Singapore
Stamford Raffles founded colonial Singapore in 1819 as a trading post of the British East India Company. After the company's collapse in 1858, the islands were ceded to the British Raj as a crown colony. During the Second World War, Singapore was occupied by Japan. It gained independence from the UK in 1963 by federating with other former British territories to form Malaysia, but separated two years later over ideological differences, becoming a sovereign nation in 1965. After early years of turbulence and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation developed rapidly as an Asian Tiger economy, based on external trade and its workforce.
Singapore–United Kingdom relations
Britain first established a settlement on the island of Singapore in 1819 under Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, and took possession of the whole island in 1823. It formally became a British colony in 1824, and remained in British hands (apart from the Japanese occupation of 1941-45) until 1963, when the island was granted its independence. Between 1963 and 1965, Singapore formed part of Malaysia. The British Armed Forces maintained a presence in Singapore at the request of the founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew for stability reasons and to allow for a gradual transition to independence and self-reliance. After the end of the Malayan Emergency and "Konfrontasi", the British military gradually withdrew during the 1960s and 1970s, with the infrastructure turned over to the fledgling Singapore Armed Forces.