Increasing pressure was exerted upon the Sultan by the residing British Agent to administer the state according to the British ideals of just rule and modernisation. This had effectively plunged the state into a seething cauldron of discontent with clashes between traditional chiefs and the British. The British ultimately compelled Tun Wan Ahmad to put his state under the British protectorate in 1888 and John Pickersgill Rodger was appointed Pahang's first Resident.