Singapore Tourist Guides — History

Prior to the establishment of Singapore as a trading hub of the British in the 19th century, the city we know today as a bustling port and a hectic center of economic activity was once a sleepy fishing village at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. Variously known as Puo-luo-Chung (tip-of-the-peninsula in the 3rd century) and Temasek ('Seatown' - 14th century), Singapore came into its own with the spread of British colonialism.

The founder of modern day Singapore was Sir Stamford Raffles, who in his attempt to get a foothold to the major trading routes to the Far East, established the East India Company here in 1919 and declared Singapore to be a free-trade port. In the short span of five years, Singapore saw an influx of Chinese, Malay and Indian immigrants all eager to make their fortune - from a small town of 150 Singapore expanded into a metropolis of 10,000, and was a port of call for traders from all over Asia, the Middle East and even the United States. In 1832, Singapore was declared as the capital of the Straits of Penang, Malacca and Singapore. 1869 saw an increased growth in trade and traffic with a new quicker trading route to the East via the Suez Canal.

World War II saw Singapore being briefly controlled over by the Japanese - a period made infamous by the incarceration of Allied forces in humiliating conditions in the Changi prison camps. After the Allies won the war, Singapore was briefly handed back to the British, but movements towards self-government were growing. The first Prime Minister of Singapore was Lee Kuan Yew of the People's Action Party, who assumed the post in 1959 and subsequently held the reigns for 31 years. Lee engineered a union with Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak in 1963 to further Singapore's economic ends which lasted a short 23 months - Lee's ambitions in furthering his own party's political agenda was not acceptable to Malay leadership, and the union disintegrated. Not that this hindered Singapore's economic status - the city-state grew from strength to strength and remains one of the strongest economic centres in the world.

Lee's governance saw a long period of political suppression and rigid social order, factors that only contributed to Singapore's economic growth. However his successor Goh Chok Tong, who became prime minister in 1990 was far more liberal, and a period of one-party rule is slowly coming to a close, with opposition parties beginning to rear their heads in the government.

The economic recession of the 1990's merely dented Singapore's economy, as did the effect of the spread of SARS, a highly virulent form of flu, and the Iraq war of 2003. However, its strong social order and military style working of the government keeps Singapore on its course as the economic power center of South East Asia.

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