During the 18th century, they saw the need for a strategic “halfway house” to refit, feed and protect the fleet of their growing empire, as well as to forestall any advances by the dutch in the region.
It was against this political backdrop that sir stamford raffles established singapore as a trading station. The policy of free trade attracted merchants from all over asia and from as far afield as the us and the middle east.
History of singapore will not be complete wihoutknowing in details about the great man lee kuan yew.
Born Sept. 16, 1923 in Singapore1947 Begins studying law at Cambridge1954 Founds People’s Action Party1959 Sworn in as Prime Minister of Singapore
1961 Economic Development Board established to attract foreign companies
1965 Singapore breaks away from Federation of Malaysia
1990 Steps down as Prime Minister and becomes Senior Minister
From sleepy colonial outpost to prosperous high-tech enclave, Singapore owes its rise to the stern,
For lee lives by the conflict theory of management: you either dominate or are dominated. He knows all about being dominated, both under british colonial rule and, more brutally, during the japanese occupation. In his memoirs he relates how he was slapped and forced to kneel in front of a japanese soldier for having failed to bow to the man while crossing a bridge. When it became lee’s turn to dominate, he used the full force of his personality, and the law, to fight his opponents. Some ended up in jail or bankrupt. Contradicting lee became synonymous with being disloyal to singapore, so hermetic was the identification between man and principality.
His education was english, first at singapore’s raffles college, where he studied english with mathematics and economics. Then it was on to cambridge, where he learned english law and english self-assurance, deftly taking a double first in the former and a double helping of the latter. He disliked the english while admiring their way of doing things–he had similar if more extreme feelings about the japanese–and after cambridge he ditched the anglicized “harry lee” for his original chinese name, though many of his english friends continue to use it to this day.
This complicated amalgam of chinese instincts and english training came back to singapore in 1950 to start practicing law, but he quickly found his true vocation in the tumultuous politics of the time. Fists flying, he immersed himself in a world of communists, labor organizers, gangsters and intelligence operatives, emerging in 1959 as prime minister–with his enemies all knocked out of the ring. That was the way he would keep things throughout his political life.
While flooring any political challenger who dared to climb through the ropes, he set about building one of asia’s economic tigers with relentless energy. He courted multinational investors to upgrade the economy from mass manufacturing to high-tech industry. He built the region’s finest infrastructure of airport, port, roads and communications networks. He established a public housing system and the central provident fund savings pool that gave every citizen a stake in the system. He virtually abolished crime–and jukeboxes–and developed asia’s best health and education systems.
Culture
The culture of singapore is a melting pot of mainly chinese, indian, british, and malay cultures, and is a reflection of its immigrant history.
Singapore was a part of british malaya for many centuries. It was ruled by the sultanate of johor. In 1819, the british came to the island and set up a port and colony. During british rule, the port of singapore flourished and attracted many migrants. Singapore became part of the malaysian federation in 1962 for two years, and in 1965 it became an independent nation and a republic, which it remains today.
Singapore has a diverse populace of nearly 5 million people[1] which is made up of chinese, malays, indians, caucasians and eurasians (plus other mixed groups) and asians of different origins, which is in line with the nation’s history as a crossroads for various ethnic and racial groups.
In addition, 42% of singapore’s populace are foreigners, which makes it the country with the sixth highest proportion of foreigners worldwide.
Singapore is also the third most densely populated territory in the world after macau and monaco.
