Malaysia consists of three regions, Peninsular Malaysia on the southern tip of the Asian mainland and Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo. All three regions were part of the British Commonwealth and Peninsular Malaysia became independent in 1957 while Sabah and Sarawak in 1963 when they joined Malaya to form Malaysia. The development of soil science in Malaysia has mainly been spearheaded by soil surveys and other branches of soil science have mainly played a supporting role. Soil surveys in each of the three regions initially developed separately and to a large extent still remain separate. The development of soil surveys in Malaysia can be divided into three main periods. The pre-independence period from around 1882 to 1955 saw mainly ad hoc soil surveys by British staff of the Department of Agriculture. With the development of the rubber plantation industry, unpublished soil surveys of some rubber plantations were carried out by soil surveyors attached to these plantations. Even at this early period most of the surveyors emphasised the importance of geological parent materials on soils in Malaysia. This period ended with a proposed classification of soils of Peninsular Malaysia by Owen (1951). The second period, which lasted from around 1955 to 1990, saw systematic reconnaissance soil surveys being carried out mainly to locate areas with potential for agricultural development. This period saw soil surveys being carried out by soil scientists from the Commonwealth countries such as Britain, Canada and New Zealand under the Colombo Plan, from the United States under the Peace Corps and some Dutch soil surveyors. This period saw the completion of reconnaissance soil surveys of the whole of Malaysia using different systems of classification for the three regions. Local soil surveyors gradually took over the reconnaissance soil surveys after 1965 and subsequently carried out semi-detailed soil surveys of areas with potential for agricultural development. The third period from 1990 saw the development of a Malaysian Soil Taxonomy by modifying Soil Taxonomy to suit local conditions using Bahasa Malaysia terminology. A major difference was to create an order of Lithosols and modifying significantly the classification of Histosols by using the depth of organic soils at the Great Group level and the stage of decomposition only at the sub-group level. This period also sadly saw the Department of Agriculture declaring that soil survey maps and reports were restricted material and hence not available to other users. This period also saw the private sector increasing greatly their soil survey activity in their plantations. In spite of all these problems soil surveys have greatly contributed towards the agricultural development in Malaysia. The earlier rubber and now oil palm industry developed to what it is today because of the contributions of soil surveys.