Singapore -Origins
Sir Stamford Thomas Raffles (1781-1826) first set foot on the island of Singapore on 29th January 1819 which was then just a small fishing village.
Raffles, an agent of the British East India Company ventured to Singapore hoping to establish a free port and a halfway point for traders along the China-India trade routes. After signing the preliminary treaty with a local leader, the official treaty with Sultan Hussein of Johore-Riau was signed on 6 February 1819, giving the British the right to establish a trading port on the island.
However the Dutch protested as Singapore was then part of the Dutch Empire. The dispute was resolved with the signing of the 1824 Anglo-Dutch treaty whereby the British acquired Mallorca, Penang and Singapore while the Dutch gained Bencoelen (present day Bengkulu) and the rest of Indonesia. In August 1824 another Treaty of Friendship and Alliance was signed giving the British governance of Singapore.
From the 19th Century, Singapore’s success as the “Great Commercial Emporium of the East” owed much to its free port status and strategic location. The Singapore River became the main artery of trade, where port, trading and warehouse facilities developed along the riverbanks.
In 1867 Singapore became a British Crown-Colony after the transfer of the Straits Settlements from the British Administration in India to the Colonial Office in London. It remained so until 1959 when Singapore achieved self-government, gaining full independence in 1965.
