Page 3 - Singapore Destination Guide - Alluring Asia

POPULATION HISTORY Singapore has a population of over Today, Singapore is one of the greatest modern city-states, yet in the 14th 4.75 million. century Chinese traders described Singapore, or Temasek as it was then known, as a barren, pirate-infested island. TIME Singapore is GMT plus 8 hours. According to Malay legend, a Sumatran prince encountered a lion on Temasek and this good omen prompted him to found Singapur, or "Lion VISAS City". Although lions have never inhabited Singapore and there is little United States Citizens are allowed to evidence of any early city, it was likely that Singapore was a small trading stay in Singapore up to 14 days outpost of the powerful Sumatran Srivijaya Empire before it became a without a visa. You must have a vassal state of the Javanese Majapahit Empire in the mid-13th century. valid passport and proof of onward journey. In the early 1390s, Parameswara, a prince from Palembang, threw off allegiance to the Majapahit Empire and fled to Temasek. Although INSURANCE Parameswara and his party were well received, they promptly murdered It is advisable to purchase in addition their host and used the island as a pirate base. In 1398, the Thais attacked to normal medical insurance, to take Temasek and Parameswara fled to Malacca. It was a propitious move; for out a policy which covers evacuation. he went on to found one of the great trading ports of the East. Singapore again, became a quiet back-water, but during the 15th century in the nearby Straits of Malacca, the Portuguese and their cannons came to contest the Arab monopoly on the lucrative spice and China trades. The Portuguese seized Malacca in 1511, but their dominance was short- lived. The Dutch undermined their trade by founding Batavia (now Jakarta), allowing ships to use the Sunda Straits to Europe and to avoid the Straits of Malacca altogether. The Dutch then seized Malacca in 1641 and became the dominant European power in the region. THE ARRIVAL OF RAFFLES The British became interested in the Straits of Malacca in the 18th century when the East India Company set out to establish a port to secure and protect its line of trade from China to the colonies in India. In 1786, Captain Francis Light founded a settlement on Penang Island. In 1795, Holland and her colonies were annexed by France. Britain, at war with the French, then seized all Dutch possessions in South-East Asia, including Malacca, which became the second of the Straits Settlements, and ruled them for the duration of the war. Sir Stamford Raffles was lieutenant-governor of Java from 1811 to 1816. Raffles, a great believer in the British Empire's right to rule, was also an admirer and scholar of ways of the East. Although a far-sighted, progressive thinker, he proved to be an impractical and overzealous administrator. He was recalled to Britain in disgrace after heavy financial losses, but returned to the East in 1817 to become lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen, an insignificant British trading post in Sumatra. With the end of the Napoleonic wars and the defeat of France, Britain returned Dutch territories. Raffles, fearing a resurgence of the Dutch