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History of Singapore
The first records of settlement in Singapore are from the second century AD. The island was an outpost of the Sumatran Srivijaya empire & originally bore the Javanese name Temasek ('sea town'). Temasek (Tumasek) rapidly became a significant trading city, but declined in the late 14th century. There are few remnants of old Temasek in Singapore, but archaeologists in Singapore have uncovered evidence of the civilization & other settlements. Between the 16th & early 19th centuries, Singapore was part of the Sultanate of Johor. During the Malay-Portugal wars in 1613, she was set ablaze by Portuguese troops. The Portuguese subsequently held control in the 16th century & the Dutch in the 17th, but throughout most of this time the island's population consisted mainly of fishermen.
On 29 January 1819, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles landed on the main island. Sighting its potential, Raffles signed a treaty with Sultan Hussein Shah on behalf of the British East India Company to develop Singapore as a trading post & settlement, marking the start of the island's modern era. Raffles's deputy, William Farquhar, oversaw a period of growth & ethnic migration. The British India office governed the island in 1858, but Singapore was made a British crown colony, answerable directly to the Crown, in 1867. By 1869, the island boasted a sizeable community of 100,000.
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World War II
During World War II, the Japanese
Emperor's Army invaded Malaya, culminating in the Battle of Singapore. The ill-prepared
British were defeated in six days, & surrendered the supposedly impregnable
"Bastion of the Empire" to General Tomoyuki Yamashita on 15 February
1942. The Emperor's forces comitted attrocities, & renamed Singapore Shonanto,
from Japanese "Showa no jidai ni eta minami no shima""southern
island obtained in the age of Showa", & occupied it until the British
repossessed the island on 12 September 1945, a month after the Japanese surrender.
The name Shonanto was, at the time, romanized as "Syonan-to" or "Syonan".
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Independence
Singapore became a self-governing
state in 1959 with Yusof bin Ishak its first Yang di-Pertuan Negara & Lee
Kuan Yew its first Prime Minister. Following the 1962 Merger Referendum of Singapore,
Singapore joined Malaya, along with Sabah & Sarawak, to form the Federation
of Malaysia on 16 September 1963, but was expelled two years later after heated
ideological conflict between the state's PAP government & the federal Kuala
Lumpur government. Singapore officially gained sovereignty on 9 August 1965. Yusof
bin Ishak was sworn in as the first President of Singapore & Lee Kuan Yew
remained prime minister.
The fledgling nation had to be self-sufficient, & faced problems like mass unemployment, housing shortages, & a dearth of land & natural resources. During the socialist Lee Kuan Yew's term as prime minister from 1959 to 1990, his administration curbed widespread unemployment, raised the standard of living, & implemented a large-scale public housing programme. The country's economic infrastructure was developed, the threat of racial tension was curbed, by investment, & concerted requests towards media, & even censorship, & an independent national defence system, centering around compulsory male military service, was created.
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In 1990, Goh Chok Tong succeeded Lee as Prime Minister. During his tenure, the country tackled the impacts of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the 2003 SARS outbreak, & terrorist threats posed by the Jemaah Islamiyah group post-September 11.
In 2004, Lee Hsien Loong, the eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew, became the third prime minister. Amongst his more notable decisions is the plan to open two Integrated Resorts (which include legalised casinos) to attract more foreign tourists.
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