Until the sixteenth century, Singapore Island was a backwater in the shadow of a more important city, Srivijaya, on Sumatra, which controlled the straits lucrative sea trading status. But records suggest the Marco Polo may have visited the island in 1296, describing the fledgling settlement there as ‘flourishing’. Islam took hold on the region under foreign pressure with the Age of Discovery and it wasn’t long before Srivijaya had fallen to the Portuguese, aiming to drive Islamic hegemony out of the region. The British arrived in the late 18th century, looking for a safe port to secure lines between India and their Southeast Asian interests. But it was during the Napoleonic wars that they annexed Dutch interests to avoid the French emperor getting his hands on the Indonesian archipelago. When the possessions of the Dutch were returned, their,local governor, Stamford Raffles, made sure that the British retained a foothold in the straits and thus negotiated with the local Sultanate of Johor to lease the island which would become Singapore. In fact, it was the Chinese traders who came to dominate commerce, while local Malays were regarded as second class citizens and Indian Tamils were imported as indentured workers. As demand for Chinese goods in Europe grew during the 19th century, Singapore flourished and grew wealthy. Singapore suffered terribly in WWII when it fell to the Japanese in February, 1942. The British grossly underestimated its defensive abilities and the Japanese simply invaded from the Malay Peninsula. The local Chinese paid a horrific price for siding with the British. Thousands were summarily executed and all Europeans were rounded up into POW camps. As a self-ruling state within the Malayan Federation, Singapore got off on shaky ground as Britain planned its exit strategy from the region. Lee Kwam Yew (a shrewd Cambridge-trained lawyer) formed the Progressive Action Party (PAP) which cleverly pacified the militant communists and drew support from the wealthy traders simultaneously. When they refused to guarantee minority rights to Malays, under an affirmative action plan that was insisted on by the central government in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore was kicked out of the federation and left to fend for itself. Over the next four decades, the island became a virtual one-part state under Lee, notable less for its lack of democracy and press freedom but more for its remarkable over-achievements. Today, it has one of the world’s highest per capita incomes, excellent infrastructure, proud and polite people and is a sophisticated modern city that is the pride of Asia. | 
