by the Sultan Johor-Riau until the
creation of Selangor sultanate in the 18th century.
In the 19th century the importance of Klang greatly increased by the rapid expansion
of tin mining as a result of the increased demand for tin from the West. The desire to
control the Klang Valley led directly to the Selangor Civil War (sometimes called the
Klang War) of 18671874 when Raja Mahdi fought to regain what he considered his
birthright as territorial chief against Raja Abdullah.[7] Klang did not lose its
importance, however. Until the construction of Port Swettenham (now known as Port
Klang) in 1901, the royal town remained the chief outlet for Selangor's tin, and its
position was enhanced by the completion of the Klang Valley railway (to Bukit Kuda)
in 1886. In the 1890s its growth was further stimulated by the development of the
district into the State' leading producer of coffee, and then rubber.
In 1901, it became the official seat of Sultan Sulaiman (Sultan Alauddin Sulaiman
Shah). Today Klang is no longer State capital or the main seat of the Ruler, but it
remains the headquarters of the District to which it gives it name.