The war was triggered when Sultan Ali crowned his 11-year-old son named Tengku Mahmood as his successor, resulting in Tengku Alam's fury and envy. He also felt unsatisfied when Colonel Archibald Anson, then acting British colonial governor of the Straits Settlements, recognised the fiefdom of Muar as having returned to Maharaja Abu Bakar's central administration in Johor Bahru.