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Singapore: A Very Short History

This book covers the history of Singapore from the early 13th century to recent times, delving into the politics since independence and providing details on current policies such as housing and education.

Summary

Singapore wasn’t of great relevance until the British created an trading outpost there in 1819, which is why sometimes Singapore’s history is said to start at that time. Singapore used to be called Temasek.

The choice of Singapore as the outpost was done by Stamford Raffles, which is why many places in the country are today named after him.

One interesting connection is that the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 increased trade in the region since it shortened distances from Europe, and this helped Singapore.

There was migration in 19th century from populations of Chinese, Indian and Malay. The Chinese migration in particular was in part due to anti-Manchu rule (Qing dynasty) and were Hokkien-speaking, much like early Chinese migration to Taiwan.

The Indians came through the British Raj, either as sepoys (military personel under the British empire) or even convicts.

The Japanese invaded in 1942 and renamed Singapore to Syonan-to (light of the South). After Japan lost the war, the British took back control in 1945.

The following years there was a join plan with the British for independence. The goal was to eventually merge Singapore with Malaysia, which happened in 63, but due to cultural (Malaysia had a majority Malay population, Singapore had a majority Chinese population) and politics it didn’t work out and they split in 65.

The party initially led by Lee Kuan Yew, PAP (People’s Action Party) has been very dominating throughout modern Singapore. Before reading this book, I actually had the misconception that Singapore’s government was some sort of authoritarian regime because of this dominance!

Conclusion

I bought this book in Singapore during my first time there. I found this book to be readable and a quick way to get some context on Singapore’s history.

Overall 5/5.