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.
Early history of Singapore
Early Singapore was called "Temasek", possibly a word deriving from ""tasik"" (Malay for lake or sea) and taken to mean Sea-town in Malay. The Nagarakretagama, a Javanese epic poem written in 1365, listed a settlement on the island called "Tumasik" as a vassal of the Majapahit. The name is also mentioned in the "Malay Annals" thought to have been written in 1535. Temasek may have diplomatic relationship with Vietnam, which recorded it as "Sach Ma Tich", as early as the 13th century. It is also recorded by the Chinese traveller Wang Dayuan who visited the island around 1330 and described a place called "Dan Ma Xi" (單馬錫, a transcription of the Malay "Temasek"). The name "Dan Ma Xi" or "Temasek" is written in Chinese as 淡馬錫 in the Mao Kun map.