A Brief History of Singapore

Welcome to History and Stuff, today we're heading to South East Asia for a brief history of the Lion City, Singapore. The pre-colonial history of Singapore isn't particularly well documented, however the island appears to have formed a not too important outpost flittering between the control of wider regional empires. In 1025, the region was invaded and occupied by the Indian Chola Empire, however there is no concrete evidence that Singapore was occupied. In 1299, the Kingdom of Singapore was founded by Sang Nila Utama, a Srivijayan prince. The region was previously known as Temasek, however the name was changed to Singapura or Lion City in Sanskrit, a nickname the country retains to this day. Under Srivijayan control, Singapore became a centre of international trade with close ties to Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan's Yuan dynasty. The kingdom was invaded in the late 14th century by the Majapahit Empire based out of Java and the last Srivijayan prince fled in 1398. Singapore was eventually incorporated into the Malacca Sultanate who ruled for the majority of the 15th century. In 1511, Malacca was sacked by the Portuguese who became de facto rulers in the region. Singapore was largely untouched until 1613 when the Portuguese did what colonial Europeans did at the time and burnt the small trading post to the ground. The island then fell into relative obscurity for the best part of two centuries. This lasted until 1819 when Sir Stanford Raffles was sent to the region to establish a trading post for the British East India Company. Raffles had worked for the East India Company since he was 14 and had been sent to Malaya as Assistant Secretary to the Governor of Penang. After learning the Malay language, Raffles was selected in 1811 to lead a military expedition to seize Java from the Dutch during the Napoleonic Wars. He then served as Lieutenant Governor during the short-lived British rule over the Dutch East Indies, but more on that maybe in another episode. Raffles quickly identified the strategic importance of Singapore and negotiated a treaty with its rulers, Semengun Abdul Rahman of Johor and Tongku Hussain Shah. The Lion City was at this time effectively a fishing village with around 1,000 people living in it. These were mostly Malays with some ethnic Chinese. In 1822, the Jackson Plan, or Raffles Town Plan, was outlined. The plan was a guide for the development of Singapore in its early days, to which large parts of the city's modern composition erode, including the now iconic Botanical Gardens. Two years later, in 1824, Singapore became a British colony after the Anglo-Dutch Treaty was signed in London. The treaty outlined Anglo-Dutch spheres of influence in Southeast Asia and defines many of the region's borders, namely Malaysia's and Indonesia's to this day. Two years later, in 1826, Singapore, along with Malacca and Penang, were incorporated into the British colony of the Straits Settlements, with Robert Fullerton installed as First Governor. In 1857, an enormous uprising in India led by local soldiers within the British army over the use of animal fats to grease gunpowder cartridges led to the downfall of the East India Company. All of the company's possessions came under direct control of the British Crown, including Singapore. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 was massive for Singapore. It significantly cut the travel times for commercial shipping between Europe and Asia, which previously had to bypass the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa. This saw the colony prosper throughout the late 19th and early 20th century through trades in rubber and tin. Traders flocked into the area, primarily from China, India, as well as the Malay Peninsula, significantly altering the colony's racial make-up. In 1915, Singapore had a mutiny of its own when Indian Muslims serving in the British army refused to be sent to fight the Ottoman Empire on religious grounds during World War I. 850 seaports rebelled for seven days, killing eight British servicemen, 14 British civilians, two Malay officers and one Malay soldier. The British responded harshly, with 205 seaports court-martialed and 47 publicly executed, stoking Indian nationalist tensions. Following the First World War, the British began fortifying Singapore, with the goal of creating the Empire's main naval base in East Asia. Construction of the British naval base was complete in 1938, and it contained the world's largest dry dock and the third largest floating dock. In the long term, this was to be the base of a British-Asian fleet, separate to the Royal Navy's extant home fleet. The short-term plan was that if Britain was to become involved in an Asian war, the home fleet would sail out of Europe for Singapore. This wasn't thought a problem, because the chances of Britain fighting a war in Europe and Asia simultaneously was considered relatively slim. You know what comes next. Britain goes to war with Germany in 1939 and has to fight for its very existence. Fast forward just over two years to 7th December 1941, and the Japanese attack the US fleet at Pearl Harbour. At 4am on 8th December 1941, the Japanese launch an air raid on Singapore, killing 61. Imperial forces then move into Malaya. On 10th December, the Royal Navy's flagships, the HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse, are sunk by Japanese bombers. There was effectively now no British naval presence in Asia, and Singapore's naval base was essentially useless. There were nightly Japanese air raids on Singapore throughout December 1941, and daylight raids throughout January and February 1942. The British had not expected the Japanese to advance through Malaya, and had instead expected an attack to come via the sea. Instead, the Japanese advanced rapidly through the peninsula, taking no prisoners and allowing no retreat. 90,000 British, Indian and Australian troops were to face the 25,000-strong Japanese force, which had crossed the Straits of Johor. Winston Churchill had demanded that no surrender take place, with the honour of the British Empire and the British Army at stake. A combination of poor leadership and a significantly damaged water supply led the force to surrender, with 100,000 men taken prisoner. Churchill would go on to call it the worst disaster in British military history. 25,000-50,000 Singaporeans, mostly ethnic Chinese, were killed by the occupying Japanese forces in February and March 1942, in what is now known as the Suching Massacre. The Japanese remained in control of Singapore until August 1945, when America dropped atom bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The British returned on the 5th of September and the Straits Settlements was restarted under military administration in control of Lord Louis Mountbatten. The following year, the Straits Settlements were dissolved and Singapore became its own crown colony. Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, the success of Mao Zedong in China and the uprising of sympathetic Chinese communists under Chin Peng in Malaya led to ethnic tensions in Singapore. In 1956, on the 10th of October, there were riots in the city by pro-communist Chinese students. In that same year, the Singaporean Chief Minister, David Saul Marshall, appealed to the UK for full self-government, but resigned when this failed to happen. Three years later, in 1959, full self-government for Singapore was gained under Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock. The subsequent election saw Lee Kuan Yew become Prime Minister after his People's Action Party won 43 of 51 available seats. Tanku Abdul Rahman, the Prime Minister of Malaya, championed a merger of Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s to form a Malaysian federation. In 1963, the Malaysia Agreement was signed by Lee Kuan Yew, who declared de facto independence to Singapore from the United Kingdom as part of Malaysia. Tensions soon arose within the new federation. Firstly, the People's Action Party won a seat in the Malaysia federal election, which Tanku saw as a threat. Riots in Singapore in July and September 1964, sparked by ethnic tensions between Malays and Chinese, left 36 dead. There were fears that this could cause ethnic violence to spread throughout the federation. A concerned Tanku Abdul Rahman offered Singapore full autonomy other than in defence and foreign affairs in exchange for it giving up its federal parliament seats. At this stage, however, it was clear that Singapore couldn't realistically function as part of the federation, and a separation agreement was signed in August 1965. In 1967, Singapore introduced National Service, a period of compulsory military service for all Mal citizens. The last British military forces in Singapore left in 1971. Under Lee Kuan Yew, modern Singapore emerged as a financial superpower. Its culture is underpinned by its racial diversity and its high standards of living. Singaporeans today are owners of the world's most powerful passports. The country is also a major diplomatic power and is a member of the UN, the Commonwealth of Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.